When Jeremy Colliton took over as head coach of the Blackhawks, the very first thing he did on the ice was try to fix a power play unit that ranked near the bottom of the NHL.
It took some time for the production to come, but the power play eventually took off and it was one of the bright spots. They finished the season 15th with a 20.2 percent success rate. But that hasn’t been the case this season.
After going 0-for-5 combined against Detroit and Calgary, the Blackhawks slipped to 28th in power play percentage (15.1 percent). The penalty kill ranks ninth with an 82.0 percentage, which has been a substantial improvement after a historically bad 2018-19 season.
To help change up the look on the man advantage, the Blackhawks promoted Kirby Dach to the first unit on Tuesday against Calgary and spent a large portion of Wednesday's practice trying to get their two units on the same page, especially with Dach joining Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Adam Boqvist.
"Just another righty," Colliton said of moving Dach to the first group. "Another option. I think he's been really good. He's got an extra level of skill, some size, protects the puck really well. Power play, it's been better over the last month, month and a half, but we're still not where we want to be so there's no reason not to try a couple of different things."
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Dylan Strome was moved to the second unit against Calgary, but he’s sidelined with a right ankle injury and won’t play on Thursday. Alex Nylander took his spot on the second unit, joining Dominik Kubalik, John Quenneville, Erik Gustafsson and Duncan Keith.
NHL
The power play usually runs through Kane — and it should — but the Blackhawks must get a little more creative when opponents are taking away their options. There's too much standing around at times and not enough cycling.
Dach is known to be more a playmaker and should help with the puck movement aspect, but he also knows this is a good time to develop a shoot-first mentality.
"I like to hold onto the puck and make plays," Dach said. "At the same time, I need to be a little bit more of a shooting threat for Kaner. That's the whole point when he's got the puck on his hands, you've got to be ready to shoot because he doesn't really have to look at you to make the pass. It's been good. Got our reps in and just gotta find a way to start contributing."
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