Hell Week Ends, Flat Powerplay Rolls On, New Faces Same Misery

Contents:

• The Games
• Player Spotlight
• Playbook
• Week Ahead

Last week was rough. Hell, it’s been rough going back to November 22 when we learned of Corey Perry’s absence. With Taylor Hall out for the season due to an injury and Perry now gone from the team, the Hawks have been facing on and off-ice adversity.

Whatever happened with Corey Perry sucks and I’m not going to spend time speculating. There’s more than enough of that out there. Yet, his departure from the Blackhawks brings in a new player. The Hawks traded a 5th-round pick to Vancouver for Anthony Beauvillier. The trade was announced at the start of the Hawks-Kraken game on Tuesday, Nov. 28. The Canucks then traded the draft pick on Nov. 30 as well as a 2026 4th rounder to a dismantling Flames team for defenseman Nikita Zadorov.

Beauvillier won’t be able to play stateside until his work visa clears up. However, he started practicing with the Hawks on Friday in Winnipeg on the top line with Connot Bedard and Philipp Kurashev.

With Hall out and Lukas Reichel not meshing too well with Bedard and Kurashev, it makes sense to bring up Beauvillier to play top line minutes. Nick Foligno, who brings much-needed defensive smarts to the top line, was bumped back down to the hot and spicy third line.

Speaking of Reichel, he was a healthy scratch for the Hawks lineup on Sunday against the Wild. He did get a goal on Thursday against the Red Wings, but other than that he’s had an incredibly disappointing start to the season.

I can do a whole separate post on Reichel and I wrote on him enough in my old blog. He’s having a bad start. 2 goals and 4 assists is not the expectation. But, do not give up on Reichel. It would be foolish to do so. He’s having a bad start. Start worrying next season when more prospects come up to the NHL.

Other than the Kraken win, the Hawks rolled into the weekend with some losses adding to the Celebrini tank. They’ve lost their last three as of Monday, December 4th.

The Games

All games go back to last Monday (11/27). Stats are from Natural Stat Trick.

Blackhawks vs Kraken 11/28/2023 – 4-3 Hawk Win

This game feels like ages ago, doesn’t it?

This was a much-needed win after a long day of moronic rumors and fan frustration over the organization's lack of transparency. Prior to the game starting, the Blackhawks had a press conference. Kyle Davidson addressed the rumors as false and clarified, as best he could, about what was going on.

As for the game itself, it was a fun one.

Shot attempts were 47-68, Kraken advantage. Shots were 18-26, Kraken advantage. High danger chances were even at 8-8. The expected goals against (xGA) for the Hawks was 1.51 and the expected goals for (xGF) was 1.61

Boris Katchouk scored his second goal of the season in the first period. Spicy hot Jason Dickinson scored his 7th off some smart blue line work by Isaak Phillips. Tyler Johnson scored his 6th in the second period. MacKenzie Entwistle scored his 2nd halfway through the second for the game-winning goal.

Petr Mrazek stopped 33 against 36 for a .917 save percentage (SV%).

Blackhawks @ Red Wings 11/30/2023 – 5-1 Hawk loss

Staying true to form, the Hawks failed to string a consecutive win against the Red Wings.

Patrick Kane had only signed with the Red Wings a day prior but did not play in this game. He’ll see the Hawks in his first visit to the United Center on Feb. 25 when Chris Chelios will have his number retired.

Life is cruel.

But let’s get back to this rivalry that I and other Hawks fans pretend is still a thing.

Shot attempts were a 48-65 Hawks advantage. Shots on goal were a 29-35 Hawks advantage. High danger chances were 14-10 Red Wings advantage. Hawks had a 2.92 xGA and a 3.13 xGF.

Hawks scored on the power play when Bedard initiated a play down low and Reichel received Connor’s pass, notching his 2nd goal of the season. And that was it for Hawks goals.

Wyatt Kaiser had a pretty rough night and was the epicenter of two goals against. Most of the Red Wings goals can be blamed on the Hawks defensive breakdowns. Mrazek was not to blame. Additionally, the Hawks had some good-quality chances. They just could not finish. Reece Johnson had a beautiful attempt in the slot but telegraphed his shot a bit. Bedard generated some great plays that didn’t go anywhere. He also broke a stick in frustration and then punched the inside of the boards. Love to see it.

If the Hawks didn’t make those defensive mistakes and have a couple of pucks go their way, they could have won this one. I guess you can say that about any hockey game though.

Blackhawks @ Jets 12/02/2023 - 3-2 Hawks Loss

The day opened up with the news that Kaiser and Phillips were sent down to Rockford. Kaiser was understandable as he had been struggling as of late. Some time in the AHL will do him some good. Phillips was a bit more surprising considering how well he’s been playing. The move does make sense as Jared Tinordi is back in the lineup. That was sarcastic by the way. Why defer to a broken veteran who is about to turn 32 and send down a kid who could benefit from some NHL time?

Beauvillier made his debut as a Hawk on the top line with Bedard and Kurashev. The impact was made right away as Bedard forced a nasty turnover and scored a goal off of a Kurashev attempt. This line had the best puck possession for the Hawks with a Corsi For percentage of 53.33%. They generated a whopping 16 shot attempts but also faced 14. Even with 12:36 of ice time, the next highest shot attempt was 5 for Ryan Donato’s line. Bedard’s line also generated an xGF of 1.33, which is good, they had the best quality shots and not just volume.

Shot attempts were 60-48, Jets advantage. 28-21 shots on goal, Jets advantage. High danger chances were 14-9, Jets advantage. Hawks had a 2.72 xGA and a 3.24 xGF.

The Jets are a good team this season, and it showed. Although the first period was a bit more even-sided, the Jets dominated the remaining two periods. In the offensive zone, the Jets did such a good job at cycling the puck, connecting passes, and incorporating motion plays with the defense. The Hawks defense just didn't stand a chance.

