5 Reasons This Year's Blackhawks are Better Than Last Year's
After Sports Illustrated published the Blackhawks as "The Team that Saved Hockey" the Blackhawks continued their impressive run by sweeping the Detroit Red Wings, their long-time divisional foes. They've won 31 of 40 games, they are tied for second in goals for, and lead the league in goals allowed and have a league's best goal differential at +47. The numbers don't lie and neither do the standings, this is a team that no one wants to face in the playoffs. But what changed about this team? Here's 5 answers:
1) Penalty Killing: Last year the Blackhawks' shorthanded unit killed 78.1% of penalties faced. By comparison, the LA Kings, last year's Stanley Cup winners killed 87.0%. This team needed to make adjustments do a better job on the kill. They've responded with an 85.5% penalty kill. Amazingly, the Hawks' best penalty killing line is not the one with Marian Hossa or David Bolland or even Jonathan Toews. No, their best line is one made up by Marcus Kruger and Michael Frolik. Obviously a pleasant surprise which is also helped a lot by...
2) Goal-tending: Corey Crawford started the season strong; no doubt the pressure of having Ray Emery behind him seemed to motivate him. Crawford was seeing the puck well, and his lateral movement was as quick as ever. But Blackhawk fans become fearful whenever Corey gives up a goal. We've seen him allow too many soft goals that trickle in after the initial stop is made, and he allows too many pucks to remain in play for too long. So in comes Ray Emery who all but steals the spotlight from Crawford. He went 12 straight games without recording a loss and has pitched 3 shutouts in his last 5 starts. The Blackhawks continue to deny the idea that there is a goalie controversy brewing but either way, it doesn't matter who is in net because....
3) Defense: The Blackhawks struggled mightily last year defensively allowing their goaltenders to face way too many quality shots and allowed opponents too many second and third chance opportunities. That seems have drastically changed this year. The Hawks have depth at defense like the haven't had since 2010 and many argue there's more talent there as well. The acquisition of Michal Rozsival has worked out better than expected and Johnny Oduya has been much less careless with the puck. The acquisition of Michal Handzus has been huge as Coach Quenneville uses him in critical situations to win crucial faceoffs. All of these things lead to more...
4) Offense: As mentioned earlier the Hawks goal differential is best in the league. Not all of that can be attributed to defense. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews may be having the best seasons of their young careers. Although both Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa have missed some games, they're two very seasoned goal scorers who have continued to play well despite their injuries. But perhaps the most impressive boost has come from young Brandon Saad. His non-stop motor and high hockey IQ has landed him on the top line alongside Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa. That's quite a compliment for a 20 year old. All of this was able to happen because of...
5) Coaching: Before this season got started and after the long and tedious lockout, I read a number of articles claiming that Coach Quenneville was on the "Hot-Seat". I couldn't be more baffled by that and apparently Coach Q didn't like it either. In 2008 when Quenneville took over for Denis Savard, many people were upset about the move. So in 2009-10, Coach Q proved himself by winning the Stanley Cup. Entering into this season, he apparently felt as though he needed to prove himself once again, and is currently leading the NHL's best team.
This team is playing well and hopefully won't slow down any time soon. But I'd be brash if I didn't mention that great play of Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Nick Leddy and Andrew Shaw. In fact, pick any guy on this team and I'll tell you why he's as valuable to the team success as anyone else.
1) Penalty Killing: Last year the Blackhawks' shorthanded unit killed 78.1% of penalties faced. By comparison, the LA Kings, last year's Stanley Cup winners killed 87.0%. This team needed to make adjustments do a better job on the kill. They've responded with an 85.5% penalty kill. Amazingly, the Hawks' best penalty killing line is not the one with Marian Hossa or David Bolland or even Jonathan Toews. No, their best line is one made up by Marcus Kruger and Michael Frolik. Obviously a pleasant surprise which is also helped a lot by...
2) Goal-tending: Corey Crawford started the season strong; no doubt the pressure of having Ray Emery behind him seemed to motivate him. Crawford was seeing the puck well, and his lateral movement was as quick as ever. But Blackhawk fans become fearful whenever Corey gives up a goal. We've seen him allow too many soft goals that trickle in after the initial stop is made, and he allows too many pucks to remain in play for too long. So in comes Ray Emery who all but steals the spotlight from Crawford. He went 12 straight games without recording a loss and has pitched 3 shutouts in his last 5 starts. The Blackhawks continue to deny the idea that there is a goalie controversy brewing but either way, it doesn't matter who is in net because....
3) Defense: The Blackhawks struggled mightily last year defensively allowing their goaltenders to face way too many quality shots and allowed opponents too many second and third chance opportunities. That seems have drastically changed this year. The Hawks have depth at defense like the haven't had since 2010 and many argue there's more talent there as well. The acquisition of Michal Rozsival has worked out better than expected and Johnny Oduya has been much less careless with the puck. The acquisition of Michal Handzus has been huge as Coach Quenneville uses him in critical situations to win crucial faceoffs. All of these things lead to more...
4) Offense: As mentioned earlier the Hawks goal differential is best in the league. Not all of that can be attributed to defense. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews may be having the best seasons of their young careers. Although both Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa have missed some games, they're two very seasoned goal scorers who have continued to play well despite their injuries. But perhaps the most impressive boost has come from young Brandon Saad. His non-stop motor and high hockey IQ has landed him on the top line alongside Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa. That's quite a compliment for a 20 year old. All of this was able to happen because of...
5) Coaching: Before this season got started and after the long and tedious lockout, I read a number of articles claiming that Coach Quenneville was on the "Hot-Seat". I couldn't be more baffled by that and apparently Coach Q didn't like it either. In 2008 when Quenneville took over for Denis Savard, many people were upset about the move. So in 2009-10, Coach Q proved himself by winning the Stanley Cup. Entering into this season, he apparently felt as though he needed to prove himself once again, and is currently leading the NHL's best team.
This team is playing well and hopefully won't slow down any time soon. But I'd be brash if I didn't mention that great play of Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Nick Leddy and Andrew Shaw. In fact, pick any guy on this team and I'll tell you why he's as valuable to the team success as anyone else.
posted by Aharon Friedman | 2:28 AM
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