Given the individual skill of Hawk power play units, why does the Blackhawks power play often struggle? Year after year, it continues to be one of the mysteries that no one approach, or player, can seem to solve.
Here are seven specific things the Hawks can do that should lead to more power play goals:
- Have multiple Hawks hitting the blue line with speed during offensive zone entries. Many times the only Blackhawk hitting the line with speed is the puck carrier. The other four players are either standing still or slowly gliding. All are spectating. Or, a slowly moving puck carrier makes a pass to the only teammate hitting the line with speed. Having multiple Hawks hitting the line with speed creates more options and puck support to make plays off the rush. Too much emphasis on avoiding going offside instead of trying for a dynamic goal-scoring play.
- Run a set face-off play to generate a quick scoring chance after winning an offensive zone draw. The Blackhawks have a tendency to revert to “setting things up” when they win puck possession in the offensive zone. The end result is a power play that has too many players always in first gear with their feet. The
Blackhawks should be looking to score as quickly as possible after every offensive zone draw they win. And their desire to do so should be reflected in their intensity and determination. - Use the high tip to expand the power play shooting arsenal. The Hawks seldom execute the high tip as a shot option on the power play (or at any strength). Goalies around the NHL know this. And so, they don’t have to worry about it, making their life on the penalty kill a lot easier. The high tip is tough for the goalie to pick up, creates slot chaos, blown penalty kill coverages, and goals.
- Set moving screens in front of the goalie with two forwards. Of the current Hawks usually on the power play, only Artem Anisimov consistently “holds his ground” right in front of the net. Other Hawk forwards would be more effective as screeners by moving across the front of the net, from post-to-post in units of two, crossing right in front of the goalie. If no shot comes, cross again. And again.
- Let Patrick Kane go one-on-one with his first penalty kill defender. Activate an NBA-style clear out play for Kane. Have the other four Hawks all move to the other side of the ice, as far away from Kane as possible. Or, have all four Hawks all plant themselves right in front of the net. Give Kane the green light to create something the forces the penalty killers to react to what he is doing.
- Take a page from the Red Army on offensive zone entries. The Red Army hockey team expanded their thinking about the attack blue line. They were comfortable running entries in which a player, already in the offensive zone with the puck, would pass the puck back to a teammate moving at top speed in the neutral zone. To avoid offside, the player who just passed the puck would then have to get back outside the blue line into the neutral zone before his teammate entered the offensive zone with the puck. The “passer” quickly re-entered the offensive zone as a “grade-A” passing option for the new puck carrier.
- Review the overall team philosophy about what it means to be on the power play. Coach Quenneville often mentions that it is important for a power play to at least “establish game momentum” (if no goal is scored). Do Blackhawk power play players consistently outwork the penalty killers? Win board battles? Win puck races? Make smart puck management decisions? Raise their game to an even higher level of intensity and focus? To some degree, power play time should be a constant competition that power play players earn.