The Blackhawks worked on forechecking during practice Tuesday.
But the usual sounds at Fifth Third Arena — skates scraping ice, pucks banging glass, sticks knocking each other — were drowned out for much of practice by a fuming, screaming Marc Crawford.
The Hawks’ veteran assistant coach, who was known for (and sometimes criticized for) his fiery temper at previous stops but who has worked to calm himself since coming to Chicago, unleashed several profanity-laden tirades when the Hawks continued to make the same mistakes in drills that they had during Monday’s excruciatingly lifeless loss to the Canucks.
“We need a wake-up call here,” interim head coach Derek King said afterwards, speaking on behalf of the coaching staff. “It was good. [It added] a little emotion, a little excitement. It was making them feel a little uncomfortable, which they needed.”
King admitted he and Crawford when necessary adopt a good-cop, bad-cop approach, logical given their stark contrast on the intense-to-laidback spectrum. So King, clad in his daily toque, watched quietly Tuesday as Crawford passionately orchestrated the drills and jack-of-all-trades assistant Chris Kunitz manned the whiteboard.
Dylan Strome and MacKenzie Entwistle, the two players who spoke after practice, both echoed Crawford’s frustration.
“That wasn’t a great effort last night,” Strome said. “[We have] to be more desperate than that, especially now. ... [Crawford] does a good job of showing his emotion. He has been around for a long time, and he knows when to do it and when not to do it. Clearly he felt like we needed it, and we’ll respond tomorrow.”
“It’s great when coaches and players are showing emotion,” Entwistle said. “That means people care. They want to get everyone giving their 100%.”
The 16-22-7 Hawks, losers of six of their last seven games and 12 of 17 since mid-December, will host the Wild on Wednesday before beginning the All-Star break. And although the list of issues contributing to their on-ice struggles has become quite long, the forecheck is the latest focus of their ire.
When forechecking, the first forward to enter the offensive zone and pursue the dumped-in puck is called the “F1,” the second to do so is the “F2” and the last is the “F3.” The Hawks are particularly concerned about the ineffectiveness of their F2s.
“F1 has to drive the engine, F2 has to read off F1, and a lot of times, we weren’t [doing that],” King explained. “We were getting lost. F2 was just going somewhere for no reason. You can’t do that, especially against really good teams. One pass beats us all, and then F3, he’s in la-la land. It’s not good.
“So that’s what we wanted to work on today. [But] the guys weren’t getting it right away. As a coach, sometimes you get a little ticked off and you show it.”
Instead, King wants the Hawks’ F2 to analyze F1’s situation as he pursues the opponent’s first defenseman back, then determine whether he should “hunt down” the other defenseman or anticipate where the first defenseman might try to exit or clear the zone.
“Then the F3 comes in a little late, and he’s a support for all that,” King added. “And if we do win the battle, then all of a sudden, F3 joins in and you’ve got your ‘O’-zone [possession].”
That wasn’t happening much Monday, and it hasn’t happened enough all season. The Hawks rank last in the NHL in forecheck (and cycle) scoring chances during five-on-five play, per Corey Sznajder’s tracked data, and only three Hawks forwards (Ryan Carpenter, Brandon Hagel and Philipp Kurashev) sit above league average in both forecheck pressures and recovered dump-ins.
It is yet another area that drastically needs help. It’s just unclear whether Crawford’s fury, justified as it may have been, will actually make a difference.
