The one constant through the year, Ray, has been the penalty kill. The Blackhawks have won games like an army of steamrollers. The have constantly had problems with their power play, their goaltending and their defense. Each facet of their game has been rebuilt, erased and rebuilt again. But the penalty kill has marked the time. This ability to stymie opponents and score down a man is part of the Blackhawks’ present, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.
- Terrence Mannakov
A little over two months ago I wrote a post about the successful penalty kill of the Blackhawks. It has been one of the consistently good areas of play from this team all seaosn. If some other facet of their game is on the fritz, the boys have always had the penalty kill to hang their jock straps on. On January 28th (when I wrote the first post), they were fourth in the league at keeping opponents scoreless with the man-advantage at 85.6-percent. Today, the Blackhawks are fifth in the league at 84.8-percent – they haven’t allowed a goal in four-on-five situations in their last five games.
One of the most overused hockey clichés is that the goalie a team’s best penalty killer. Yea, they do have a heightened level of importance in shorthanded situations, but if the defense is anemic, a goalie has no chance of success on kill. In the case of the Blackhawks, the skaters are a big reason their penalty kill is fifth in the league. At the time this post was written - compared to their peers around the league with ten or more games played - Cristobal Huet had a goals-against average of 4.58 (eighth) while shorthanded and Antti Niemi with a goals-against average of 5.37 (twenty-second). Those numbers don’t support the cliché for the 2009-10 version of the Blackhawks.
When I think about the penalty kill, my mind automatically goes to the team’s defense. Coach Quenneville has the luxury of a roster full of capable defensemen and two-way forwards that are affective in their own zone and the back-check. On the blue line, Quenneville has consistently relied on a core of guys that haven’t been afraid to put their bodies on the line and block shots. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook get all the press, but you cant overlook the contributions of Brent Sopel and Niklas Hjalmarsson on the kill. When it comes to blocked shots, Sopel leads the team with 5.6 per sixty minutes and Hjalmarsson is third with 4.6 (trailing Seabrook by 0.1). The Swede also brings a calm, smart defensive style that thrives in four-on-five situations.
I alluded to Quenneville’s use of two-way forwards on the kill earlier, and Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp are staples on the penalty-killing unit because of their offensive ability. They are effective at clearing their zone of the puck and taking the action to the other end of the ice. As it stands today, the Blackhawks lead the league in shorthanded goals with eleven (Maria Hossa 5, Patrick Sharp 2, Kris Versteeg 2, Duncan Keith 1 and Troy Brouwer 1). Although Toews hasn’t scored on the kill, he has three shorthanded assists this season, and the captain’s value doesn’t always show up on the scoresheet. For example, when the Coyotes visited the UC a few weeks ago, Toews skated the puck into the defensive zone alone, and drew a cross-checking penalty from Lee Stempniak while the other ‘Hawks were executing a line change.
The fact that the Blackhawks don’t spend much time in the box helps as well. Currently, they have the second fewest shorthanded situations in the league with 250, and have played total of three games this season where they didn’t have to field the penalty kill. Fewer instances of four-on-five hockey is obviously key, and it means that the defense feels less stress and won’t break as easily if they weren’t so effective at staying out of the penalty box. With the way this team’s defense and goaltending has fared this season, that’s a good thing.
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