A Blackhawks Entry, In Case Anyone's Interested

If you’re wondering why it took me so long to develop this post on the Blackhawks offense, well, maybe I was simply trying to emulate the Blackhawks offense.

Yes, it was many days ago that I pledged to finally watch a Hawks games in full this year and report back on the scoring woes. At that point, the Hawks had gone scoreless for 10 straight periods. The streak continued through the first period against the Islanders on Tuesday night, and into the second, so that by the time the Hawks lucked into a goal on an odly bouncing puck, just over 240 minutes – the equivalent of four whole games – had passed since the last tally.

And in the interim, the Hawks lost again, to the Red Wings, as they did to the Islanders, bringing the losing streak to seven and the team’s record to 4-9.

Lack of offense is a major reason. From what I saw on Tuesday night, the problem is pretty simple to diagnose: Nothing develops on offense because there is no activity. No movement without the puck, no forechecking, very little passing, very little shooting, no one (except Tuomo Ruutu) going to the net, and a whole lot of hesitation.

In fact, the hesitation led directly to an Islanders goal in Tuesday's game. The Hawks won a face-off in the New York end in the second period, and the puck came to Brent Seabrook. He clearly thought about passing it foreward, but stopped for a second, and then passed it laterally. But the hesitation gave Viktor Kozlov a chance to shoot the gap, which he did, stealing the puck and streaking down the ice for an unassisted breakaway goal.

It’s easy to say that was just another straw in a 5-2 loss, but since the score was 3-2 for almost all of the third period, one goal actually meant quite a lot.

I did not see Thursday night’s loss to the Red Wings, because the game was in Chicago and I didn’t have time to run down to the United Center or to drive to Detroit where it was most likely televised, so I don’t know if the offense looked similarly impotent. Judging by the one goal overall and the one shot in the second period, though, it’s safe to say that it was.