Blackhawks Trends: Good early returns on Donato, avoidable penalties must stop

A lot has happened since last Monday. The Chicago Blackhawks earned seven out of a possible eight points, going 3-0-1, with their only loss coming in a shootout. They had a blowout win of a hated rival on national television that showed the rest of the hockey world that this is a different team from years past. The 2025-26 Blackhawks are resilient bunch. Young, fast, confident and dangerous.

The Week That Was

Monday: 3-1 vs Utah Mammoth (Mikheyev x2, Burakovsky)
Wednesday: 8-2 @ St. Louis Blues (Mikheyev, Reichel x2, Nazar, Dickinson, Donato, Bertuzzi, Greene)
Friday: 2-3 (SO) vs Vancouver Canucks (Donato, Bertuzzi)
Sunday: 2-1 (OT) vs Anaheim Ducks (Nazar, Donato)

The Week Ahead

Thursday: @ Tampa Bay Lightning (5:45)
Sunday: vs Los Angeles Kings (6:00)

Trending Up: Ryan Donato, Spencer Knight, Faceoffs

• A week ago, there were those that worried that Ryan Donato’s extension was already a bad idea. Of course, we live in a knee-jerk overreaction world, so those takes should not have surprised anyone after three games. A week later all of those irrational fears have been put to rest. Donato had a point in all four games last week and has scored in three in a row. He capped off his week with the overtime goal against the Ducks. Despite being “demoted” in the lineup, he’s been fantastic. He’s currently second on the team in individual scoring chances (15), individual high-danger scoring chances (8), and shots on goal (17). Keep doubting Donato, he will only prove you wrong.

• Spencer Knight has taken his game to a whole new level to start the season. So far, there are no worries about him performing as a full-time starter for the first time in his career. He’s been a rock between the pipes. It has to be reassuring to a young defensive corps to know that Knight is behind them to bail them out after a mistake. Not worrying about being perfect takes a ton of pressure of an inexperienced blueliner. At 5-on-5, Knight is second in the NHL in saves (104), eighth in save percentage (.954), third in expected goals against (9.9), and second in goals saved above average (4.74). If analytics don’t do it for you, he’s passing the eye test too. He’s calm in the crease with very little wasted movement, tracking the puck well, and giving up very few rebounds.

• Winning faceoffs has been a big problem for the Blackhawks over the past couple of seasons. The last time they finished above 50% was the 2022-23 season when they were sixth in the NHL at 52.7%. They had Jonathan Toews and Max Domi leading the way most of that year. Since then, they were 30th in 2023-24 (46.3%) and 31st in 2024-25 (44.8). Their overall performance at the faceoff dot is on the uptick. They are currently 22nd in the NHL at 47.8% after a slow start. The Blackhawks have won the faceoff battle in each of the last three games, winning 56.6% of the draws in that span.

Trending Down – Colton Dach, Kelly Sutherland, Avoidable Penalties

• I’d like to start this section by prefacing how difficult it was to come with three downward trends this week. That is an encouraging sign! Colton Dach is necessarily playing bad, he’s not at the level we saw to start the season. His week started with the secondary assist on Andre Burakovsky’s game-winning goal against Utah. But, the following game, he was moved off the top line. He played a season-low 8:41 against the Canucks, and 11:49 against the Ducks. Head coach Jeff Blashill noted that it is difficult for a young player to maintain the level of play it takes to be a top-line player in the NHL. He’s still finding ways to impact the game beyond scoring points. He leads the team with 33 hits with nobody else having more than 10.

• Referee Kelly Sutherland is not a fan favorite in Chicago. Usually officials only get noticed when they make bad calls against a team. The Blackhawks lead the NHL with 96 penalty minutes with 25 of them coming in the two games Sutherland as officiated. He was particularly noticeable at the end of the Canucks game when he disallowed Tyler Bertuzzi’s goal and then called Connor Bedard for holding in the final minutes of regulation. I am never one to say a referee has it out for a team, but he definitely changed the outcome of that game with his calls.

• Speaking of penalties, the Blackhawks continue to put themselves shorthanded with avoidable penalties. Of the 17 minor penatlies they took last week, 13 were of the unavoidable kind. What do I mean by that? The type of penalties you commit by either being too aggressive, being out of position, or stopping your feet. Slashing, tripping, holding, hooking. The exact type of penalty Blashill says his team has to cut down on. The rise in these penalties is because of the way Blashill wants the team to play. He preaches that his players are hard on the puck. There is a fine line between being hard on the puck and committing a stick penalty, and this young group is still figuring out how to toe it.  At least they are drawing more penalties than they did last season. They drew 242 penalties last year, the fourth fewest in the NHL. They are on pace to draw 340 penalties this season, with 29 drawn through seven games.