New Year, Same Hawks

Table of Contents

• Weekly Updates
• The Games
• Playbook
• Sick Bay
• Week Ahead

Happy Holidays to all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Interesting week for the Hawks, eh? World Juniors are on. Apparently, there's snow in Chicago again (don't live there anymore!). And there's a Bedard goal to be happy about.

In this week's post, we have a win to discuss and a pretty bad blowout to look at. In the Playbook, I highlight some of the Blackhawks' offensive plays from the week.

Here you go. Spread that holiday cheer.

Weekly Updates

The Blackhawks went 1-2 this week to include an overtime loss and an absolute spanking by the Dallas Stars.

Both teams the Hawks played against are powerhouses in the Central Division. To walk away from this week with a total of 3 points against the Jets (22-9-4) and Stars (22-9-4) is impressive. And yes, I am aware that points for this team don't matter. Our record is 11-23-2, by the way.

Some highlights from the week include Connor Bedard's overtime (OT) winner against the Jets. You can watch that goal in the recaps below.

Tyler Johnson had missed a game last week due to an injury. He seems to have injured his right foot on the New Year's Eve game and he might be out for some time. Brett Seney gets the callup.

Taylor Raddysh was injured in the Stars game on 12/29, Boris Katchouk got the callup.

The World Juniors are rolling and the quarter-finals begin on Jan. 2. As of this writing, prospect Frank Nazar is leading with 8 points and tied for second with 8 assists. Oh, and I have a World Juniors Hub that I update daily. Check it out.

There's a lot of frustration out there from Hawks fans at the on-ice product. I get it. Watching your team lose sucks. Fans who watched last season don't want to sit through another tanking season. Fans who came back to the Hawks because of Bedard don't want to watch a bad team.

I get it.

Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that our roster is not built to win. And that was a roster that was built with healthy players. The roster is gutted right now. This team is going to have more blowouts. It's an AHL team on the ice. We cannot say anything about how Luke Richardson can coach because he doesn't have players who can execute at the NHL level.

If you wonder why the Hawks play chip-and-chase hockey, our roster sucks. If you wonder why the defensive structure falls apart, our roster sucks.

Anyways, on to the games.

The Games

All games go back to last Monday (12/25). Stats are from Natural Stat Trick. A glossary of advanced stats terms can be found here.

Hawks vs Jets 12/27
2-1 Hawks OT Win

Connor Bedard is the only person who can make me scream so loud that my neighbors hate my guts two weeks in a row. Sorry if that sounded weird. He scored two goals including the overtime winner that caused a Blackhawks fan to cry tears of joy.

Bedard is not the only hero of this game. Petr Mrazek, who is arguably the real first star of the game, is the sole reason this Hawks team was able to ride Bedard’s goals to victory.

• The Hawks really suck at possession. At 5v5, the Hawks Corsi For % (CF%) was 32.14%. The Jets had a 67.86 CF%. The Hawks seriously struggle at keeping the puck in the offensive zone. A lot of their chances came off of the rush.
• Shot attempts for all strengths were 45-82. Yes. The Hawks had 82 shot attempts against and still beat a very good Jets team.
• Mrazek had one hell of a game. He made 37 saves on 38 shots for a .974 Save Percentage (SV%). A lot of the saves he made were impressive. When he made a bad pass towards the end of regulation, I wasn’t even mad. I let it slide.
• Lukas Reichel looked the same, which is to say he had some flashes out there. He had 2 shots on goal and 3 shot attempts.
• Bedard’s first goal was greasy but did the trick. The impressive part about the goal was Bedard catching his own rebound between the legs. Bedard had 5 shots on goal and 6 shot attempts.
• Bedard’s OT goal was epic. I thought that the Jets were going to win the game after Anthony Beauvillier whiffed on a shot. If it wasn’t for Mrazek’s impressive save, the Jets would’ve ended it then and there.
• The young defensemen looked like young defensemen out there. Isaak Phillips made a weird play in the neutral zone. He pinched the Jets forward when his D partner was already on him. Phillips had no support and gave up vital space which would lead to a goal.
• Alex Vlasic, on the other hand, looked solid out there. His expected goals share percentage was .74, which was the second best on the team behind Nick Foligno (.75).
• Bedard’s nod to the fans was awesome.

