Adam Proteau discusses the Chicago Blackhawks, new NHLPA boss Marty Walsh's career as a labor person and the effect of the shootout on the wild-card races.
You’re reading Screen Shots, a regular THN.com feature in which we analyze a few different hockey topics, and break them down in smaller paragraphs for your reading enjoyment. As always, we’ll get right to it.
The Chicago Blackhawks have been abysmal of late, with eight consecutive losses and a 3-14-1 record since Feb. 27. It’s tough to believe this is the same team that reeled off five straight wins before Feb. 27.
The Hawks have scored two goals or fewer in 11 of their most recent 15 defeats, and they’ve allowed four goals or more in 12 of those losses. As it stands, they’re now the NHL’s worst team, with a 24-46-6 record and 54 standings points in 76 games. They’ve sunk below the Columbus Blue Jackets (56 points) and currently have the best odds at drafting first overall in this summer’s entry draft.
With former Blackhawks star Patrick Kane traded to the New York Rangers and captain Jonathan Toews talking like he knows his time in Chicago will end at the conclusion of this year, the Hawks are in ideal position to land junior hockey phenom Connor Bedard. Four of the Blackhawks’ remaining six games come against playoff-contending teams – Calgary, Seattle, Minnesota and Pittsburgh – and if they continue their tanking ways, they should lock up 32nd place. Even if they don’t get the top draft position, they’re all but assured of a top-five pick.
At last week’s press conference for new NHL Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh, the former mayor of Boston and United States secretary of labor took a moment to reflect on his evolution as a labor leader. It was easy to see why the players who chose him for the position were enamored by him.
“When I was a young kid, I grew up in a family where my father was a laborer and very active in the union, and my uncle Pat was very active in the union – he was a leader of that union,” Walsh said. “And I remember when I was a young kid, I used to go to the union hall with my uncle Pat. I’d go and I’d see the symbol of the laborers’ union 223, and I wanted to be part of that. And in my kitchen, most Sundays back in the old days, people would go visiting each other – my uncle and my father would be talking about the union and the importance of representation.
“So I grew up in that family that was always advocating on behalf of workers, and I was just fortunate enough to get that fire in my belly to continue to do the same thing... That kind of shaped who I was as a person, and as a young man, I got involved in the union. As I got older, I started running for office, and I never really forgot where I came from.
“When I was running for mayor of Boston, I was criticized by some of the media saying I was too close to organized labor. We went back to the campaign office, and we talked about how do I handle this, what do I do here, how do I separate myself from just being a union guy. And what I decided, finally, to do was say I wear my unionism with a badge of honor, and I wasn’t going to run away from it. So that’s embedded in me, and I learned it from my parents and my family, and just being around people all the time and wanting to represent people.”
Walsh is in the first stages of his new NHLPA role, and while he’s not going to wave a magic wand and create the type of leverage needed to gain concessions from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the 32 team owners, it was clear that he’s coming from a background where he’s putting labor rights at the front of the cue. It will be very interesting to see what his initial moves are, both in terms of the stances he takes and the makeup of NHLPA’s leadership and management, but he said all the right things in his first press conference.
Finally, as the NHL regular season speeds toward its conclusions, it’s intriguing to see the teams currently involved in the battle for a wild card have struggled at the shootout.
In the Eastern Conference, the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders and Florida Panthers have a combined 4-7 shootout record. In the Western Conference, the Seattle Kraken, Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames have a combined 3-8 shootout mark.
As we’ve noted before, people can call the shootout a gimmick, and they’re accurate in that assessment in many ways, but it’s an important gimmick that could be the difference between missing and making the playoffs. Some of those shootout losses are going to haunt teams this summer, and rightfully so. One or two missed shootout shots here, and playoff dreams can vanish.