Glass Half-Full, Glass Half-Empty for Blackhawks

Duncan Keith, sailing headfirst into the net, behind Corey Crawford

Scott Thornton posted the article Offensively inept Blackhawks get a point, but fall to Rangers and the following query on the Chicago Blackhawks community in Google+:

I'd really like to know how such a talent-stacked team can actually get worse on the power play over the course of three seasons. For the record, the Hawks are on a 0-19 power play streak now. Please explain this.

A few friends launched into the Hawks positively Powerless Play, but I took a different tact:

In their Stanley Cup era, the Hawks' PP has been up and down and there's actually no clear downward trend:

2010: 17.7% (16th)
2011: 23.1% (4th)
2012: 15.2% (26th)
2013: 16.6% (19th)
2014: 19.5% (10th)
2015: 17.6% (21st)

Their difficulty scoring on the PP is part of a more concerning, season-long trend of difficulty scoring in general. Right now the red-and-black are 16th at 2.74 GF/G, whereas they were always in the top 5 in the NHL through the same stretch above (e.g. 2nd at 3.18 GF/G last year). Obviously losing Kane is a big blow on goal scoring, but Kane and the rest of the top 2 lines could not prop up the general lack of production from the 3rd and 4th lines. But we know what Bowman and Quenneville have done to these lines.

That's the glass half-empty view.

Here's the glass half-full view: Despite the occasional blueline bobbles in the offensive zone and the glaring turnovers in the defensive zone, the Hawks have consistently been one of the toughest teams to score on: 2nd at 2.29 GA/G (overall) and 3rd at 86.6% (PK). So despite losing TVR, Rozsival and Oduya struggling, Quenneville's lack of confidence in the young guys, fans criticism of Rundblad etc., team defense + goaltending have been an underrated bright spot in a pretty up and down season.

The Hawks are 3-1-1 without Kane, mainly because of this bright spot, and that's pretty damn good! Moreover, they've secured points in 7 of the last 10 games, including winning 5 games. It's not much, and obviously it's still a big struggle, but the trend for the Hawks of late is actually upward.

I see the addition of Vermette and Timonen this month, as like the addition of Richards and TVR at the beginning of the season, when they struggled just to keep puck possession (October). The Hawks rely on knowing and trusting each other; getting into a fast, finesse game; and playing well on both ends of the ice. Barring another serious injury, the Hawks should settle into a good team rhythm, just as they did in November and December. I think they have enough time to do this, before the playoffs, while securing that 3rd place in the Central (although the 1st place Predators are now within striking distance).

The analytics alone deserve about 10 +1s in my opinion. Perhaps it's time to look at this from a more half-full perspective.

Something tells me that the Vermette, Saad and Teuvo line is going to develop into something quite formidable in the coming weeks.

But in the meantime, it sure would be nice to see this bad streak put to bed. 

Thanks, Scott. Same here, I wish the Hawks can just put a string of wins together, but I think it's going to be struggle through the Cup run. If team defense and goaltending can hold up, and if they can just score 3 goals a game (that's the magic number), then it should be an exciting finish and playoffs.

BTW: I think Quenneville said that if the Hawks' overall offense gets back on track, he won't worry about the lackluster PP (that's where they miss Kane the most). I agree with him.