Another fun game. Bedard now has 8 points in his last 5 games. Mrazek is looking more and more attractive as a deadline trade asset. I’ll be honest though; I think we should keep him. We need something to let the kids play and make mistakes.

Hawks @ Stars 12/29
5-4 OT Hawks Lose

Two games go to OT back-to-back, which makes 3 points in the last two games. Not that points matter. The Hawks' defensive problems were glaring in this one and it went beyond the rookie defensemen. Jared Tinordi had a pretty bad game. Bedard was suppressed pretty well in this one. The Stars looked really good which makes me surprised to even see them get to overtime.

• The Hawks were dominated in the first two periods in terms of possession. They had a 34.21 CF% in the first and a 41.03 CF% in the second, both at 5v5.
• The third period was their best effort, and it was admirable. The Hawks put 14 shots on goal to the Stars 4.
• As stated previously, some defensive mistakes from the rookies. Phillips goes all over the place in the neutral zone which risks the middle of the ice. He needs to stay in between the dots.
• Tinordi blundered in the neutral zone in the second period and did a poor job defending. He also made a similar mistake when the Stars made it 3-3 in the third. Tinordi is slow and can't defend. He sucks up valuable development time from the rookies and hurts the rookies that are paired with him. Send him down to the AHL where he is suited to play.

• Kevin Korchinski made a couple of mistakes but he looked good in this game. He came alive in the third period. He finished the game with 2 shots on goal, 5 shot attempts, 3 scoring chances, 1 high danger chance, and 1 rush attempt.
• Vlasic had an assist. He looks solid in the defensive side of the house and he looks good offensively as well. I am an Alex Vlasic fan.
• Bedard put up 3 shots on goal and had 6 shot attempts. When he was on the ice the Hawks shared 44.44% of shot attempts.
• Taylor Raddysh left with an injury. Not cool.
• Tyler Johnson scored two goals, Cole Guttman scored 1 goal, and Jason Dickinson scored his 12th goal.
• Hawks went 1/3 on the PP, 2/3 on the penalty kill (PK), 36.4% on the faceoff dot, and finished with 29 shots on goal to the Stars 35.

The Stars are a good team. They sit just behind the Avs in the Central with 46 points, as of this game. I was surprised the Hawks even put up the effort that they did. Then again, it seems that the Hawks only ever put up a fight against the better teams and let the weaker teams manhandle them.

Hawks @ Stars 12/31
8-1 Hawks Lose

I'll be honest off the bat. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the details of this one. It was New Year's Eve and I had a holiday beer called Santa's Butt. The beer was good, the game was not. On to my beer-induced comments.

• Defensive breakdown galore. Every goal that slipped by Mrazek was not on him. Mrazek ended up getting pulled and Arvid Soderblom got some playing time.
• Soderblom made some good saves, but ultimately, he would let 2 goals past him. He made a total of 8 saves on 10 shots. Mrazek made 25 saves on 31 shots.
• Shots against the Hawks were 41 and they had 24 shots for. Shot attempts against the Hawks were 65 and shot attempts for was 55.
• The Hawks gave up a lot of high-danger goals. They faced 17 high-danger shot chances. This one was the defense. Looking at the heat map below you can see that the Stars really had no problem breaking into the attack zone.
• Bedard's defensive flaws were highlighted in this game. He needs to be better on the back check. Two goals were directly a result of his mistakes.

• Conversely, the Hawks' offensive strategy was garbage. Just looking at the heat map above you can see that the Hawks were kept mostly to the perimeter.
• Tyler Johnson left with an injury. Starting to feel like deja vu.
• The Hawks did score on the powerplay in which Philipp Kurashev received a beautiful pass from Bedard.
• Troy Murray was on color tonight, that's another plus.

Hawks lose 11 straight on the road. These losses are frustrating, for sure. You want to see your team win and you want to see Bedard do well. The truth is, this season is going to have more games like tonight. Look at the roster and you shouldn't be surprised when the Hawks play garbage hockey.

