Earlier this season, when the Blackhawks have been shedding most video games and deploying one of many oldest rosters within the NHL, the losses weren’t solely unsatisfying for followers but additionally meaningless to the workforce’s long-term plans.
Now that the Hawks have turned over their roster to youth — a course of that’s anticipated to proceed via April — they’re nonetheless shedding most video games, however at the very least their youngsters are gaining expertise using the waves.
That was the case but once more within the Hawks’ 4-2 defeat Sunday in opposition to the Wild. It was an terrible efficiency via two durations, throughout which the Hawks generated solely 5 photographs on purpose, though they racked up 15 within the third and almost rallied from a 3-0 deficit.
A couple of months in the past, a dull outing like that will’ve been nothing however miserable. At this level, nonetheless, one can take a look at it from a glass-half-full perspective: the extra issues the workforce does flawed, the extra issues their younger gamers can study from transferring ahead.
“[They] must study that this league is hard,” interim coach Anders Sorensen mentioned. “You need to discover your alternatives to create offense. However you even have to seek out your shifts the place you must notice, there’s not a lot happening, I simply must play [it safe].
“Particularly as a ‘D’-man, you must advance pucks, maintain it environment friendly that means and clearly defend laborious. Typically [for] younger gamers, that may be a studying lesson. At present, it was for lots of them.”
These classes aren’t coming solely from Sorensen, both. For instance, rookie ahead Frank Nazar has been receiving recommendation about figuring out the appropriate occasions to take dangers — and the appropriate occasions to keep away from them — from veteran heart Jason Dickinson for weeks.
“[We’ve talked about] little issues about situational consciousness [based on] time of the sport, interval or shift,” Dickinson mentioned. “[We’ve talked about] when to make a sure play or a sure learn as a result of you recognize sure guys on the ice are drained and also you’ve obtained to assist them out.”
Nazar continues to enhance. His third-period purpose Sunday — arrange by an assertive drive to the web by rookie defenseman Ethan Del Mastro — gave him targets in consecutive video games and 5 factors in his final 4 video games.
He additionally dedicated a pair blatant turnovers, reminding everybody he’s not a completed product but. However no 21-year-old is, and by discovering out on the fly what to not do in any given scenario, he’ll have a greater sense of what he ought to do the following time he finds himself in such a scenario.
Ethan Del Mastro performed 18:22 tonight and recorded his first NHL help however was additionally on for 2 targets in opposition to.
Sorensen: “He battled. [He] obtained caught a few occasions within the D zone, possibly making an attempt to perform a little bit an excessive amount of. However that wasn’t simply him; it was us as a gaggle.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 27, 2025
The most recent youthful addition to the Hawks’ roster is Landon Slaggert, who was referred to as up Sunday to fill Taylor Corridor’s spot. If Slaggert performs Tuesday on the Lightning, it’s doable 9 of the Hawks’ 18 skaters will likely be 23 years previous or youthful: Connor Bedard, Alex Vlasic, Lukas Reichel, Nolan Allan, Colton Dach, Louis Crevier, Del Mastro, Nazar and Slaggert.
In some video games again in October, that quantity was as little as three.
Within the Hawks’ 4-3 extra time loss Friday against the Lightning, all three targets have been scored by rookies — Dach, Nazar and Crevier — and younger goalie Arvid Soderblom recorded 36 saves.
A recreation like that, regardless of the outcome on the scoreboard, nearly definitely advantages the group’s long-term future greater than, say, the 4-2 win of their house opener in opposition to the Sharks in October did, when Corridor, Tyler Bertuzzi, Nick Foligno and Jason Dickinson have been the scorers and Petr Mrazek tended purpose.
The presence of youth doesn’t totally excuse the losses, that are getting previous for everybody. Basic supervisor Kyle Davidson, who will converse publicly Monday for the primary time since firing Luke Richardson in early December, realizes there’s some urgency now. But it surely does make the losses just a little simpler to abdomen.
