Early in his career, Blackhawks right wing Alex DeBrincat obsessed over scoring droughts. But as he got older, he realized that wasn’t productive.
Now in his third NHL season, DeBrincat has a different perspective when it comes to scoring droughts.
“They’re going to come,” he said. “If you’re a goal scorer, you’re not going to score every night and for me, I just try to keep and stick with the process and hopefully it’s going to go in sooner than later.”
That’s something DeBrincat has had to remind himself lately.
This season hasn’t gone to plan for DeBrincat, who started it by signing a three-year extension before the opener in Prague. In 44 games, he’s scored only 10 goals. Last season at this time, he already had 19 and finished second on the Hawks in scoring with 41. And even during his rookie season, DeBrincat had 14 goals in the first 44 games.
DeBrincat is still firing plenty of shots — they just aren’t going in. His shooting percentage has decreased drastically from 18.6 percent last season to just 8.1 percent.
“He just hasn’t converted at the same rate that he did last year,” coach Jeremy Colliton said Wednesday after practice. “He’s had a lot of chances so that’s something that I’m sure he would like to change.”
DeBrincat also can’t really explain why scoring hasn’t come as naturally as it has in the past.
“It is what it is,” he said. “They don’t seem to be going in.”
But DeBrincat is confident that his luck will turn eventually. In the meantime, he’s trying to affect the game in other ways.
One way he’s doing that is by drawing twice as many penalties this season compared to last, according to Natural Stat Trick. He also has 20 assists, which is five more than what he had last season at this time.
“I’m still contributing a little bit and trying to do anything I can to help the team win whether it’s winning pucks back or getting points,” DeBrincat said. “Whatever it is, I think they’re going to find that each and every time.”
Colliton is pleased with how DeBrincat has been playing.
“Our feedback to him is more about how he’s playing,” Colliton said. “And when he’s getting chances we’re happy with it. And we constantly remind that we want him to be active, away from the puck, skating, pressuring, great back pressure and then that’s going to put him in a position where he has a lot of speed going back and then he’ll get even more chances.
“So I’m not unhappy with his play, of course, we would live him to score but I think he’s been good for us, especially since [Kirby] Dach and [Dylan] Strome combination, we put that together, that line was probably our best line.”
Note: Colliton couldn’t offer a timeline on Strome, who left Tuesday’s game in the second period with a right ankle sprain. He did, however, rule the center out for Thursday’s game against the Predators.
Meanwhile, goalie Robin Lehner, who suffered a right knee injury last Thursday against the Canucks, returned to full practice on Wednesday. It’s uncertain if he or Corey Crawford will start in net against the Predators. With Lehner cleared, the Hawks re-assigned goalie Kevin Lankinen to the Rockford IceHogs.
