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Blackhawks Won't Turn Season Around Without Fixing Power Play Results
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- Blackhawks Won't Turn Season Around Without Fixing Power Play Results
A lot of things have been bad for the Chicago Blackhawks so far this season. There are multiple aspects of the game that need improvement; otherwise, this thing is going to truly go off the rails. In most games, they don't just lose; they get outclassed.
One of the team's worst areas is the power play. Following game action on Sunday, the Blackhawks have the worst power play in the NHL, clicking at just 8.3%. On 36 power play opportunities, they have scored just three goals. They've also allowed 2 shorthanded goals, which means their power play only has a +1 goal differential.
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That's about as bad as it gets. Chicago is the only team in the league whose percentile isn't in the double digits. 31st-ranked Buffalo is clicking at 10.5 percent. It's incredibly difficult to win when you don't bury your chances.
There is emphasis on the lackluster power play following the Blackhawks' loss to the Florida Panthers on Sunday, and for good reason. They went 0/7, and it turned out to be a one-goal game. If they clicked on just one of them, they would have likely at least have gotten a point. If they clicked on two, there is a really good chance that they would have won the game.
If the Blackhawks don't get this major issue under control, it is going to be very difficult to get the season back on track. Having good special teams is essential to success in the NHL, but having the 32nd-ranked power play unit is more than detrimental.
"Before today, I thought honestly we were pretty good," Captain Connor Bedard said of the power play. "We get judged on if it goes in or not - and that makes sense. It's a results sport. Obviously we've got to be better. Tonight, we were terrible. And we would have won the game - we had seven power plays."
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Bedard is a highly skilled player. He knows what it takes for a man-advantage to be successful, but he can't do it all by himself. His shot and playmaking ability have been incredible, and the power play has been successful during his career, but this year has been a flop so far.
Bowen Byram was supposed to come in and make it better. He still may, but he's been injured for a handful of games. Their replacement strategy for him hasn't been working either.
While Byram has been out, they've been running with a 5-forward top power-play unit. Tyler Bertuzzi, Connor Bedard, Patrick Kane, Roman Kantserov, and Teuvo Teravainen are the ones who have been called on for this experiment.
Teravainen has been playing in that top-of-the-zone "quarterback" role, and it has been a major failure so far. It's not his fault - he's not a defenseman. He's also not someone who's done that before in his career. Teravainen has, however, been a power-play type of guy, but as a forward lower in the attack.
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Not only do they not have the right player from an offensive perspective - a quarterback who makes a great first decision - but they also bleed shorthanded chances. Opposing penalty kills know that they can put extra pressure up top, which allows them to break things up and even create shorthanded chances. Whether it's Alex Vlasic, Artyom Levshunov, or Sam Rinzel, they must get a proper quarterback on that unit.
If they don't improve on this, they won't climb back up in the standings. They are having a hard time scoring at 5-on-5, and they will find it tough to break out of that without the power play adding confidence to the group.
"The power play is mirroring our 5-on-5 game: we can't score," head coach Jeff Blashill said. "I can't sit here and say that we don't get any chances. We do. Power plays are funny animals. You can have [bad] power plays and score and good power plays and not. I'm not saying we had great power plays or not - we're going to look back at the film and say, was the process good enough or not? Based on that, we'll decide if there are tweaks. I do think there's a mirror of our 5-on-5 game; we're not scoring easily at all. We have really good players that are going to score goals, that are not scoring."
In their loss to the Florida Panthers, it certainly appeared that the process was flawed and that a change is needed. Teravainen, as the power-play quarterback, has run its course (and failed), and they aren't getting chances at a high rate.
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If the coaching staff goes back and watches the tape only to decide that they can stick with it looking like that, there is a major flaw in their process. At some point, results have to matter, and going 0-7 in a one-goal game cost them at least one point, probably two.
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