3 X-Factors that will make the rest of the Blackhawks season exciting

Consistency on special teams

While the Blackhawks will be exciting to watch, thanks to their core and whether Arvid Soderblom can begin to step up, several key statistical categories will also be interesting to follow, one of which is special teams. 

As you may know, the Blackhawks have among the worst special teams units in hockey, with the power play converting just 12.27 percent of the time and the penalty kill operating at a 77.84 success rate. Both of these statistics are well under the league average, and through February 15th, they rank 32nd and 23rd in the NHL, respectively. 

While the Blackhawks have room to grow across the board, special teams are the one area that stands out more than any other. We will see if Connor Bedard can help create a spark on the power play, as eight of his points have come on the man advantage. Players like Kevin Korchinski and Philipp Kurashev are another pair of youngsters who have also enjoyed decent results on the man advantage. 

If the Blackhawks get more effective on special teams, especially the power play, then they may win a few more close ones by the time the regular season ends in mid-April. But they need to start finding consistency now and put forth two solid months on the man advantage.

(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference as of February 15th)