The Blackhawks have done exactly what they’ve needed to do to give themselves chances to win games without star rookie Connor Bedard.
They’ve tightened their defensive coverage, simplified their breakouts, passing and zone entries and made games into low-event slogfests. The Hawks probably should’ve been doing that even with Bedard, but the absence of their most relied-upon offensive weapon has prompted them to embrace this style.
They just haven’t been able to translate it into wins.
“I don’t think we’ve sat down and said, ‘Hey, now that Connor’s out, we’ve got to do this,’ ” forward MacKenzie Entwistle said. “But everyone knows what he brings to the team, and everyone has to step up a little bit more, bring their game up. And I think we have. We’ve done a good job. Obviously, we haven’t gotten any points the [last three games], but we definitely deserve some.”
In the last five games since Jan. 5 — when Bedard fractured his jaw — the Hawks are 1-4-0. But that belies how solidly they’ve played.
All four losses were one-goal margins (excluding empty-netters) against upper-tier teams in the Devils, Oilers, Jets and Stars. The Hawks were tied or ahead in the third period of three of those defeats, and they held the Oilers to a season-low 15 shots on goal in the other. Even the win over the Flames by was one goal.
Through Jan. 4, the Hawks averaged 24.0 scoring chances created and 33.1 scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes of five-on-five play. Since then, they’ve averaged 21.0 chances created and 25.5 chances allowed. In other words, generating offense has become even more difficult, but their defensive play has improved tremendously.
Bedard’s absence might be a small factor — he isn’t exactly a defensive stalwart yet as an 18-year-old. The Hawks’ adjustments are the main factor.
“We’re just playing a more simple, north-south, chipping-pucks-in [style],” Entwistle said. “It’s a boring style of hockey, but it’s been working for us. It’s keeping us in games.”
This recent stretch has more closely resembled last year’s Hawks, who seemed to bring a gritty, tenacious, never-fold attitude on a more consistent basis than this year’s team, despite management’s overall tanking objective.
Joey Anderson’s return from injury has helped, rounding out the Hawks’ reliable second line with Jason Dickinson (who has been stellar all season) and Colin Blackwell (who has been stellar since returning in December). All three boast scoring-chance ratios above 60% during this stretch while stifling stars such as Connor McDavid and Jason Robertson.
Blackhawks lines in warmups vs. Stars:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 14, 2024
Pitlick-Kurashev-Raddysh
Blackwell-Dickinson-Anderson
Reichel-Entwistle-Guttman
Katchouk-Sanford-Donato
Vlasic-Jones
Korchinski-Zaitsev
Megna-Murphy
Mrazek
“The last handful of games have been really impressive,” general manager Kyle Davidson said Saturday. “Not just the effort, but the ability to keep chances low on the other side and play a team game [has] been great.
“Obviously, you want to win a few more. You want that positive reinforcement of what they’re doing.”
A dire lack of goal-scoring is making that positive reinforcement elusive. The Hawks have tallied more than one goal just twice in their last eight games.
That’s hardly surprising with a depth chart that has Philipp Kurashev, Taylor Raddysh and Rem Pitlick on the first line.
Pitlick actually has had 11 scoring chances in his first three games as a Hawk, leading the team, and Kurashev has smartly shifted roles to be more of a heavy shooter and play-driver than a complementary playmaker. But they haven’t been able to convert on those opportunities, and Lukas Reichel hasn’t been able to contribute anything from the third line.
“It’s hard to fill up what we miss with [Bedard] because he’s such a good player,” Kurashev said. “We’ll just try to get pucks on the net and go from there.”
