The Blackhawks misplaced each their finest defensive ahead and one more sport Wednesday on the United Middle.
Jason Dickinson went down with an damage to his left leg within the Hawks’ 4-3 additional time loss to the Oilers. It folded awkwardly beneath him after incidental contact with Oilers ahead Vasily Podkolzin in the course of the second interval, and he was seen in a strolling boot after the sport.
“It doesn’t look good,” interim coach Anders Sorensen stated about Dickinson, mentioning the crew will present a extra substantial replace Thursday.
Sorensen began the sport matching up Dickinson’s checking line in opposition to Leon Draisaitl’s line and matching up Connor Bedard’s line in opposition to Connor McDavid’s line, however the damage threw these matchups into flux.
Even nonetheless, because the clock ticked towards and previous 11 p.m. CT — the sport began at 8:53 p.m. as a consequence of TV slotting on TNT — the Hawks launched certainly one of their most spirited rallies of the season, with rookie Landon Slaggert’s vitality offering the spark. Ryan Donato minimize the deficit to 1 with a power-play tip-in, then discovered Alec Martinez open on the again door to tie the rating with 3:44 left.
Teuvo Teravainen, who had two main assists, hit the put up within the remaining seconds of regulation however dedicated a pricey too-many-men penalty in additional time, and McDavid discovered Zach Hyman for the Oilers’ game-winner on the following energy play. The Hawks have now misplaced in an additional time or shootout in 4 of their final 9 video games.
“You’ll be able to have a look at the brilliant facet, say, ‘Yeah, we battled again,’” Donato stated. “But when we did that with out letting them have their probabilities and performed…determined [all night], perhaps [things] might have gone a distinct method.”
Analyzing Dickinson’s season
Getting into Wednesday, Dickinson didn’t know an damage was coming. As a substitute, he was bothered by his incapability to duplicate his offensive manufacturing from final season.
“I’ve been doing a fairly good job of my matchups,” Dickinson stated just lately. “[I’m] not essentially profitable them, however that’s as a result of I’m not scoring. It’s irritating, in that sense. You are feeling such as you play a extremely good sport in opposition to some prime gamers, and also you come out of it minus-one or one thing. You’re like, ‘[Expletive], I believed I performed a extremely good sport.’”
Dickinson, Teravainen and Ilya Mikhyev have fashioned the Hawks’ checking line for many of the season — and with good cause. Analytically, they’ve been the crew’s three finest defensive forwards. They entered the sport with the crew’s three lowest expected-goals-against charges and three of the crew’s 4 lowest scoring-chances-allowed charges, joined in that class by Nick Foligno.
For Dickinson particularly, he has allowed barely extra anticipated targets per 60 minutes of five-on-five play than he did final season (2.47 vs. 2.35), when he obtained 18 Selke Trophy votes.
However he has allowed fewer scoring probabilities (23.9 vs. 26.1) and shot makes an attempt (55.9 vs. 57.3) per 60 minutes than he did final season, and he has performed so in opposition to the very best offensive gamers within the NHL. Kirill Kaprizov, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri are the 4 opposing forwards he has logged essentially the most ice time in opposition to.
Dickinson’s skill to close down such stars is spectacular, and that’s why his absence can be so pricey.
He has been devoting all of his vitality to doing so, although, leaving little left over to expend within the offensive zone. That has been the important thing distinction from his breakout performance last season, when he tied Connor Bedard for the Hawks’ lead with 22 targets.
He has seven targets this season, which ranks eighth on the crew in the meanwhile, and he’s going to stay caught in an 18-game aim drought throughout his damage absence.
“There was a protracted stretch in January and the tip of December the place we had been dropping fairly considerably,” Dickinson stated Wednesday. “The pure intuition for me is to retreat to my defensive habits and attempt to shield the ice as finest I can after I’m on the market, so I let my offense slide.
“There’s nonetheless little areas [where] I’m not glad with my decision-making. I really feel like I’m making a variety of the protected performs, or I’m not making an attempt to beat anyone one-on-one. I’m perhaps a little bit scared to show pucks over and find yourself with the puck at the back of the online. I don’t love that for my sport proper now.”
Dickinson’s 17.5% capturing proportion final season was all the time going to be tough to repeat, however his capturing proportion this season stays above the league common at 14%. That doesn’t clarify his decline in manufacturing.
As a substitute, these stats do: He has tried 10.8 photographs per 60 minutes, down marginally from 11.6 final season. And 35.0% of these makes an attempt have made it on aim, down precipitously from 51.4% final season. Many extra are getting blocked or lacking the online.
“A part of [my] success from final yr was confidence over the puck,” he stated. “As soon as you place it in a few occasions, you begin to really feel good. . . . If I obtained the puck in a scoring space, I felt actually good about selecting my spots.
“This yr, it looks as if I’m not getting a complete lot of the identical appears. Is it one thing I’m doing in a different way? Is it the way in which the video games are going? It’s arduous to say, precisely. Nevertheless it’s undoubtedly an element.”
