The Blackhawks depth is key to keeping their winning streak going

Going into this season for the Chicago Blackhawks, the one thing that was supposed to be different was that the team would have more help all around.

The additions of Roman Kantserov, Cole Smith, Patrick Kane, Jordan Greenway, and Bowen Byram were expected to boost production five-on-five and on special teams.

The Blackhawks might be only eight games in, but they are showing glimpses of how those additions are helping.

The one thing that was a work in progress for the Blackhawks last season was their depth. Their top line of Andre Burakovsky, Ryan Greene, and Connor Bedard was their most effective. However, there were struggles on offense throughout the rest of the lineup.

They have potential in other young players as well, such as Frank Nazar, Artyom Levshunov, Oliver Moore, and Anton Frondell. The organization hoped that with more time under their belts, production would follow.

Now the production is emerging.

The start of the Blackhawks season was tough for them. Their captain, Bedard, was out, and they went 1-5. But now the Blackhawks have won two straight games with Bedard back and Nazar's return from a two-game suspension.

They went from scoring 12 goals in six games, to scoring nine goals in their last two games.

The key word here is "depth."

Blackhawks depth is starting to come together

I spoke with Kane at practice on Oct. 16, and I asked him what he thought was an underrated aspect or something flying under the radar with the team: "I just think, obviously, we're a pretty young team. Pretty fast team. But I think coming into the year, I wouldn't have thought that we'd have like this much depth to be able to say we had like four good lines. So, I mean, you look at the lineup last night [against the Winnipeg Jets on Oct. 15]. It's a pretty good lineup to move forward with. So, I think that's probably the biggest thing right now is just the depth throughout the lineup has been surprising."

Against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Blackhawks had 10 different players record at least a point in their 5-3 win. In their 4-3 overtime win against the Jets, eight different players did the same.

When Blashill was asked on Oct. 16 about being encouraged by what the depth on his team has shown, he replied, "I think it's the really best way to be a good hockey team, and ultimately the teams that are so-called consistent are the teams that have the most depth because not every line is like humming at their best every night. So, for example, last night, Bedsy's [Bedard] line didn't create as much five-on-five as they did the night before, but Frankie's [Nazar] line stepped up, and they created a bunch five-on-five. And Anton's [Frondell] line stepped up the game before and created five-on-five.

"Nobody is ever at their best every single day. And so when you have depth, that I think we are starting to work towards once we got everybody healthy and off the suspension list, then I think we can be a dynamic team that way. You know, where you could have kind of four lines that all have identity and can create and [we've] done a way better job with creating opportunities over the last stretch of games. We just have to still work on making sure that we're not giving up as many opportunities."

Depth will be significant for the Blackhawks as they look to keep their winning streak going. Everyone has pitched in for those hard-fought wins.

Furthermore, the perfect storm is happening at the right time with Bedard and Nazar back in the lineup.

As Kane said about what he sees clicking with the offense, "We got a couple on the power play, which is nice. I think that's going to be huge going forward- to be good on the special teams. Power play and penalty kill probably can both be a lot better the rest of the year, so that's going to help. And then I think just production throughout the lineup is the biggest thing. I don't think anyone is really feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders to go and produce right now and score. It's just kind of flowing through the lineup, which is huge because I mean, that's how you win in this league. That's how our teams won in the past. We had so much depth, so much production throughout. I think that's kind of what I'm seeing right now with this team."

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow