ST. LOUIS — By one metric, the Blackhawks’ 5-2 blowout loss Thursday in Arizona was just as ugly as the historically awful 3-0 defeat in Nashville in October.
In that Predators game, the hapless Hawks generated just three high-danger scoring chances while surrendering 16, prompting Pekka Rinne’s now-infamous comments about how easy his shutout was.
In the Coyotes game, while probably not as lopsided in actuality, the Hawks matched that season low with another minus-13 high-danger chance differential: they generated seven and conceded 20.
“[We] had some looks, but then you trade a half-chance for a 2-on-1, and that’s not a deal we want to make,” coach Jeremy Colliton said.
The reason for the absurd imbalance in chances, and a concerning trend for the Hawks in general lately, was the vast number of odd-man rushes the Hawks gave up.
The Coyotes — a deep team enjoying its best season in years, but not one of the league’s elite squads — sliced through the Hawks like strawberry cheesecake. And not solely the Hawks’ undermanned defense, either. The entire team turned in an atrocious defensive effort, with the defensemen making several crucial mistakes but the forwards also frequently over-pursuing the puck and getting caught behind the play.
“You can handle a couple odd-man rushes in a game, [but] it’s not a couple, it’s a lot,” a frustrated Robin Lehner said postgame. “Eventually, NHL players are going to score when they get the odd-man rushes and these types of chances.”
On Tuesday, the Golden Knights tallied 14 shots on goal off odd-man rushes against the Hawks, the highest by any team in any single game yet this season, per The Point’s Mike Kelly. The Knights bore down on Corey Crawford with two breakaways and four 2-on-1s, among other dangerous attacks, over the course of the night.
The Blackhawks blueline is pretty beaten up right now.
— Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyNHL) December 11, 2019
Last night the Hawks gave up 14 scoring chances on net off-the-rush.....the most a team has allowed in a game all season. It did not end well. pic.twitter.com/fCVfVux7g2
Even with only five defensemen after Calvin de Haan’s injury, that level of constant porousness was inexcusable.
“I don’t know how many countless 2-on-1s or breakaways they had,” Brandon Saad said Tuesday. “It’s rough. We can’t leave our goaltender out to dry like that.”
Yet they did so again Thursday, in a virtual replay of the first leg of the road trip.
The Coyotes recorded a relatively small six shots on goal off odd-man rushes, but barely missed on a number of other rushes and ultimately enjoyed three breakaways, three 2-on-1s, two 3-on-2s and a poorly-defended (and poorly-goaltended) 1-on-1 that resulted in the opening goal.
Some of the rushes were caused by neutral-zone turnovers, a weakness (and area of much discussion) for the Hawks all season — in terms of both limiting their own turnovers there and also forcing more by opponents.
Others were caused by an overly enthusiastic forecheck or a disinterested backcheck. Others still could be traced to ill-advised pinches from the Hawks’ low-on-footspeed defensemen.
“Whether that’s too many forwards getting caught or the defensemen [pinching] — it’s fine to jump in, but you’ve got to get in and out...,” Colliton said. “When there’s a couple puck management situations that are unnecessary, then it adds up to too much against.”
Through the first 32 games of the season, the Hawks have been able to point to numerous factors — excessive dump-ins and lack of a shoot-first mentality are two earlier focal points that stand out — as the roots of their struggles at different times.
Perhaps none are as glaring as this latest one, though.
“What we’ve given up, we just give it,” Lehner said Thursday. “It’s very easy chances. We have to work really hard for ours, and not the other team. It’s not a good combination.”
