Having played their fifth game of the 2016-17 season, the Chicago Blackhawks penalty-kill unit has been performing less than stellar, to put it mildly. They were defeated on Friday night by the Columbus Blue Jackets by a score of 3-2, and they conceded two power-play goals in the process.
What in the world is going on with the Chicago Blackhawks Penalty Kill unit?
The Chicago Blackhawks have allowed 11 power-play goals against in their first 5 games. Here, we take a look at how their opponents are scoring so easily.
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
The Blackhawks are now 2-3 on the season, but the concern is with their shorthanded special teams unit.
In other words, teams are more likely than not to score on the power play versus Chicago right now, which is incredible.
— Five For Howling (@Five4Howling) October 22, 2016
Through 5 games, the Blackhawks have faced a penalty-kill situation a total of 20 times, and have killed the penalty in just 9 of those situations, allowing 11 power play goals on the season. For those counting at home, that equates to a dreadful 45% success rate while shorthanded.
This would put the Blackhawks in 30th (also known as last) place in the NHL right now. Two years ago, they ranked 10th in the league, and last season, they ranked 22nd in the league. That’s a fairly drastic and/or dramatic decline.
To see if we can decode what’s going on with the Blackhawks, let’s take a look at where the goals are being scored from and if there’s any semblance of a systemic breakdown going on.
Blackhawks vs. Blues
In their season opener, Chicago allowed three power-play goals in a 5-3 loss.
On this goal, Marian Hossa failed to move to his right to cover the shot from Kevin Shattenkirk.
As Paul Stastny froze the PK unit in front of the net, he fed the puck to Vladimir Tarasenko, who beat Corey Crawford clean.
With the game tied to start the third period, Paul Stastny was left alone in front of the net for an easy goal, where he wasn’t challenged at all.
Blackhawks vs. Predators
In their second game, the Blackhawks allowed another three power-play goals, this time at the hand of the Nashville Predators and lost 3-2.
P.K. Subban notched his first goal of the season on a shot that fought through traffic to beat Crawford. I don’t take any exception with the Blackhawks setup on this unit.
Late in the first period, Roman Josi took another point shot that found it’s way through.
Mike Fisher was left alone in front of the net to tip a shot from Josi past Crawford.
Blackhawks vs. Predators
Chicago was able to log their first win of the season in the second end of a home-and-home with the Predators, winning by a score of 5-3, and allowing one power-play goal.
Craig Smith was able to take the puck from Subban at the point, and find some space before shooting it on net.
Blackhawks vs. Flyers
After storming out to a 4-0 lead against the Flyers, Philadelphia did their own storming and came back to tie the game at 4-4. Chicago then pushed back to a 6-4 lead, before finishing it off with an empty-net goal and winning by a final score of 7-4. The Flyers were able to score two power-play goals in the process of their coming back to tie it.
A Flyers rush led by Claude Giroux resulted in a rebound that landed in an open space to the right of Corey Crawford, where Matt Read was able to pounce and finish it off.
Another goal that was created as a result of some net-front chaos. Wayne Simmonds was parked in his office and when he is given that kind of time and space, it generally isn’t going to work out well for you.
Blackhawks vs. Blue Jackets
Allowing two-power play goals in the process, the Blackhawks were defeated 3-2 by the Columbus Blue Jackets
A point shot from Zach Werenski that found its way on net.
Nick Foligno tapped in a net-front goal while two of the Blackhawks penalty killers were standing around and watching.
Analysis and Recap
It appears to be a mix of goals scored from the point and goals scored from in front of the net.
Looking closer at the shots from the point, it doesn’t feel like a major structural issue, as the Blackhawks penalty-killers seem to be keeping a tight 4-player box in the scoring area.
The goals scored around the net, on the other hand, look like a disaster. They often seem to be goals where the Blackhawks defenders and penalty-killers are doing a lot of player-watching and puck-watching.
The one thing that I do tend to notice is that these goals are coming in game situations that are very close. If you look at the season opener against St. Louis, the power-play goals that were given up allowed the game to be tied at 1-1, allowed the game to be tied again at 2-2, and then ultimately allowed the Blues to take the lead 3-2. That is not optimal, to say the least.
There’s this no-man’s land that their penalty killers seem to fall into. They don’t come out to challenge the shooter, and they stay in that tight 4-man box. But they problem with that gets worse, because they’re letting players behind the box and allowing them to post up in front of the net. It’s a disaster.
Solution
Honestly, I don’t know. If I had to pick one thing to focus on, if it had to be one of structure or net-front presence...I would say net-front presence. Several of those shots from the point felt like ‘seeing-eye’ pucks that just have a tendency of finding their way through traffic and into the net.
Corey Crawford at 5v5: saved 78/80 (.975)
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) October 22, 2016
Corey Crawford at 4v5: saved 14/23 (.609)
Maybe the Blackhawks should stay out of the box.
Better goaltending might help the cause too. This isn’t to say Corey Crawford is “bad,” but those numbers can’t be helping things at all.
Regardless of whether a solution is there to be found or not, the bottom line is that with the Blackhawks lack of depth this season, they’re going to have games where they don’t necessarily outplay their opponent at even-strength. When that is the case, you simply cannot afford to allow this many power-play goals.
The ultimate solution that I can provide: stop taking penalties.
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