Shot charts are more prominent in basketball, but if they were taken during Blackhawks games, they would illustrate even more vividly the frustrations coach Denis Savard expressed after Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Hawks are too content to stay on the perimeter of the offensive zone, Savard said.
“You can’t play on the perimeter in this league and win,” he said. “You have to play in the tough areas.”
Savard’s lament is similar to that of former coach Trent Yawney the last two seasons.
What makes the situation even more frustrating is that the “tough areas” are not nearly as tough as they were when Savard and Yawney played.
Before the lockout, when greater emphasis was placed on offense, players paid a price for standing in front of the net or for taking the puck to the net.
Cross-checks to the lower back and crafty stickwork by goalies, not to mention the nightly rodeos in which offensive players were all but flipped over and had their skates tied together, were common.
But last season and again this season, the low slot is a much friendlier place for offensive players. A defensive player can no longer take one arm off his stick and grab an offensive player, or work him over with his stick.
So there should be no fear to do what Columbus’ Sergei Fedorov did on his power-play goal Sunday–get a step on a defender and go right to the front of the net for a tip-in. Once an offensive player gets a step on the defenseman, that defenseman can do little without risking a penalty.
According to play-by-play transcripts available on NHL.com, the Hawks had just three shots among their 22 for the game that came from inside 20 feet. One of them, from 16 feet by Martin Lapointe, resulted in the lone Hawks goal.
Shots from a distance are not necessarily a bad thing, and at times are encouraged, as long as there is traffic in front of the goaltender. But without traffic, NHL goaltenders who can clearly see shots from 50 to 60 feet will have easy nights.
“Once we shot it, we had nobody in front,” said Lapointe, who was in front of Columbus goaltender Fredrik Norrena and tipped Jim Vandermeer’s shot. “It’s tough to win like that.”
Other than Martin Havlat, who is going through his own struggles right now, the Hawks have few players who can maneuver their way around defenders and goaltenders and score highlight-reel goals. Therefore, much of the Hawks’ offense needs to come from brute force: creating traffic in the slot and pouncing on rebounds.
“We have to crash and bang and get people in front willing to pay the price,” Lapointe said. “We don’t have enough people doing that now.”
One-timers
Havlat, without a goal in his last five games, is not the only Hawk struggling on offense. Rene Bourque doesn’t have a point in the nine games he has been back from his throat injury. Since scoring goals in three straight games and four in five games, Tuomo Ruutu has gone six games with no goals and just one assist. Radim Vrbata has one goal in his last nine games. Jeff Hamilton has no points in his last four games. And Patrick Sharp has one goal in his last 20 games. . . .
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The power play slipped to 11.6 percent, nearly two full points below Phoenix, which is second to last in the league at 13.4 percent. Making the power play even more critical is the fact that at even strength, the Hawks are just plus-1, scoring 62 goals and allowing 61. Detroit, at 15.2 percent, has the lowest-ranked power play among teams that would qualify for the playoffs. But at even strength, the Red Wings are plus-33, scoring 76 goals and allowing just 43.
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