3 observations from Blackhawks intrasquad scrimmage

Chicago Blackhawks head coach Jeff Blashill changed things up for the fifth day of training camp. Instead of running two separate practices, the two teams scrimmaged against each other ahead of their preseason opening against the Detroit Red Wings tomorrow night.

“I don’t like scrimmaging too early in camp because we don’t have any of our systems in place,” he said. “At least now, basically, our major systems are in place. So, now they can go out and feel what it’s like with 10 players on the ice.”

Everyone in the Fifth Third Arena appreciated having a scrimmage instead of another long day of drills on conditioning. Blashill stressed that there shouldn’t be too much made of his line combinations, as he wanted the two teams to lineup accordingly for the power-play units, which were the primary focus of the day.

Penalty Kill Could Be Special

Special teams were front and center during Monday’s practice. Blashill worked them out before, during, and after the scrimmage. Today was the first day of camp when they really focused on the power play and penalty kill.

“We didn’t want it to be part of the first few days,” he said. “We thought culture and fundamentals were important to us right now. Some teams might get right into special teams, but for us, we felt this was the best way to do it.”

Both units got plenty of time to work, with multiple 1:15 power plays worked into the scrimmage. The power play failed to score on any of its attempts. The Blackhawks’ penalty-kill unit could be dangerous this season because of its speed and skill. They should see an uptick from their 14th-rated unit (79.4%) a season ago.

Blashill will use the same system he used with the Tampa Bay Lightning last year, which finished with the sixth-best penalty kill (81.6) in the league.

“There’ll be an adjustment on the penalty kill, for sure,” he said. “It is a different system, similar to what we did in Tampa. It’s a good system, but it takes a while to get the hang of it. We didn’t last year until probably November 1, and think we were first in the league after that. It took a little bit because we had so many new guys coming into it. I will have some patience with that.”

The top PK unit in Tampa featured forwards Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel being aggressive in both the neutral zone and below the blue line. They hounded the puck and looked to score shorthanded goals off turnovers. The Lightning were third in the NHL with 11 shorthanded tallies; the Blackhawks had six.

The Blackhawks have the personnel to be aggressive on the kill. Jason Dickinson, Ilya Mikheyev, Frank Nazar, and Sam Lafferty have the speed and ability to disrupt the opponent’s power-play structure. Oliver Moore is another player who can be a shorthanded weapon when he gets his shot in the NHL. When Nick Foligno and Teuvo Teravainen are your third pair of penalty killing forwards, you have a solid unit.

Youngsters Still Look Raw

I’m going to preface this observation by saying this is only a scrimmage and things should be taken with a grain of salt. Players are working hard to stand out and impress the new coaching staff. All that being said, there were still too many avoidable mistakes on the ice from the younger players.

On more than one occasion, forwards like Connor Bedard, Nick Lardis, and Moore tried to skate through multiple defenders to no avail. Artyom Levshunov and Sam Rinzel had some poor decisions with the puck. Both tried to pass the puck through the middle of the ice in the defensive zone instead of using the boards, forcing turnovers in their own end.

These are all plays you’d expect from this group, especially this early in training camp. However, these bad habits need to be worked out as quickly as possible because they will absolutely kill you when the games start to count in two weeks.

One youngster who stood out today was defenseman Ethan Del Mastro. He was calm and smart with the puck in his own end. His best moment came when he used his stick to break up a 2-on-1 rush with Mikheyev and Dickinson after a neutral-zone turnover. He had his stick in the perfect position to break up a pass and get the puck going back the other way.

Injury Updates

The Blackhawks have been dealing with a few minor injuries early in training camp. Forward AJ Spellacy has yet to participate after suffering a shoulder injury at the Tom Kurvers Showcase Prospect. His original timeline was 7-10 days, so he could get back on the ice by the end of the week.

Defenseman Connor Murphy and forward Andre Burakovsky missed Sunday’s practice. Both returned to the ice today. Murphy took a maintenance day, as Blashill revealed they are looking to give the veteran blueliner rest when needed. Burakovsky “tweaked” his lower body on Saturday. He skated early with the team today, but did not take part in the scrimmage.

Landon Slaggert and Rockford IceHogs captain Brett Seney left Sunday’s practice early and were unavailable today. Blashill said they both are considered day-to-day and are not dealing with anything too serious.

The Blackhawks play their first of six preseason games tomorrow night in Detroit. We’ll get the gameday roster just ahead of morning skate at 10 am CT. We’ll keep you updated all day and through the final hour.