The Chicago Blackhawks power play unit has been one of the worst in the league all season long
Presented by Nationwide Insurance Agent Jeff Vukovich
DETROIT — The Chicago Blackhawks have not been able to gain any sort of traction on the power play, which has been one of the worst units in the league all season long.
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That remained the case on Thursday after the Blackhawks lost to the Detroit Red Wings 5-1 at Little Caesars Arena. And Tyler Johnson seems fed up with it.
"I thought it was pretty sh---y," Johnson said bluntly when asked what his assessment of the game was. "It starts with the PP. We can't be playing like that. It's a privilege to be out there and we're just not doing anything right now. It's pretty embarrassing, and it turns the tide of the game. I mean, you see their PP, they score goals and it's a big difference."
The Blackhawks went 1-for-3 on the power play against Detroit, but they allowed a shorthanded goal just 19 seconds into their first one of the game in the opening frame. It's the fourth time this season the Blackhawks have given up a shorty, which is tied for the most in the NHL. Only Carolina (five) has allowed more.
"It's a little lackadaisical," Johnson said. "When you're on the PP, you have to be moving, you have to have some speed, you have to be making those decisions quickly. It's not holding onto the puck and trying to do something just by yourself. You have an extra guy, you have to use that to your advantage and we're not doing that.
Chicago Blackhawks
"And then also, yeah you want to score goals but you've got to take care of your own net, you've got to be smart with the puck, smart with where you're at, and sometimes you have to give something up in order for them to not get something. You have to be back, you have to kind of not dive for that extra puck, and right now we're just taking too many chances for whatever reason and almost trying to force things."
Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson has seemingly tried everything to this point. He recently swapped out Seth Jones for Kevin Korchinski as the quarterback on the first unit. He's experimented with three or four different players in the net-front role (Ryan Donato, Nick Foligno, Tyler Johnson and Corey Perry). Same with the bumper position, which is currently occupied by Lukas Reichel.
At some point, it just comes down to execution.
"I think maybe there’s a little bit of tentativeness there and the other teams probably smell that out and they take that to us," Richardson said. "But you know what, the only way we’re going to do it is to work a little harder and move the puck quicker. I think sometimes we just hold the puck and look for the perfect play.
"You watch other nights when teams do it right, they move it quick and shoot the puck and they recover rebounds instead of chasing things down the ice and bad things happen. We can’t work on it really anymore, but I think we've got to work on it smarter. Even the last few days in practice, I think we’ve been moving the puck quicker. It has to translate into the game, though."
After the power play in the second period, Connor Bedard expressed his frustration by smashing his stick along the boards on his way to the bench. That's reflective of how everyone feels about the power-play woes.
The Blackhawks might just have to simplify things, to the bare bones. Their power-play differential of +3 is tied for dead-last in the NHL (seven goals for and four goals against).
"We all want to be better and we all want it to be perfect," Johnson said. "We're all competitive and we're all trying, it's just at times we need to relax and actually just kind of come together. That's only the way you get through stuff like that. It's not one person, it's all five guys on the ice. We all have to be working together."
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