Blackhawks @ Wild 12/03/2023 - 4-1 Hawks loss

Yikes.

65-49 shot attempts, Wild advantage. 34-28 shots on goal, Wild advantage. 14-9 high danger chances, Wild. 2.57 xGF% and 2.65 xGA for the Hawks. And the Wild are sitting at 26th in the League. Weren’t they supposed to be bad? (They are)

Reichel was healthy scratched for this game. We’ll see if this wakes him up or if it hurts his confidence.

The first Powerplay opened with 6 shots on goal. This was their best power play effort of the season but they couldn’t finish. They did end up getting a goal on the third power play in which Bedard got an assist. This extended his on-the-road point streak to 9 games. On the other end of special teams is the penalty kill. The PK was the Hawks positive in special teams at the start of the season. This game? Their PK looked bad. They allowed 2 of 3 Wild power-play goals.

The defensive woes were glaring in this game. This is expected when you have young defensemen, young forwards, and otherwise a team taped up with AHLers. But this? This was bad. The structure is… well there is none. Players, both the rookies and defensemen, puck watch and give up the middle of the ice on countless occasions.

Speaking of young defensemen, Louis Crevier debuted. The giant from Quebec City measures a whopping 6’ 8’’ and 218 pounds. He was pretty invisible, which is a good thing for a young defenseman.

Player Spotlight

Isaak Phillips

Looking at the Hawks prospect pool you might notice that we have a butt-load of lefthanded defensemen. The competition is fierce for them and we already have some of them making huge impacts on the game. Alex Vlasic has been crushing it as a rookie. Kevin Korchinski, although with a fair share of mistakes, has proven that he is here to stay in the NHL at age 19. But there is one defenseman that has surprised me.

Isaak Phillips started the season in Rockford and when he was initially called up, I was not impressed. Last year he was one of my favorite prospects, so I had high hopes for him.

His last few games have re-earned that hope as he is looking more comfortable with every game that passes. While Kaiser started shaky, he got a little better and now is looking uncomfortable. Phillips continues to impress with strong passes to initiate the breakout, smart pinches in the neutral zone, impressive keep-ins at the blue line, and shot attempts that have generated goals for other players.

Keep an eye on his development. I for one think he’ll end up as a valuable trade piece in the future, but who knows? Although he got sent back down to Rockford alongside Wyatt Kaiser on Saturday, I’m very hopeful for his future in the NHL.

In 9 games played, he has 3 assists, 14 shots on goal, an xGF of 5.3, and an xGA of 9.18. A blemish is his 12 giveaways, a little over a giveaway a game.

Playbook

The talk of the town right now is the Blackhawks horrid power play. They are currently 29th on the powerplay. With 8 goals for and 4 against, they have the worst goal percentage at 66.67. That should not be happening.

Now, realistically, this team is simply not put together with any sort of talent. Korckinski on PP1 was the perfect example of this. Great player. But he’s young and bound to make mistakes like bad turnovers and slow zone entries.

He, amongst the other young players, doesn’t have the experience to succeed on the power play. That’s simply the reality.

One of the glaring issues has been entering the zone on the power play. Both Seth Jones and Korchinski struggle with this. Jones is more successful because he has the experience.

The Hawks enter the zone with a Double Late entry or a Slingshot, which utilizes a drop pass to generate speed. The Double Late has D1 carry the puck with speed with F1 and F2 swinging deep and late. As D1 approaches the blue line or forecheckers, he drops the puck to his backhand. This is effective when you are generating speed because it forces the penalty killers to button up, allowing zone entry with possesion.

First, I apologize for my lack of arrows. In the above diagram, the RW and LW skate to the blue line and hold. The puck carrier, the RD behind the net, skates with speed towards the middle of the ice and drops the puck to a low forward. The low forward should be skating with speed and can pass laterally to the weak side forward or continue skating to the zone. Keep in mind that most teams play with 4 forwards and 1 defenseman on the power play now.

The Hawks, particularly Korchinski, are too slow at executing the drop pass. Sure, he’s got to learn it. But how many times has he turned the puck over to the opponents, allowing scoring chances or even a goal?

It’s not all on him as the forwards need to be ready to enter the zone and when they do, they need to maintain possession.

Often the younger players attempt a delay upon entry but find themselves in a puck battle on the boards. Dump-ins often lead to the PK beating the forwards to the puck or winning battles in the corners. The younger players just haven’t been effective at maintaining possession or even setting up. So much time is spent on just trying to enter the zone and even set up.

A caveat is that on Sunday the Hawks did not look horrible on the power play. They won faceoffs, generated a lot of shots, and even got a power play goal. Seth Jones is also back on PP1.

The Hawks set up in the common NHL 1-3-1 power play. They have one d-man control the powerplay at the point, two strong side options, a bumper man in the middle, and one player down low for net-front presence. A player like Corey Perry can enhance this as an effective option by being a menace at the crease, screening the goalie, and tipping in shots.

The issue is, one, we don’t have Perry anymore and two, the Hawks don’t even generate enough shots.

We’ll see where the Hawks make changes. For now, enjoy a video on the 1-3-1 power play.

Week Ahead

The Hawks busy holiday schedule is just getting started.

Hawks vs Predators 12/5 7:30 PM

Hawks vs Ducks 12/7 7:30 PM

Hawks vs Blues 12/9 7:00 PM

Hawks vs Capitals 12/10 6:00 PM

You might think there are a couple of wins in there, but the Hawks have dropped a lot of games against bad teams. Just remember, this is a rebuild. These wins don’t matter. They are going to be a bad team for the remainder of the season.

Let’s Go Hawks.

Dirty Third