In the Chicago Blackhawks' back-to-back against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes, the positives outweighed the negatives.
The Chicago Blackhawks just took three out of four points from the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning. That’s a hard sequence of games, no matter what, but it becomes even more difficult when it is a back-to-back situation with travel.
The positives in Chicago’s game outweighed their negatives against the two best teams in the Eastern Conference based on point percentages. Their shootout victory over Carolina took place in Raleigh, while their shootout defeat happened at the United Center one night later.
Positives
Besides finding ways to get points and hanging on to a “bubble” position in the Wild Card race, there are a few positives in Chicago’s games that keep them in contention for wins.
The first is their penalty kill. Across both games, they killed off eight penalties and didn’t allow a single power-play goal. That brought their overall percentage up to 85.4 percent, which leads the entire NHL heading into Saturday.
Winning the special teams battles that happen within a game can lead to overall wins more often than not. If Chicago’s PK wasn’t dominant, its record might not be as improved.
Their penalty kill has been led by veterans like Ilya Mikheyev (who may be the best in the league at it) and Jason Dickinson, but young players like Ryan Greene, Frank Nazar, and Oliver Moore have stepped up and done the job as well.
“We’ve been doing the same PK now all year,” Greene said. “Over time, we’ve gotten more comfortable in it. It involves a lot of heavy pressure; we like to put teams on their heels and not give them too much time to make plays. I think we’re doing a pretty good job.”
Goaltending has played a big role in the penalty kill's dominance, but it’s also why they earned points on this back-to-back. On Thursday, Spencer Knight made 28 saves on 31 shots in the win. On Friday, Arvid Soderblom made 30 saves on 31 shots.
“We owe a lot of credit to [Soderblom]," Green said. "I thought he was unbelievable. I don't think that game goes overtime without him playing the way he did.”
Soderblom's year as Knight's backup hasn't been what he wanted, but this was a great performance against a team with elite shooters coming at him in waves. For now, this is a great confidence booster for the young goalie.
Offense hasn't been easy to come by for this group, especially since Connor Bedard is still working on getting back to the level he was at before his injury. One bright spot, however, has been the duo of Oliver Moore and Nick Lardis.
They each picked up an assist on Ryan Green's goal, Chicago's only goal, against the Lightning. Against the Hurricanes, Lardis scored one of their three goals in regulation (assisted by Moore), and Moore scored the shootout winner.
In the coming years, it can't all be on Bedard, or even Nazar for that matter. There will need to be depth scorers on the team, and these two are very promising.
Negatives
At even strength, the team needs to be better if it wants to find sustained success. Their penalty kill is unrealistically good at this point, and they can't rely on goalies to stand on their heads in every single game. Eventually, they need a nice flow of even play.
Against Carolina, Chicago was outshot 25-18 at even strength. They were also outscored 3-2 in that situation.
Against Tampa, they were outshot 27-16 at even strength. 11 of those 16 even-strength shots that Chicago had against the Lightning came in overtime or a shootout. 5 even strength shots through two periods isn't going to lead to wins on most nights.
Their run of playing against elite teams from the East isn't done yet, either. On Sunday, they will face the Florida Panthers at the United Center. The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions are a modest 26-20-3 right now, but Chicago must not be fooled by this.
They've been without their captain and best player, Sasha Barkov, this season, and Matthew Tkachuk just returned for the first time this season last week. They are still incredibly hard to play against, especially when it comes to creating a forecheck.
When you do get chances, you have Sergei Bobrovsky to deal with in the net. These positives won't outweigh the negatives if they give Florida any inch of leeway.
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