The Chicago Blackhawks have their traditions, like a lot of teams, but interim head coach Anders Sorensen and assistant coach Derek King share one of their own.
“The Swedish Christmas,” King said with a sense of flair. “That’s what he told me (it’s called), but I don’t know if I should believe him.”
That’s King, ever the cutup.
Sorensen said, “We celebrate Christmas Eve, we have a lot of different foods that I grew up with, and that’s what we serve.”
That’s Sorensen, ever the straight man.
King is the Hawks’ resident ham while Sorensen serves the literal ham.
“We do a lot of ham — Swedish meatballs, of course — these little sausages are called prinskorv that we use — I get them at Paulina Market downtown,” Sorensen told the Tribune. “There’s some pickled herring and different stuff like that.”
It’s called a julbord, which translates to “Christmas table” in Swedish.
It’s a tradition in Scandinavia, one Hawks goalie Arvid Söderblom knows pretty well himself as a fellow Swede.
“It’s like meatballs, ham, fish, a little bit of everything,” he said. “And then it’s Christmas soda as well, and some Christmas wine.”
Söderblom will be celebrating julbord with his parents and a couple of fellow athletes — his brother and sister.
Elmer Söderblom is a Detroit Red Wings forward prospect who plays for the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins, and Vera Söderblom plays forward for the University of South Carolina Upstate women’s basketball team.
Getting everyone’s schedules to align can be a challenge, but “for me, all of it is just traditions, spending time with friends and family and just try to relax,” Arvid Söderblom said.
That Sorensen shares the holiday with King is meaningful, he said.
“The Swedish Christmas table is something special, for sure, and it’s fun to see that he’s bringing it here and showing Kinger,” Söderblom said.
Sorensen and King have created their tradition around the holiday feast for the last three or four years.
Sorensen first invited King back when both were behind the bench for the Rockford IceHogs.
“He just (said), ‘Hey, if you’re not doing anything, let’s do a family get-together, family and friends come in.’ And then I live maybe three, four blocks away” from him in the western suburbs.
King said, “I live in Glen Ellyn. He lives in Wheaton. I gave him the street number. He goes, ‘You’re like an eight-iron away.’”
“Might be more like a five-iron these days,” said Sorensen, showing he can crack a joke too.
In terms of personality, they’re pretty different, defenseman Alex Vlasic said of the coaches. So is the way they approach the game.
“I think Kinger is very upbeat and cracking jokes and stuff, trying to bring light to everything,” Vlasic said. “Anders is a little bit more intense and serious.
“I think you need a good balance of both, and that’s why I think they work so well together. You can’t have a full coaching staff that’s barking in your ear every single game. And you can’t have a coaching staff that’s messing around too much.”
As much as they might seem to be the odd couple, King and Sorensen keep finding their way back to each other.
After Sorensen spent three seasons as an assistant coach and later head coach for his hometown Södertälje SK, he joined the Hawks as a development coach for the 2013-14 season.
King was hired as an IceHogs assistant coach on July 7, 2016, and took a fast liking to Sorensen.
“We worked together when I first got here, when Ted Dent was the (IceHogs) head coach, because he (Sorensen) was doing player development” for the Hawks, King said. “So he’d come down anyway, and then he’d come on the (IceHogs) bench because we only had two guys at the time.”
Sorensen continued his development work when Jeremy Colliton became Hogs head coach.
Then when the Hawks fired Joel Quenneville on Nov. 6, 2018, and promoted Colliton, King was named Rockford’s coach.
“When I took over, I didn’t have anybody who I really wanted to bring in,” King said. “I just asked him (Sorensen) if you want to stay on. It would be great to have (him) because he was there anyway.”
When the Hawks fired Colliton on Nov. 6, 2021, they promoted King to Hawks interim head coach and Sorensen as interim Hogs coach.
“When I first came up, they asked me if I wanted to bring anybody with me. I said, ‘Well, Anders,’” King said. “And it was like, ‘Well, you can’t have him, because we need him down in Rockford.’”
Eventually, King gave way in Chicago to Luke Richardson in the offseason, but Richardson kept him on as an assistant.
The Hawks fired Richardson on Dec. 5 after an 8-16-2 start and elevated Sorensen to interim head coach.
King recalled that Hawks associate general Norm Maciver informed him.
“He just said, ‘Listen, we’re going to make a coaching change, and we’re going to bring Anders on. He’s going to be the interim head coach.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ And that was it.”
King texted Sorensen, “‘Congrats, this is great.’ Now we get to work together again. We’ve got a good relationship. I’m happy.”
Söderblom was happy too.
“I had him in Rockford for two years, so I know him very well,” Söderblom said of Sorensen. “It’s great to see him here, and I think the stuff he’s implemented in our game has really brought us success.”
It’s also a point of pride that he is the NHL’s first Swedish head coach — “it’s big for Swedish hockey.”
Söderblom added, “I haven’t had that many teammates (from Sweden), so it’s nice to have a Swedish coach, at least.”
For Sorensen, one might think it would be awkward becoming your old boss’s boss — or the same for King, for that matter.
Both men have insisted there’s no uneasiness.
“Now, here we are back together. I’m excited,” King said. “He’s really good to work with. He allows you to express your opinions and do things.”
Vlasic said, “I like hearing from King, just me working on the power play and hearing his input there. He’s got some really interesting points to help me out.”
“I think the players have been loving it so far,” said Vlasic, who worked with Sorensen in Rockford and King in Chicago during the 2022-23 season. “It seems like our coaching staff is really working well together, and balancing their opinions out on one another.”
Sorensen said that’s always been his coaching style.
“(King’s) very similar in that aspect,” he said. “When I started with him, he was very open to ideas.
“I think it’s a collaboration. It’s not just us as a staff, but even the players. At the end of day, someone’s going to make the decisions, but I like to get ideas from different areas.”
King noted that while they share similarities, Sorensen does have his coaching quirks that are particular to him.
“He’s maybe a little more technical with the video and breaking it down, but not to the point where it’s a half-hour video session,” he said. “It’s in, it’s quick, get to the point.
“A lot of stuff is based on (what coaches do) in the American League: You focus on your team and not as much (on) the other team. And he’s brought this focus on what we’re doing wrong, and we’re going to crack that.”
King said that approach has translated into wins.
As for himself, his role hasn’t really changed from Richardson to Sorensen.
He handles the forwards individually as well as breaking down the line combinations on video.
“I can’t teach them how to score, but I may be able to show them, ‘Hey, this is what we can do to create more opportunities for us,’” King said. “So for now, that’s what I’m doing until further instructions.”
Then the jokester in King comes out again.
“I’ll get in his (Sorensen’s) ear, and I’ll get a couple wines in him, and I’ll tell him, ‘I want to do this, this and this,’ so we’ll see.”
Speaking of which, King has a gift in mind for Swedish Christmas as a thank-you for all the free advice he’s giving Sorensen during his transition from the AHL to the NHL.
“Just give me some wine, that’s all,” he said. “Nice bottle of wine, I’m happy.”
Sorensen chuckled when told about it, sensing another Kingerism.
“I probably own a few, but we’ll see,” he said.
