Chicago Blackhawks Coach Colliton Speaks the Truth

Chicago Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton was visibly frustrated with his team after another poor performance against the Winnipeg Jets. He spoke of telling them the truth.  It’s about time.

If we look at the performance charts from Thursday night’s 6-5 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, the truth is plain to see.  The change of guard in the Chicago Blackhawks’ coaching staff has not dramatically changed the quality of play from the team.  The ‘Hawks continue to be their own worst enemy with lingering bad habits.

A picture is worth a thousand words.  So let’s take a look at some pictures of what the ‘Hawks are doing.

Pace

As we’ve seen many times before, the ‘Hawks continue to play at a high pace.  Sean Tierney @ChartingHockey plots Corsi-For per 60 minutes plus Corsi-Against per 60 minutes across the NHL.  The ‘Hawks generate and give up a lot of shots, meaning they continue to play a wide-open style of hockey.  As we’ve discussed before, this can be wildly entertaining.

If we look next at shot share, the ‘Hawks are getting shots for and against just about equally.  So that means that they are not dominating the play.  This is not so entertaining for ‘Hawks fans.

But here is where it gets bad.  When we look at Goals-for percentage versus Expected-Goals-for percentage, we see that the ‘Hawks are not capitalizing on their scoring chances. For all the skilled forwards the ‘Hawks are supposed to have, they aren’t producing like skilled forwards.  This is really disappointing for Chicago Blackhawks fans.

Not only are the ‘Hawks not capitalizing on their scoring chances, but they are also surrendering more scoring chances to their opponents.  The ‘Hawks continue to be in the RED in the next comparison chart.  This is really aggravating ‘Hawks fans.

To compare all these nice metrics against the entire league, the ‘Hawks are sitting close to the bottom.  Take a look.