TAMPA, Fla. — During the Blackhawks’ pre-practice video review session Wednesday, the coaching staff pulled up a clip of Lukas Reichel skating in on a two-on-one rush last Sunday against the Devils.
“We stopped it where his feet stopped moving, and I said, ‘Everybody in the rink — and especially the ‘D’ and the goalie — knows you’re looking to pass,’” coach Luke Richardson said.
The Hawks’ message to Reichel and their other forwards is to maintain their skating pace and adopt more of a shoot-first mentality on odd-man breaks. Their abundant team speed and counterattacking-oriented tactics create plenty of those breaks, but they haven’t converted many into goals so far.
Richardson also brought up, after last Saturday’s win over the Panthers, a two-on-one sequence in which Philipp Kurashev unsuccessfully tried to pass across to Connor Bedard. The Hawks in general have forced passes to Bedard too often.
“When you have to slow down on a two-on-one and you have to stickhandle a little bit, I think that makes your decision automatic: That’s a shot,” Richardson said. “The pass isn’t there. Don’t force it.”
Added veteran forward Nick Foligno: “That’s probably just more [about having] a killer instinct. You’ve got an opportunity; you don’t want to waste it. That’s one of the worst feelings [when] you make a pass and it doesn’t work out. Now it’s just a momentum killer, too.”
Of course, a shoot-first mentality doesn’t mean the puck-carrier should shoot the puck himself on every single two-on-one. By preparing to shoot and by giving off that appearance, a passing lane could open up.
“If the [defenseman] reacts to you and he starts to open up [his body], there might be a time to pass,” Richardson added. “But if you’re going to stop your feet and wait the ‘D’ out, it usually gets closed off.”
Raddysh reunion
Brothers Darren and Taylor Raddysh faced off against each other Thursday in Tampa for the first time in the NHL. Their mother, Gwen, was also in attendance at Amalie Arena to watch it, since this Florida swing just happens to be the Hawks’ moms’ trip.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper joked before the game that he was “curious to see what jersey she wears.”
The fact Darren began his professional career in the Hawks’ organization and now plays for the Lightning, whereas Taylor was drafted by and came up with the Lightning but now plays for the Hawks, makes it even stranger.
“We talk about that quite a bit,” Darren said. “It’s the way the world works sometimes.”
On Wednesday night, the three Raddyshes went out to dinner for a miniature family reunion. Thursday will mark their first time on the ice together since Feb. 11, 2022, when they both dressed for the Lightning in a 4-3 win over the Coyotes.
Seen that before
Sabres star Rasmus Dahlin scored a beautiful goal to tie Tuesday’s Sabres-Hurricanes game by executing a self-pass at the blue line. He angled the puck off the boards like a pool shot past Teuvo Teravainen while he cut through two other Hurricanes penalty-killers, then ripped the puck into the net.
If the idea of a self-pass off the boards sounds familiar, it’s because Bedard did the same thing in a preseason game against the Red Wings.
That was just preseason, and Dahlin’s play Tuesday definitely one-upped him, but it feels like only a matter of time until No. 98 gets creative like that again.
