3 things we learned at Chicago Blackhawks camp, including the Dach family being ‘shell-shocked’ by Kirby’s trade

It’s a small development that has virtually no impact on the ice, but its symbolism is significant.

The Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday opened up the locker room for media to interview players at Fifth Third Arena.

As any fan who has been watching video or news footage of interviews probably knows, locker rooms at the Hawks’ practice facility and the United Center generally have been closed to outsiders since the pandemic.

And it was like the floodgates opened, a mix of voice recorders and TV cameras dashing over to some of the team’s top prospects sitting at their stalls.

Predictably, someone stepped on the logo before a staff member called attention to it. You probably can’t blame the “outsiders” for forgetting about that old taboo — that’s how long it has been.

Here are three things we learned at camp.

The Blackhawks made it official: Anders Sörensen is the Rockford IceHogs’ permanent coach, removing the interim label.

“Excited, right?” Sörensen said during development camp at Fifth Third Arena. “Proud to be part of what’s going on in our organization here, looking forward to everything.”

It’s a critical role in the Hawks rebuild, and the team was impressed by how Sörensen, 47, stepped up last season when former IceHogs coach Derek King was promoted to replace Jeremy Colliton, who was fired Nov. 6.

Sörensen, 47, led the IceHogs to a 35-26-4-1 record and their first playoff appearance since 2018.

Making the playoffs is a valuable experience, but at the minor-league level it’s about how the players get there — and beyond.

“The biggest thing for us is the habits” Sörensen said. “What habits they have that are going to carry them to be able to play in the NHL. Once they leave us and they go play for (new Hawks coach) Luke (Richardson), it’s going to be what habits they have to be able to stay up there and stay in the lineup.”

The top “habit” — play fast — sounds more like an attribute: Either you have it or you don’t.

The Hawks kept speed in mind at the draft and declined to tender qualifying offers to several prospects from the previous front office regime.

Said Sörensen: “We want to play with pace, we want to play fast, we want to be fast down the middle, we want to be competitive, a lot of things I’m sure you’ve heard us talk about here the last three to four months are the biggest things we’re talking about.

“I haven’t had time to sit down yet with Luke and go through how he wants to play, he’s going to kind of dictate how we play down there, so the biggest thing for us is their habits.”

As King often lamented, and Sörensen agrees, that just because you teach certain habits doesn’t mean the players always listen — some of them are still teenagers.

“We’re here to serve them,” Sörensen. “I jokingly sometimes tell those guys, ‘We’re your caddies.’ We’re telling you to hit the 7-iron. If you want to hit the 8-iron, that’s up to you.

“We’re just helping you guys out here, and that’s really what it comes down to for me.”

Kirby, a restricted free agent, was traded to the Montreal Canadiens Thursday, for first- and third-round picks that were used to select forwards Frank Nazar and Gavin Hayes.

For Hawks fans still reeling from Alex DeBrincat’s trade, it was another draft-day stunner. That included one Dach fan in particular.

“It’s kind of upsetting,” said Kirby’s brother Colton, a fellow center and Hawks second-round pick in 2021. “You think you’re going to play your career with your brother. But it’s a new path for me, so I’m excited.”

Colton said the Dach family was “a little bit shell-shocked” at first before the news sank in.

Colton said his brother advised him to focus on camp and do his best, and the younger Dach said he has been growing: “My neck’s been getting a little bit thicker.”

Sörensen has noticed physical changes in Dach and defensive prospect Nolan Allan.

“I think they’re starting to look like men now,” Sörensen said. “I remember seeing them early last year at the rookie tournament and I think both of them have filled out a little bit. They look a little bit more mature, they act a little bit more mature and I think their habits have improved.”

Even with Hawks prospects broken up into four teams, a height advantage isn’t easy to come by.

Case in point, Team Savard defenseman Louis Crevier is 6-foot-8, but so is Team Murray forward Riku Tohila, though they’ve yet to face off against each other.

“I saw him yesterday at dinner,” Crevier said with a big smile. “It was one of the first times I saw someone the same height, so it was pretty fun.”

Not so much fun for 6-6 defenseman Alex Vlasic, who’s used to towering over people.

“When I first got here I felt small,” he said. “(There are) some guys that are taller than me, which is weird.

“Our team, we had some challenges today. We have a pretty big team on our squad and we had some ladders and sprints and push-ups to do, so our team kind of struggled with that.”

It wasn’t all bad for Vlasic. He had the goal of the day during four-on-four drills, crossing in front of the goalie for backhander.

“That was pretty sweet,” he said.