Blackhawks hope to transfer special-teams lessons to fix even-strength woesBen Popeon October 25, 2021 at 9:10 pm

Calvin de Haan and the Blackhawks’ penalty kill hasn’t been the problem so far. | Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

With their 10th-ranked power play and fourth-ranked penalty kill surprisingly clicking, the still-winless Hawks want to apply what’s working there to all situations.

During the Blackhawks’ lone timeout in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Red Wings — called with 7:22 left to play, entering seven seconds of a five-on-three power play — coach Jeremy Colliton picked up the whiteboard and handed it, still white, to his players.

They wanted to sketch out their own play.

“I don’t have all the best ideas — I’m open to coming up with something different,” Colliton said later. “They had a pretty good play they drew up. If not mistaken, it just got deflected, [Alex DeBrincat’s] one-timer there. Nothing strange about that.”

Pictures of the moment nonetheless went viral as a perceived indication of either Colliton abandoning his coaching duties or the players usurping him and coaching themselves — both of which were almost certainly overreactions. After all, due to COVID, the Hawks are currently missing three assistant coaches, who normally handle such minutiae during timeouts.

Also conveniently forgotten was the fact the Hawks have done well on power plays so far this season. Actually, they’ve done well with special teams across the board.

They finished 1-for-4 on the ‘PP’ on Sunday and now sit at 6-for-22 this season, a 27.3% conversion rate that ranks 10th in the NHL. They were credited with 11 power-play scoring chances Sunday and now rank fourth in the NHL this season in scoring-chance rate on the power play — as well as fourth in shot-attempt rate, fifth in shot-on-goal rate and second in expected-goal rate.

It’s a similarly encouraging story on the penalty kill — formerly a preseason area of concern — through the Hawks’ first six regular-season games.

They’re 20-for-22, a 90.9% kill rate that ranks fourth in the NHL. They’ve allowed the seventh-fewest scoring chances, fourth-fewest shot attempts, ninth-fewest shots on goal and eight-fewest expected goals against per minute.

On both fronts, those are remarkably good results considering how outrageously awful the Hawks have been otherwise.

They’re winless through six games for the first time since 1997 and have allowed four or more goals in six consecutive losses for the first time since 1988. At even strength, they’ve been outscored 25-6 and rank 28th in scoring-chance ratio at 45.4%.

So before practice Monday morning, Colliton and his (temporarily decimated) coaching staff reflected on that strange disparity and talked to the team about trying to carry over the special teams’ effectiveness to non-special scenarios.

“We’re really focused when we’re out there,” Colliton said about the ‘PP’ and ‘PK’ units. “We understand exactly what we’re trying to do, and the players are taking a lot of pride in the little details that make a difference.

“During five-on-five [play], it’s no different. There are details that matter, and you’ve got to do it every time. When you don’t do them, you pay the price. When you do them, you have a chance to be rewarded. [The special teams results are] a perfect example that I believe we have good enough players here to have success as a team. We have to really bear down and be sharp with those little things.”

The Hawks shouldn’t try to transfer identical tactics — a ‘PK’ strategy at even strength would cripple the offense; a ‘PP’ strategy would cripple the defense — but they can certainly learn lessons from their focus, confidence and adherence to the game plan during ‘PK’ and ‘PP’ situations.

“What we’ve been doing on the penalty kill [is] being annoying, get sticks in lanes and whenever you have the opportunity to get the puck out, get it down the ice,” defenseman Calvin de Haan said.

“We have to bring that ‘live to fight another day’ mentality to five-on-five play, to be honest. Sometimes it’s good to win by taking a pound of flesh or [inflicting] death by 1,000 papercuts versus going for that knockout blow all the time.”

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