“Blackhawks Navigate Challenges in Bedard’s Absence: Defensive Adjustments, Close Games, and Offensive Struggles”

The Blackhawks have executed the necessary adjustments to enhance their chances of winning games in the absence of star rookie Connor Bedard. They’ve focused on tightening defensive coverage, streamlining breakouts, passing, and zone entries, transforming games into low-event contests. While these strategic changes should have been implemented earlier, Bedard’s absence has compelled the team to fully embrace them. Despite these efforts, they have struggled to convert these adjustments into actual victories.

“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.”

Over the last five games since Jan. 5, when Bedard suffered a jaw fracture, the Hawks have recorded a 1-4-0 record. However, this doesn’t accurately reflect the quality of their play.

Aside from a victory against the Flames, their four losses all came by one-goal margins (excluding empty-netters) against formidable teams like the Devils, Oilers, Jets, and Stars. In three of those four defeats, they were either tied or ahead in the third period, and in the other, they limited the Oilers to a season-low 15 shots on goal.

Before 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, these numbers have shifted to 21.0 chances created and 25.5 chances allowed. This indicates that while generating offense has become more challenging, their defensive performance has notably improved.

While Bedard’s absence might play a small direct role, especially considering his limited experience as an 18-year-old in defensive roles, the team’s overall adjustments are the primary contributing factor to their recent performance.

“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 period of play more closely echoes the style of last year’s Hawks, characterized by a gritty, tenacious, and never-say-die attitude, a consistency that was somewhat lacking in this year’s team despite the overall tanking objective set by the management.

The return of Joey Anderson from injury has played a significant role, solidifying the Hawks’ dependable second line alongside the consistently impressive Jason Dickinson and Colin Blackwell, who has excelled since his return in December. Throughout this stretch, all three of them have maintained scoring-chance ratios above 60%, effectively containing formidable opponents like Connor McDavid and Jason Robertson.

Blackhawks lines in warmups vs. Stars:

Pitlick-Kurashev-Raddysh
Blackwell-Dickinson-Anderson
Reichel-Entwistle-Guttman
Katchouk-Sanford-Donato

Vlasic-Jones
Korchinski-Zaitsev
Megna-Murphy

Mrazek

— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 14, 2024

“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.”

The challenge of maintaining positive momentum becomes even more daunting due to a glaring deficiency in goal-scoring. In their last eight games, the Hawks have managed to exceed one goal only twice.

This lack of offensive output isn’t surprising when examining the team’s depth chart and noting that the first line consists of Philipp Kurashev, Taylor Raddysh, and Rem Pitlick. Despite Pitlick’s notable 11 scoring chances in his initial three games as a Hawk, leading the team, and Kurashev’s strategic shift towards a more assertive shooting and play-driving role rather than a complementary playmaker, the team has struggled to convert these opportunities into goals. Additionally, Lukas Reichel has been unable to contribute from the third line during this stretch.

“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.”