Chicago Blackhawks: Special teams have to be good to win

The Chicago Blackhawks are a team that has been bad for a few years now. If they ever have two special teams units that are good, the team will improve.

When you look at the roster of the Chicago Blackhawks, you see a very top-heavy group. You see Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Brandon Saad, and memories of a group who has won multiple Stanley Cup Championships. If you asked a casual fan what they would think their special team’s numbers would look like, most might say that they think this team has a great power play.

They have those previously mentioned players along with some young talented stars like Alex DeBrincat, Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Strome, and Adam Boqvist. With all of those highly talented players there you would think that this power play is very good but for some odd reason, it is horrible. It was clicking at 15.2 percent before the season came to a pause which was good for 28th in the league out of 31.

If their power play was more in the middle of the pack or even top 10, they would certainly have had a much better chance at the playoffs. With players that can create offense the way Chicago’s can, it is astonishing that the power play is this bad. Kane can shoot and pass as good as any player in the NHL, Toews does everything well on the power play, Kubalik and DeBrincat are pure snipers, Saad is a great net-front presence, and Strome can make passes and be good around the net. With all of these different skillsets, the power play being this bad is unacceptable.

You can blame coaching and it would be a valid argument. With that said, the power play was never that good under Joel Quenneville‘s staff either. In 2009-10, they had the 16th best power play. In. 2013, they had the 16th best unit. In 2015, it was the 20th best. They won the Stanley Cup in all of those years despite having an average to a below-average power play.

It is honestly the most peculiar thing because they are a very good offensive team at even strength. They need to do something to get this thing going otherwise winning more games will continue to be difficult. The difference between this team having a bad power play and those championship teams having one is the fact that they were much better at every other area of hockey in the meantime.

They are, however, strong on the penalty kill. It is top-10 good as their 82.1 percentage was tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Calgary Flames for eighth in the NHL. You need a good penalty kill in order to be a good team and the Blackhawks had one. It is annoying that they wasted such a good penalty kill on a team that is not very good in any other part of the game.

Getting this bad power play going well is important so it can join the penalty kill to form an elite pair of special teams units. If they are able to do that at some point over the next year, you might see them make a climb in the standings. Their superstars only have a handful of years left in their prime so they need to get the most out of their special teams during that time.