Blackhawks: Three Takeaways from a 6-3 Loss to Detroit

2. The Defense Continues to Drop the Ball for Blackhawks

The defense has been horrible, though not as bad as the offense, at 29th overall in the league in goals against. Seth Jones does not look like an elite defenseman but instead an uninterested liability. He did not show up last night and finished with a -3 on the night.

Erik Gustafsson shouldn’t be in the lineup, despite his “veteran status” as he can’t seem to figure out his defensive assignment while making overaggressive, defensive mistakes. For example, he should not have drifted to a puck battle where three Blackhawks already were.

This team also looks lost on defense and I’m not sure if it’s the system or the players. Whenever the opposition cycles the puck, this team is dreadful at taking away the puck as they want to stay on their man. This is a very good example of how the man-system doesn’t work well in the NHL. I don’t know how many more games this team has to lose to deploy a proper zone system instead.

This team also needs a new defense coach as Sheldon Brookbank doesn’t look to be cutting it. He teaches them horrible strategies and ways to play as the defense seems to pinch in aggressively at the wrong times and doesn’t pinch at all when they should. This team needs more from this defense corps, especially Seth Jones if they want to find their way onto the win column.