One Positive From Recent Blackhawks Stretch Has Been Their Penalty Kill

The Chicago Blackhawks don't have a lot going for them. In 15 games played, they are 4-10-1. Right now, the Vancouver Canucks are the only team in the National Hockey League with fewer points in the standings. 

There are plenty of reasons for this. One of them is the power play, which is 31st in the league at 10.6%. It has been a struggle for them to score goals in general, and the power play has done them no favors. 

The other special teams unit, however, has been much better. After a slow start to the season, the penalty-kill units have been improving with every passing game. 

Chicago allowed a power-play goal to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday, but it was a tip-in goal by Nazem Kadri, assisted by Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon, two of the five best players in the league. It was also one power-play goal allowed on five tries for the Avalanche. 

When you parade to the penalty box against a powerhouse like them, you'll surrender a power-play goal here and there. The fact that the Blackhawks killed off every other one is impressive. 

The most important player on the ice during a PK is the goalie. Spencer Knight has done his job in that regard. For his overall game, he'd like to be better, but the team in front of him does no favors defensively. While down a man, they have had no issues with goaltending. Stopping deflection goals set up by elite players is never a guarantee. 

On defense, everyone is expected to kill at times, but Alex Vlasic, Ian Cole, Artyom Levshunov, and Wyatt Kaiser get the bulk of the load. The defensemen who are used on the power play aren't on the PK as much. 

At forward, Frank Nazar, Teuvo Teravainen, Anton Frondell, Oliver Moore, Cole Smith, and Ryan Greene are usually the ones who rotate. There are always exceptions, but this group is usually good defensively and isn't afraid to go for a short-handed chance when the time is right. 

"I think being able to stay on top of them - pressure hard," Frank Nazar said of what's working with the PK. "[Power plays] want to have no time and space on the power play; everyone wants to slow it down and make plays. Being able to [pressure them] is big." 

It is important to be aggressive on the penalty kill. If you sit back and let the opposing power play come at you in waves, you're going to allow a lot of power-play goals. Some super-elite players in the league know how to make big plays with extra ice. 

Without Ilya Mikheyev, Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, Connor Murphy, and Colton Dach around, the PK was always going to take a step back, but it's on the younger guys to now step up and take the reins. 

Entering Tuesday night's action, they sit in 15th place when it comes to PK efficiency. Before allowing the one power-play goal to Kadri, they were pushing the top ten. If they keep going at the rate they are, they will eventually get there. They may not be number one as they were for most of last year, but it is certainly one of the strengths of their team. 

"We were number one in the league last year, so we know how good we can be on the kill," Connor Bedard said. "We have a lot of guys that go out there and sacrifice themselves every night for us. It's a boost and awesome to see when our guys are doing it. We have a great kill." 

Bedard ended his sentence about the kill by mentioning that although they trust their penalty kill, they don't want to take penalties. Still, every team in the league has to kill penalties throughout the year, and the Blackhawks seem to be improving in an attempt to get back to the level that they were at last year. 

Is having a decent to good penalty kill going to be what turns this ship around? Not really. They are in desperate need of improvement in many other areas, but this shouldn't be a worry as the season goes along. 

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