In a season laden with disappointment, Kirby Dach might finally be turning a corner.
Dach’s performance Monday in the Blackhawks’ 3-1 win over the Jets was one of his best in months.
He made an impact nearly every shift, not only helping create both of the Hawks’ non-empty-net goals but also controlling the ice with his excellent skating, long stick and — at long last — confidence.
“He was great tonight,” Alex DeBrincat said. “He forced a lot of turnovers and kept it in their zone a lot, [which] makes it easier on everyone on the team.”
For the Hawks’ first goal, Dach took a neutral-zone breakout pass from Jake McCabe, gave the puck to an open Patrick Kane on the wing, then rushed ahead with a stride powerful enough to give Aaron Donald some competition. Dach’s net-drive — supplemented by a sly bit of interference — literally moved Jets defenseman Ville Heinola out of the way, providing Kane plenty of time and space to rip a five-hole shot.
For the Hawks’ second goal, Dach’s neutral-zone pressure this time flustered Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey, forcing Morrissey to turn the puck over to DeBrincat, then gap up away from DeBrincat on the ensuing rush in order to keep tabs on Dach’s presence down the wing. That provided DeBrincat just as much time and space to rip a top-corner shot.
In between those plays, Dach also had a breakaway in which he blew past another Jets defenseman in Dylan Demelo and got off a well-placed shot, a strong net drive that enabled a Brandon Hagel-to-Kane cross-seam pass and a Kane shot off the crossbar and several other subtly strong moments.
And Dach also played well defensively, as Connor Murphy later commended.
“All over the ice, he’s so effective when he’s coming back and stripping pucks,” Murphy said. “In the ‘D’-zone, he’s got such a long reach, and he’s able to have strength on his blade when he reaches around guys to pick their pockets. He was doing it against some of their top-line guys, [like Mark] Scheifele and [Blake] Wheeler.
“It’s impressive when he’s able to do that and control the game from center ice, to turn things over the other way and let his wingers get creative and make plays. That’s a sign of a great centerman. We’re definitely lucky to have him and to see how much he has been growing.”
Ironically, interim coach Derek King had, just earlier Monday, acknowledged for the first time that the Hawks have considered moving Dach to wing to cover up his faceoff woes. But his Monday night performance promptly exemplified all the reasons why he’s a natural center. King, after the game, named Dach among the night’s standouts in his eyes.
Dach now touts five points in his last five games, his most productive such stretch yet this season. And he has attempted 29 shots over his last 10 games (at even strength), his heaviest-shooting such stretch in two calendar years.
Certainly, the former third overall pick will need to produce many more excellent games like Monday — and continue these encouraging scoring and shooting streaks over much larger sample sizes — to fully restore the development trajectory the Hawks had imagined for him.
But it’s not hard to notice the timing of Dach deleting his social medias, changing his mindset and embracing his self-control over who he is as a person and player — all subjects he discussed in an introspective late-January interview — and his play improving significantly. It’s probably not a coincidence.
