Jeremy Colliton said the word “prepare” four times in his five-minute press conference after Wednesday’s loss.
It felt like 20 times.
“It starts tomorrow with how we practice, making sure that whatever we do, let’s do it with intention and like it’s a game,” he said at one point. “When you prepare in that way, then when it becomes game time and the intensity goes up to 100, it’s not that big a shock.”
There turned out to be one problem with that plan, albeit an intentional one: the Blackhawks didn’t actually practice Thursday.
Instead, they cancelled the on-ice portion at the last minute — leaving the few expectant fans at Fifth-Third Arena, a hardy bunch as is for wanting to see this free-falling team do drills for an hour, disappointed. The team instead held a meeting and private film session.
“We felt the video and the meeting and discussion was more important,” Colliton said. “If we’re [physically] tired, we’re mentally tired. And we have to find a way to prepare ourselves mentally to play every situation with urgency that’s required to win. So that’s the focus of today.”
In the video session, the team reviewed what snowballed in the wrong direction in the 6-3 loss to the Rangers.
On Wednesday, Colliton identified poor gap control, allowing opposing forwards to slip goal-side and being slow to recognize counter-attacks as key breakdowns. On Thursday, he tacked on all three forwards “caught below the puck flat-footed.”
“You watch clips, some good, some bad, and some things we definitely need to work on and correct,” Ryan Carpenter said. “Those are things you can think about the next 24 hours.”
Certainly, fixing strategic problems is an important task. But 60 games into the season, there’s clearly something more broadly wrong with this Hawks team, and preparation could plausibly be that big issue.
Yet none of the players made available to reporters after the non-practice Thursday — Carpenter, Alex DeBrincat, Duncan Keith and trade-rumor-plagued Erik Gustafsson — had good answers as to what specifically the Hawks could do to prepare better.
“I don’t know maybe specifically, but coming out in the first period, we’ve got to be ready,” DeBrincat said. “We gave up a lot of chances in the first period, and that kind of trickles down to the rest of the game too. I think, whether it’s talking in the locker room before the game starts and really get everyone ready to go or whatever it is, we just need to come out better.”
“We know what the game plan is and what we need to do, what we have to do,” Keith added. “So it’s up to every individual. They’re in the NHL. They know how to prepare themselves. It’s up to us. I know for myself we have a routine and stick to that kind of routine. It’s not always the same, but you’re just ready to go mentally. I think understanding the situation, understanding the importance of playing the right way and those types of things are going to help you prepare knowing we need to win.”
If preparedness is defined by game-day routine, there inevitably are some differences between home and road games — Patrick Kane noted before Wednesday’s game the 11:30 (vs. 10:30) morning skate, the hotel accommodations and the team bus transportation to the arena — and the road routine seems to be working slightly better for the Hawks this year.
Neither is working well enough, though.
And if the Hawks are actually going to change, one way or another, how they prepare because of Colliton’s call-outs Wednesday, they aren’t disclosing it.
