Chicago Blackhawks Artemi Panarin Hot, Team’s Mental Focus Not

With two games remaining in the regular season and the #1 seed locked up, there isn’t much left for the Blackhawks to play for.  Artemi Panarin continues to fight to be top 10 in scoring among forwards to earn his bonus while the Blackhawks let a couple games slip away

The NHL season is long and very demanding on players especially when tournaments like the World Cup of Hockey condenses the schedule.  Teams play every other night with little rest before getting into the playoffs that takes an even bigger toll on players bodies.  I’m not making excuses for professional hockey players because this is why they are the best of the best, but I think it’s clear when teams decide to take a night off.

In the case of the Blackhawks, Tuesday night in Denver was the perfect storm for the Avalanche.  The best team in the West played a road game that was meaningless versus the worst team in the West who tends to match their competition’s play.  No team likes it when thousands of opposing fans travel and sell out their stadium which gave the Avs momentum to come back and beat the Hawks in overtime.

Let’s start with “The Not” here and see if the Hawks performance in the last couple games actually matters.

 Blackhawks Mental Focus

Take this for what it is, but I don’t think the Blackhawks have the depth to be the comeback kids they usually are in the playoffs.  The typical Blackhawks series has been to split the first 2 on the road, split the second two at home, then win games 5 and 6 to close out the series.  Or take it in game 7 if they’re lucky.  But with Nashville, Minnesota, and even St. Louis getting better every year, I don’t think the Blackhawks can afford to take their foot off the gas in the beginning of the series.

After beating two very good Eastern Conference playoff teams in the Penguins and Blue Jackets, the Hawks let the last two games slip to the Bruins and Avalanche.  The Bruins are battling for playoff position so they have a little more to work for, but the Bruins also played in Florida the day before!

The Avalanche game was a completely different story.  Quennville sat a couple veterans and got some guys into the lineup who have been sitting like Jurco, Rozsival, and Hinostroza.  Surprisingly the line of Jurco, Desjardans, and Hinostroza looked good battling for pucks in the corners and cycling the puck.

But the problem was really the overall chemistry between forwards and the defense.  We saw key turnovers by Campbell, Seabrook, and Schmaltz that led to short handed goals or bad penalties from being out of position.

A lot of people tell themselves that this game didn’t matter, and it doesn’t.  But for a guy like Scott Darling who is playing for a contract next year, seeing 50+ shots against the worst team in the league and getting the loss can’t feel good.  Darling stood tall in the crease Tuesday and made some miraculous saves, but he couldn’t get to the ones caused by ugly turnovers.

I would say that this game was a wakeup call, but it wasn’t.  The wakeup call was last week when we got annihilated by the Panthers.  I just hope the Hawks don’t get too cocky when games start to count.  There are plenty of Central Division teams that need motivation to beat the Hawks and seeing them lose to the worst team in the league does just that.

Artemi Panarin

I keep seeing memes of 88 and 72 that captions ” Find someone who looks at you like Panarin looks at Kane.”  It’s just so interesting that two players from different parts of the world can come together with cultural barriers like language and still find ways to have so much fun.  Even without his fellow Russian centerman Artem Anisimov in the lineup, Panarin has continued to be productive.

Last season, Panarin won rookie of the year scoring 30 goals and 77 assists.  He played on debatably the best line in hockey with Anisimov and Kane, and Quennville hasn’t touched that line since.  This year, Panarin has 29 goals and 43 assists, an almost identical season to last year.

In the last 5 games, Panarin has scored 5 goals and 1 assist.  With two games remaining in the season, Panarin is fighting to stay in the top 10 in scoring among forwards.  If the season ends and he’s in that group, he will earn an extra $1.725M.

The duo of Kane and Panarin has been entertaining the last couple years as the two seem to be inseparable.  It’s almost like how Pat Foley describes  the Canucks when the Sedin brothers are on the ice.  When Daniel has the puck, Foley always says ” where’s Henrik? Where’s Henrik?”  I’m always thinking something similar when Kane or Panarin has control of the puck.

Next: Blackhawks #3 In Final Power Rankings

I’m happy that Panarin has an individual goal he’s pursuing during a time where other Hawks players seem to put their effort in cruise control.  Hopefully his desire and drive will rub off on he team and roll into the playoffs.  We will take all the one-timer goals from him that we can get.