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Caleb Jones stepping up in brother Seth's absence

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When Seth Jones was ruled out 3-4 weeks because of a right thumb injury, Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson said it was going to be a "committee" to replace his minutes.

But one player that's stepped up in Jones' absence, ironically, is his younger brother Caleb.

In his last seven games, Caleb Jones has six points — all assists — and is averaging 19:04 of ice time since being a healthy scratch. In his previous three games, Jones had zero points and was averaging only 16:59 of ice time. 

"I feel like I've been getting more confident every game," Jones said. "It's funny, the offense is coming right now, but I came into the year really focused on trying to buckle down in the D-zone and be a really good defender. And I think doing that, it's not spending as much time in my own zone, I'm getting more offensive opportunities. And right now it's working out."

Richardson promoted Caleb to quarterback the first power-play unit with Seth out, and he's handled those duties well even though things haven't clicked at the same rate as of late. The Blackhawks have just one power-play goal in their last eight opportunities, but their lone goal came off a Jonathan Toews redirect because of a Jones shot from the point.

"That's who I am," Jones said. "When I'm playing confident and I've got my game going, I'm a shooter first and see if I can find the lane pretty well up there and get it through for a forward to tip. So that's definitely a strong part of playing defenseman."

It's why Richardson didn't hesitate to put Caleb on the first power-play unit.

"He really gets pucks through quick," Richardson said. "He doesn’t have a 100-mph slapshot, he’s not that type of guy, but he finds sticks and that’s huge for us. It’s so hard to get pucks through nowadays, everybody’s just trying to block shots like we saw the Islanders the other night. That’s all they do is block shots. A guy like that who can move quick and shoot quick, that’s definitely helpful on the back end."

Seth has also been feeding his brother some tips on running the power play and sharing what he sees from a different vantage point.

"He told me on the breakouts and the power play to make sure I'm coming with a lot of speed to kind of push the PK forechecker back and give our guys on the drop pass a little more space," Caleb said. "He said I've been doing a good job and just to kind of keep sticking with it and playing well."

While he hasn't been perfect, it's hard to ask for much more out of Caleb Jones. He has taken on a significant amount of responsibility and is running with his opportunity.

"He’s such a good skater, I think that really helps," Richardson said. "It gets him out of, not out of trouble but gets him moving the puck and out of tight areas, if teams are trying to forecheck him. He’s done a great job and he’s added a lot on the offensive side."

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