The Blackhawks scoring woes continued against the Winnipeg Jets Sunday night getting shut out for the second time this season. The Hawks started the season earning nine of the ten possible points in the first five games going 4-0-1. Since that decent start for the Hawks, they have gone 2-5-0, and have had a very rough time putting the puck in the net. All five regulation losses have been decided by just one goal.
Last year the Blackhawks scored the second most goals, Anaheim being the only team with more, throughout the regular season with 188 goals. The Blackhawks have managed to score more than two goals in only three of the their first twelve games. They are currently sitting at 25th in the league in the goals per game category, averaging only 2.3 goals per contest. The craziest part about that statistic is the Blackhawks currently lead the league in shots on goal per game, 38. They are getting the puck on net, but cannot seem to find the back of the net.
Coach Joel Quenneville has mixed up the lines quite a bit as he’s known to do often throughout games and the season as a whole, but nothing has really clicked yet. Quenneville has been well known for not having “set lines”. The “first line” consists of Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, and is centered by the captain Jonathan Toews. They have only combined for a total of nine goals so far this season, while Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks has scored 11 goals on his own. The “second line” normally includes Patrick Kane and Brandon Saad in the winger positions and is centered by Andrew Shaw. This line had some very good chemistry throughout the playoffs last year and it was expected that some of that momentum carry over into this season, but it has not. There was talk that free agent acquisition Brad Richards would be centering the second line to start the season, but he has been put on the “third line” with Kris Versteeg and Bryan Bickell. Brad Richards has only one goal so far this year, but has a respectable 4 assists for being on the third line. Bryan Bickell has been known as a playoff performer the last couple of years and has not produced much in the regular season. Also, Kris Versteeg was coming off of an injury to start the season, and may not be 100% yet. The Blackhawks have been used to a solid amount of scoring from the fourth line in previous years, they have had a lot of depth recently. The Blackhawks “fourth line” includes Marcus Kruger centering and Ben Smith and Jeremy Morin on the wings. Only two points have been tallied by that line so far this year.
Defensively, the Blackhawks had to trade away Nick Leddy to the New York Islanders right before the season started to make it under the required cap space. This has left the Blackhawks with some younger guys on defense, and an aging Michal Rozsival. Coach Q has rotated between Rozsival, Trevor Van Riemsdyk, and David Rundblad. For how young the third set of defenseman are, the Hawks have played quite well on the defensive end of things. Duncan Keith won the Norris Trophy last year, and is carrying that performance over into this year so far. The PK has been great, with a 91% kill percentage. They have only allowed 1.92 goals per game so far in the young season, putting them at 6th in the league in this category. They also have not allowed anyone to score more than four goals in a game against them so far, and the four goals against happened on only one occasion in Ottawa. Corey Crawford suffered an early injury this year but only missed a few games from it. His play has been stellar so far this year as well despite a 3-2-1 record. Not only has Crawford played well this year, but backup goal tending has been great too. Anti Raanta and and Scott Darling have played outstanding in their six combined appearances. Their combined record of 3-3-0 does not reflect how they have played since they have not had much help on the other end of the ice.
Great defense and goal tending is awesome and not something every team has, but if you want to win, you have to back it up on the other end of the ice offensively. With all of the star power the Blackhawks have, it is very surprising that they are having such a hard time scoring goals, especially with a man advantage. If the Hawks want to overcome this rough start and make it back to the Western Conference Finals again this year, hopefully further, they are going to need to ramp up on their scoring from top to bottom. They are going to need a more successful power play. As long as the Blackhawks are able to stay healthy, there should be no reason for the offense not to catch fire and get out of the scoring slump they have been in so far this year.
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