Breaking Down the Chicago Blackhawks’ New Systems
The Chicago Blackhawks coaching staff have gone to the drawing board early in the season to fix many of their problems.
They definitely found a few things that work much better than their old ideas did.
The Chicago Blackhawks possessed one of the most passive forechecks I have watched in recent history in the first four games. I think the reasoning is because they didn’t have a stud goaltender at the time, so they had to get back to defend immediately and not take risks.
This changed drastically when Kevin Lankinen proved to be able to stop almost every shot at him. This opened up the Blackhawks to try new things to take advantage of this to be the “track-meet”, relentless team they wanted to be. By “track-meet” I mean that they want to skate up and down the ice, applying relentless pressure on the forecheck but still be quick to be back to defend the rush.
2-1-2 Forecheck
The 2-1-2 forecheck the Blackhawks use has two forwards attempting to trap the puck on one side, with the third forward preparing to help the defense on the backcheck or jump up on the play if the two forwards force a turnover.
In their second game of their homestand vs the Columbus Blue Jackets, the forecheck caused multiple turnovers, (though the misplays by the goaltender helped). Pius Suter would first crash the puck carrier, in this case it was Merzlinkins, and forced a pass. He instead took the puck away from a misplay by the goalie and quickly shot it on net as Merzlinkins attempted to scramble back into position. Suter scored on the play, the reward to his effort.
The second time this game was again pressure by Philipp Kurashev, causing a turnover from Merzlinkins, his second of the game. He would find Patrick Kane, the second forechecker, at the goal line who would shoot the puck into the net at a tough angle for their second goal. Again, offense followed the relentless forecheck, but Mattias Janmark was still prepared to help the defense defend the rush, staying high in the zone close to the blueline.
They ran a conservative forecheck before, with a variation of a 1-2-2: A forward enters the zone, trying to get in the passing zone, two forwards back near center ice, and the defensemen at the blue line trying to read the play. This wouldn’t do much as the opposition would get past them with a breakout pass, and set up in the offensive zone if they couldn’t capitalize on an odd-man rush. It was an easy, predictable defense and the league tore them apart.
Because of this new-found system, they generated chances for, and a couple goals for as well against Columbus where the forechecking forward would cause a turnover and the others would jump on it, trying to get a shot on net. But, again, this is only a thing the Blackhawks can do because they know they have a goaltender they can trust who is a brick wall back on their end.
Man-Zone Hybrid Defense
Before, I talked about the Blackhawks’ defense system was a man-defense, where they stay on one player at all times. They now have a weird man-zone hybrid defense.
This is what I mean.
Watching the Blackhawks, they do not always stay on one guy anymore, but always try to cover any open ice when they need to. In a board battle, there is no open ice for a defender to jump in on and generate a chance against. Instead, there is always someone covering the slot and the other two players who are not in the board battle are also covering the rest of the zone, denying any chances that could arise.
In one instance, there was a board battle to the right of the goaltender, with three Blackhawks fighting for the puck. When this was happening, the two other Blackhawks players collapsed closer to the slot, getting in the way of any potential high-danger chances against.
Before this, the players would always be on the same guy, and the slot would be wide open. Multiple goals against were caused by opposing players finding open ice due to a missed assignment which would have been easily defended against if the zone-defense was deployed., leading to a high-danger scoring chance or a goal against. Now, they cover the ice well like a zone-defense WHILE keeping their man-system, creating a hybrid of both.
Whoever created this new defensive system deserves a lot of credit because this has worked a LOT better than their previous idea. They still allow a ton of shots against, but almost half of those shots come in the last twenty minutes of regulation (19 in two periods,17 in the third in their SO loss to Carolina). They just need to play and continue what they did in the first fifty to come out with wins in regulation instead of a 50-50 shot in OT. They currently play a 40 minute game with high-energy and relentlessness, but the extra 20 will win them games.
In all, the Blackhawks coaching staff have developed new ideas for their team to play, but these two proved to be the two best ones not counting the powerplay. That one deserves a full article.
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