Jonathan Toews is still looking for his first goal of the season. | Getty
The Hawks have eight goals in their last five games, and the power play hasn’t produced anything since Nov. 12.
The Blackhawks aren’t scoring a lot of goals and Jonathan Toews hasn’t found the back of the net.
That doesn’t mean the Hawks captain is the only reason for the team’s dry spell.
After Sunday’s 2-0 loss to the Sharks, the Hawks have scored eight goals in their last five games. The power play, which is converting 16.2% this season and entered Monday 22nd in the league, hasn’t been successful since Nov. 12 against Arizona.
“It’s just amazing, I think especially going through training camp and the beginning of the season, we were just so confident, so comfortable on the power play,” winger Patrick Kane said. “If you asked me where I thought we would finish, I would say top-five for sure.”
Toews, of course, hasn’t connected in a regular-season game since March 5, 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic and the entire 2021 season he missed due to health issues. That’s why Hawks interim coach Derek King isn’t exactly shocked by Toews needing time to get back into a groove after a season away.
“It’s not minor hockey, you know?” King said. “You can get away with it there but here, these players are good, these are good teams. They’re solid, they’re structured and they play well. When you miss a year of hockey and you’re coming back and you don’t score for a while, it starts to get to you.”
Even without scoring, King said Toews is working hard and doing things they ask him to. In the same answer, King made a prudent point.
“He’s our leader and he’s playing good hockey,” King said. “It’s just the pucks… even [Sunday], there are pucks around his feet or going off his stick and bouncing over here. It’s just not clicking right now, and it’s not just him. It’s a bunch of them. We just have to stay the course and fight through this.”
As the statistics show, Toews isn’t the only Hawks player looking for more goals.
Dominik Kubalik and Kirby Dach both have three goals in 21 games. Only Alex DeBrincat (12) has double-figures this season.
“I think looking back at the road trip, I thought we had some good chances 5-on-5, just didn’t find a way to put them in,” Kane said. “[Sunday], I thought we carried most of the play. They did a good job of clogging it up there. [The Sharks] have some defensemen who are really good at blocking shots and they did their job [Sunday]. But got to find a way to capitalize in that situation.”
Playing through teams like the Sharks is something the Hawks have to figure out. Or else more good performances could be wasted.
King feels like once a couple pucks go in, more will follow.
“For the most part, the floodgates will open for some of these guys,” King said. “And if our power play starts clicking again, then we’re going to be on top of these teams and we’re going to come out ahead.”
A clicking power play would certainly help. It went 0 for 2 Sunday and continued its struggles without forward Tyler Johnson, who’s still on long-term injured reserve.
“Hopefully we can get it going again and get that confidence like we had at the beginning of the season because it was fun to play like that,” Kane said. “You had possession, you had options and we were moving it around pretty well.”
NOTE: The Hawks recalled forward Josiah Slavin from AHL Rockford and assigned forward Philipp Kurashev to the IceHogs. Slavin, a 2018 seventh-round pick, has eight points in 15 Rockford games. Kurashev, meanwhile, has five assists in 19 Hawks games this season.
