Chicago Blackhawks at Issue (2)

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A fellow Blackhawks fan posted this recently, and I commented:

While I'll agree the D hasn't been great, and that's all we hear about in the news, am I the i the only one that see that the Hawks just aren't scoring the way they use to?? This team was always tops in goals and is now tenth, if they don't keep it in the offensive zone and score that puts pressure on the D. Most of our recent games, we can't score more than 2 goals. If we were scoring 4 goals a game, nobody would be talking about D issues. Just my 2 cents. Our puck control has not been good nor our forechecking.

Exactly, Kevin. The Hawks are one of the toughest teams to score on, both 5-on-5 and PK, and it's been this way all season. So neither defense nor goaltending is the issue. But their GF/G is down this year (2.82) from last year (3.18), and it's because they're not getting much production from the 3rd and 4th lines. Also, to your point, if we do a net result of takeaways and giveaways, there are stretches in a game where Hawks' opponents are doing better: What it means is that Hawks need to clean up and tighten up their puck possession. Finally, maybe Quenneville and the coaches have the players focused more on backchecking, that is, to the relative neglect of forechecking.

Note:  I posted my comments on February 27th 2015.