DETROIT — Knowing whether the Blackhawks are winning or losing doesn’t require a scoreboard whenever Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane appear together in 5-on-5 play.
In that case, they’re definitely losing.
Coach Jeremy Colliton has typically only used the two superstar forwards together in desperate times. True to form, the Toews-Kane ‘nuclear line’ made its first extended appearance in a while in the Hawks’ sloppy 2-1 loss against the woeful Red Wings on Friday, spending the latter part of the second period and most of the third period together.
But its presence was notable only because Colliton has deployed them together so rarely this season.
At 5-on-5, Kane and Toews have spent only 261 minutes together — under four minutes per game. Kane has been one of Toews’ two most common wingers in only seven games, and five of those were in the season’s first month. Dominik Kubalik, by comparison, has been one of Toews’ two most common wingers for 39 consecutive games.
It’s certainly exciting to dream about the dominance of that duo, and they do produce a lot of offense — thus why Colliton sometimes turns to them when trailing. With them both on the ice, the Hawks have out-scored opponents 19-10 and generated an average of 32.0 scoring chances per 60 minutes together, more than they do when just Toews or just Kane (or neither, for that matter) are playing.
The negative effect of their union on the rest of the Hawks’ scoring depth and line trios, however, is significant enough to justify starting — and usually keeping — them apart.
Against the Wings, once Kane moved up onto the first line, the Hawks rotated Dominik Kubalik and Brandon Saad in and out of the other wing slot. Kubalik also took a few shifts with Dylan Strome and Ryan Carpenter, while Saad also took a few shifts with Strome and Alex Nylander.
In other words, the Kane promotion scrambled the rest of the depth chart into chaos. If done full-time, Colliton would need to create more stable second and third trios, and none of the options are promising.
The Hawks have too many players that work best as complementary pieces next to a star — Kubalik, Drake Caggiula, even Brandon Saad to some extent — and not many who can create their own chances.
With Kirby Dach still developing, Dylan Strome struggling defensively and Ryan Carpenter unable to contribute much offensively, the Hawks also don’t have the center depth beneath Toews to justify using Kane — the one player guaranteed to make any of those centers look good — on Toews’ line.
Plus, even the Toews-Kane duo has its weaknesses, namely in its own end. The Hawks allow 33.1 opponent scoring chances per 60 minutes when both players are on the ice, more than when either one plays without the other — essentially the same effect as stated before, but reversed.
That makes the decision to preserve that stacked first line for last-gasp periods, when the Hawks need a goal at all costs, seem wise.
Notes:
- Adam Boqvist’s right wrist injury, which ruled him out of Friday’s game against the Red Wings at the last minute, was actually suffered midway through Thursday’s game against the Oilers, Colliton said. The Hawks haven’t provided return timetables yet for Boqvist or the concussed Lucas Carlsson.
- Rockford signed Blackhawks goalie prospect Ivan Nalimov to a professional tryout contract Saturday, giving the 25-year-old longtime Russian league star — whose North American rights the Hawks have owned since the 2014 draft — an opportunity to prove himself worthy of a 2020-21 contract.
