Blackhawks focusing on “points of emphasis”, not full-scale changes, in effort to get back on track

After a 9-2 drubbing by the Carolina Hurricanes, the Chicago Blackhawks have three days of practice before facing the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, Nov. 12. The trouncing at the hands of the Hurricanes seemed like the catalyst that prompted some change in Chicago. It was an utterly embarrassing defeat and the ninth loss in the last 10 games. It felt like the organization was at a crossroads.

But from the look of practice on Monday (Nov. 9), alterations might be rather minimal. Really the only move so far is goaltender Arvid Soderblom being sent down to the Rockford IceHogs while Drew Commesso was recalled.

Per team sources, the Blackhawks are NOT considering any coaching or staff changes at this time. Neither head coach Jeff Blashill or general manager Kyle Davidson will be losing their jobs. Instead, coaching, hockey ops & management have been meeting to determine what internal adjustments need to be made moving forward.

So what exactly are these changes? Here’s what we’ve gleaned so far.

Improving the system, points of emphasis

Besides being a tad longer and very intense, practice didn’t seem much different than previous practices on Monday. But defenseman Ian Cole and forward Frank Nazar revealed afterwards that they went through a lot of video. So it appears the differences were more behind the scenes.  

Coach Blashill said they’re obviously trying to nail down areas of improvement, but full-scale changes would likely set them back even further. “You can look at full-scale changes, you can look at tweaks. I think mid-season, we certainly prefer tweaks to full-scale changes. And that's kind of what we're looking at right now.”

When asked to specify what some of those tweaks are, he emphasized giving up less chances. Just how do you give up less chances? Blashill gave this explanation of the system they want to continue.  

“We want to be a team that's on top of them (the opponent). We want it to be a pressure team. We want to be a team that uses their speed to pressure. Not dissimilar to Carolina (Hurricanes). That's where we'd like to get to eventually. And I think there's times we've done a really good job, but we actually scored both goals in Carolina because our D got down the walls. But, we've given up the most 2-on-1’s in the league by a lot, and you can't give up 2-on-1’s on a regular basis and win. So the decision making progress for our D-men of the situation is when to smell trouble and not go down walls, and not just go down walls because that's kind of what we want (them) to do. On strong side plays, on goalie touch plays, be way more cautious and aware of whether the F3 is there or not. And then just our F3 being super automatic of coming back up the middle of the ice. A lot of times there's a tendency to kind of veer towards the wall, and that kind of combination of the D going and the F3 going, that's when you end up giving up those 2-on-1’s. So those are kind of the areas that we've focused on."

Blashill actually commended the Hurricanes and head coach Rod Brind’Amour for sticking with this high pressure system before the Blackhawks played them on Oct. 10. “Actually, this group's (the Hurricanes) an unreal example about not yielding to the pressure and staying with what you believe in. That's the one biggest compliment I'd give to Rod and his staff is over the course of the year, prior years, when everybody was saying they couldn't win with their system, they couldn't, they had to make an adjustment. Blah blah blah. He stuck with exactly what he believed in, and because of that, they ended up winning. And I'm a big believer that you stay with what you believe in.”

The only problem is this team is NOT the Carolina Hurricanes. The Blackhawks are much younger and way less experienced. However, it seems to be a theme with Blashill that he’s coaching with an eye on the future more so than the present. He also claims he’s talked to the players and they also have full belief in this system as well.

Is instilling this all now going to make the Blackhawks, individually and as a team, better in the long run? That’s the ultimate question.

Cole on micro versus macro, individual versus collective

For some more insight, I turned to veteran defenseman Ian Cole. After all, he’s been in the league for 17 years. He’s seen a lot of situations with previous teams that might give him a better understanding of how the Blackhawks can get out of their current slump. When I implied he must’ve been in this kind of situation before, he raised his eyebrows and snickered a bit, as if to say, ‘Not really this bad of a situation.’ But he did say he could draw on some previous circumstances.  

“I've never really quite been in this situation. But the only way out is to be better, to give up less, play tighter, play stronger. Really dialing in exactly what we think is going to make us successful, and continuing to get better at all those things. And obviously, like I said, there are ebbs and flows. This downturn here, this trough that we're in has been pretty deep and pretty wide. That's just the reality of it. It's obviously very unfortunate. It's not what anyone expected or wanted as we started this season. But the reality is we are here right now, and the only way out of this is with the guys in this room and making sure that we take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror and be better individually, so we can get better as a collective.”

The veteran D-man has preached consistency throughout the season. That’s kind of been his mantra. I asked him how the team could be more consistent.

“I think focusing on the micro as opposed to the macro. Not letting our scope be too big in the sense of like, wow, this is our record. How are we ever going to climb out of here? I think that can be a bit daunting. I think focusing on winning the next game is a better frame, and I think focusing on how can each individual person, how can you bring your best to help the group? … Because each individual player, based on their skill set or how they see the game, is going to approach all those situations differently, and the situations change millisecond by millisecond out there. Whatever your goal is at any given moment in time, each person is going to try to solve those problems differently.”

However, once each person figures it out individually, they have to work together as a group to get the job done. Continued Cole,  

"The reads need to be crisp and clean. And the second part to the reads being crisp and clean needs to be the execution of those reads, right? So it's about reading the play, coming to the correct read, and it's about executing on that read, but one person needs to make a read, but the other four guys on the ice need to be able to read the play the same way, so that they know what they're doing when I'm doing this. Like if I'm doing this, we need to. This guy needs to go here, and this guy needs to do this, right? So there, there are like little triggers all over the ice, and I think that's part of a long video today, two videos today on the ice. Like we need to work through all those reads."

The way Cole describes it, experience is definitely a factor here. The more these guys do it over and over again, the more the muscle memory will kick in. Which again leads back to staying the course, continuing to grind away at the solution of being better; of figuring out ways to win games.

If it’s any consolation, Cole thought there was a bit of a lag effect. Meaning he feels the Blackhawks have been making progress in the right direction, but sometimes it just doesn’t show right away. And there are ebbs and flows. The Blackhawks aren’t going to just magically play their best game ever and then it’s “sunshine and rainbows” the rest of the season. In other words, lots of hard work is necessary.

Nazar on moving forward

Nazar reiterated something similar when I asked him what his mindset was moving forward, despite the hole they’re currently in.

“Well, I mean that's professional sports, right? You got to figure that out. Show up the next day like nothing happened. But, with that memory of we got to do better and we got to do something. I think coming together as a team and just playing great defense is the biggest aspect. That was a huge thing we talked about today. Is just, we can't give up as much. And just gotta keep coming in each day with that mindset, that blue collar mindset of, we gotta get going, work hard, be a little gritty, and get better.”

Like it or not, the Blackhawks are pushing through. They’re sticking with their high pressure defensive system, the coaching staff, and the player personnel, just trying to work out the kinks.

All that said, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a trade or two before GM Davidson speaks to the media on Wednesday at 1 p.m. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t. The more it seems like everything is in a state of flux, the more things somehow stay relatively the same. Does the fanbase have the patience to see this through? And will the wins ever come?!  

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