Playbook

Last week I dived into the Blackhawks' defensive zone entries. I’ve focused a bit on the defensive side of things because that’s where a lot of the Hawks’ struggles have been.

This week I’m looking at the exciting stuff. The attack zone.

The only problem is that the Hawks suck at possession, which means there won’t be a ton of great examples of plays in the attack zone. The Hawks rely on crashing the net and scoring off of the rush. It makes sense when you look at the roster, the Hawks don't have the talent to be a solid possession team.

Either way, let’s learn about the exciting part of the ice and see how the Hawks did in that area over the past week.

The Attack
The following is based on Mike Johnston's book, Hockey Plays and Strategies.

Gaining entry and possession are two things that must happen for the attack. As there are many ways to enter the offensive zone and many ways to gain possession, there are many ways to generate scoring opportunities.

There are three that I will be looking at: 1) Shooting through traffic, 2) Creating separation, and 3) Creating deception

Shooting pucks through traffic is better than giving the goalie an easy save. Other than using players to screen the goalie, hoping to get a deflection to bounce in the net is another benefit from this tactic. Having a strong net-front presence is also key. A player like Corey Perry can screen the goalie, draw in defenders, and even draw a penalty.

Creating separation is something Hawks fans were treated to a lot through the play of Connor Bedard. If Bedard is given time and space, he can force pucks in the net. The flip side of this is that Bedard also draws players towards him. This leaves other teammates open, and if they are talented, they can utilize all that space available to them to create scoring chances.

Finally, creating deception is something else that Bedard is a great example of. Passing when the goalie thinks you are going to shoot. Shooting when the defender thinks you’re passing. Deception is key in creating prime scoring chances.

Tape

To start things off, let’s look at Bedard’s greasy goal against the Jets.

At 8 seconds Bedard releases the shot on a nice lane. This is a rare instance where the Jets aren’t set up too great. Kurashev drives towards the net and gets inside the defensive coverage. Kurashev is actually in a good position to collect a rebound. As Bedard drives, Kurashev is knocked down, Foligno recovers, and Bedard somehow scores off of a second rebound.

The following clip is a good shift from the 3^rd line in the same Jets game.

Watch Dickinson. Notice how he recovers when a defenseman pinches, which he does twice. At 23 seconds Murphy activates and Dickinson recovers. Once Dickinson has the puck, he sees a shooting lane and takes his shot. It’s an easy save but there’s two Hawks in the slot ready for a rebound.

Next clip is from the same game.

The Bedard line gets some good possession time, however, they don’t really make much happen. At 15 seconds, Kurashev has an opportunity to shoot the puck through traffic, but he doesn’t. Korchinski is in the slot, which is dangerous for the Jets, 98 and 17 are in a high-danger area, and Zaitsev is hanging back. Instead of shooting or passing, Kurashev tries to drive the net. Possession ends on a Zaitsev whiff.

In the next clip, Cole Guttman receives a pass from Reichel for a goal. Watch Vlasic activate at the start of the clip. Guttman recovers the point. When Reichel collects the puck and takes it behind the net, he attracts a Stars defender with him. This leaves the front of the net wide open for Guttman to walk in. Notice that the Stars gap control is pretty poor in this shift. We have good examples of separation in this clip.

Next week I'll continue to look more at the Hawks' offensive tactics. However, Bedard's defensive blunders are making it enticing to go back to the defensive side of things...

Sick Bay

Updates in bold. Information from Cap Friendly

Taylor Hall – Knee/Out for the season
Andreas Athanasiou – Lower body/week-to-week
Samuel Savoie – Femur/Out for the season
Lukas Philp – Achilles/6 months
Seth Jones - Upper Body/unknown recovery time
                                 -   Expected to start skating soon (Scott Powers)
Joey Anderson - Shoulder/unknown recovery time                     
Taylor Rddysh - Lower body/Unknown
Tyler Johnson - Undisclosed/Unknown

Week Ahead

Hawks @ Predators 1/2 7:00 PM
Hawks @ Rangers 1/4 6:00 PM
Hawks @ Devils 1/5 6:00 PM
Hawks vs Flames 1/7 2:00 PM

Let's Go Hawks
DirtyThird