Blackhawks notebook: Hawks still alive against Golden Knights entering Game 5

The Blackhawks-Golden Knights series has been intense, if not particularly even, so far. | AP Photos

The Blackhawks objectively didn’t deserve to win Game 4 against the Golden Knights.

But coach Jeremy Colliton believes the Hawks do deserve to still be alive in the series, with their lucky Game 4 victory cancelling out their bad luck in Games 2 and 3.

“We’re in the series still, and we have a chance to come back,” Colliton said Monday. “We feel that [in] in the first three games, we were hard done by to have zero wins. We probably stole one last night. Now we’ve got a chance to take momentum in the series and put some pressure on them. We’re here to win.”

Statistically, Game 4 was their worst game yet against the Golden Knights (and actually one of their worst games in years), as they were out-chanced 41-14.

On the other hand, the Hawks an overtime crossbar snipe by Dylan Strome away from winning Game 2 and kept up tightly with the Knights in Game 3, when they were only out-chanced 26-23.

The idea is that the karma has now evened out, and the Hawks now face the difficult-but-not-impossible task of rattling off three more wins and advancing.

“Our mind is just so entrenched in the series, that’s what we’re really focusing on: recovering or getting ready for the next game,” Ryan Carpenter said. “It’s pretty simple to stay focused.”

Boqvist reflects on scratch

Colliton’s decision to scratch rookie defenseman Adam Boqvist for Game 2 last Thursday came as a surprise, and a number of Hawks voiced anger about the move on social media.

But Boqvist said Monday the scratch was both deserved and beneficial.

“It was good for me to get a game off there,” he said. “I wasn’t playing really good.”

Adam Boqvist has only played three of the four games against the Golden Knights so far.

He instead watched the game from the press box — “it seems so speedy down there,” he joked — and later watched back film of his playoff performances with the coaching staff.

Still mere weeks into his first NHL playoff experience, the 20-year-old blueliner isn’t in position to fight back against his coaches’ assessments.

“You kind of go into your head and think what you can do better — like gap control, closer to your guy in the ‘D-zone,’ jump in the play more, get more confident with the puck,” he said. “I always want to do more out there.”

Presidency update

Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz gave a few clarifications on the Hawks’ ongoing presidency search during a Monday radio interview on 670 The Score.

Wirtz said his son Danny — who has held the presidency position on an interim basis since John McDonough’s firing in April — likely won’t remain president for good.

“I don’t see him permanently being in that position, only because he’s involved in all our other [family] businesses,” Wirtz said.

Rocky Wirtz added the Hawks’ permanent president also won’t be a “hockey retread,” referencing a bad habit by many NHL franchises to hire coaches, general managers or presidents recently fired by other franchises.

A hiring doesn’t seem remotely imminent, though. Danny Wirtz said during a recent interview with the Sun-Times that a permanent president won’t be hired until the Hawks have created more specific goals and a clearer timeline for the implementation of their recently unveiled long-term vision.