Blackhawks notes: Coach Luke Richardson feeling at home in Chicago

Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson only has lived in Chicago for a little more than a year now, but he says it ‘‘absolutely’’ already feels like home.

He’s grateful he doesn’t get recognized very often, which allows him to enjoy many of the attractions around downtown during his scarce free time.

‘‘Definitely the restaurants are great,’’ Richardson said. ‘‘I haven’t hit all of them yet, but [I’m] trying. I love just walking around along the waterfront of the lake and the river walkways. It’s been great, beautiful fall weather, so [I’ve been] trying to take advantage of that before the harsh winter comes.’’

For as loquacious as Richardson can be, especially when it comes to breaking down hockey tactics or evaluating player performances, he doesn’t enjoy talking about himself nearly as much. It sometimes can be difficult to get him to do so.

So even as he enters the dog days of his second season as an NHL head coach — which one would assume feels a lot different than his first season did — he insists he’s going about things the same way. (To be fair, his approach worked well in Year 1.)

‘‘I haven’t really changed much about myself or how I approach the team,’’ Richardson said. ‘‘We have [made] little tiny adjustments system-wise, but really it’s still the same system with little adjustments. . . .

‘‘I like to be consistent, and I think the players respond to consistency and they get used to that. It’s just the execution part. That’s what we’re really going to start harping on.’’

Dach erupts in Rockford

Hawks forward prospect Colton Dach endured a delayed start to his first pro season because of an injury to his right ankle suffered in training camp, but he quickly has found his stride this month in Rockford.

He made his AHL debut Nov. 4 and had two points (both assists) in five games before erupting this weekend. He scored his first pro goal in an overtime loss Friday, then singlehandedly carried the IceHogs to a shootout victory Saturday with a hat trick and the shootout winner.

In contrast to their defense and goaltending corps, the IceHogs don’t have many elite prospects in their forward group. Dach, however, is an exception. Down the road, the Hawks see him as a potential middle-six center with a powerful, physical edge.

Among Rockford’s other forwards, Joey Anderson (15 points in 12 games entering Sunday) and Cole Guttman are call-up candidates. Ryder Rolston, Jalen Luypen, Marcel Marcel and Antti Saarela are mildly intriguing prospects.

Commercials matter

Two nights before beating the Hawks on Nov. 12, the Panthers topped the Hurricanes 5-2. In that game, because of a combination of power plays and a lack of even-strength stoppages, the ‘‘under-14’’ TV timeout in the third period didn’t happen until there was only 7:49 left.

Such situations happen fairly often around the league, and the manual ice-scraping that occurs during every commercial break gets delayed when they do. In the meantime, the ice gets rougher and covered in shavings, which the players notice.

‘‘You’ll get guys on the bench talking to one another, being like: ‘Hey, the ice is choppy. Let’s manage the puck right now. Don’t do anything stupid with it,’ ’’ Hawks forward Jason Dickinson said. ‘‘Because the puck starts to bounce a lot. You start to get it stuck in snow a lot.’’