At one end of the spectrum is the Blackhawks’ power play record, second worst in the National Hockey League. At the other end is the Hawks’ penalty-killing record, second best in the NHL.
“We take a lot of pride in being No. 2 overall in penalty killing,” said right wing Steve Sullivan, who is one of the most effective of the exterminators. “Our penalty killing has saved us a lot of games.
“Five guys outworking four–that’s how you score a power-play goal. Being No. 2 overall means that four guys have been outworking five.”
Sullivan also has been making waves on the scoreboard during the course of his penalty killing. He set a team record in Friday night’s 5-2 loss in Colorado that began an eight-game trip, beating goaltender Patrick Roy for a pair of short-handed goals within a span of 51 seconds.
That double-whammy gave Sullivan six short-handed goals for the season, tying him with the New York Rangers’ Theo Fleury for the league lead and putting him within four of the team record for a season set in 1988-89 by Dirk Graham en route to a career-high 33 goals.
“Ten out of 33 is pretty impressive,” said Sullivan. “It means he got almost one of every three goals short-handed.”
Sullivan went into Wednesday night’s game with the Oilers with 22 goals and 25 assists for a team-high 47 points. In addition to his six short-handed goals, he had four power-play goals, second only to Tony Amonte’s five.
Denis’ diagnosis: “Special teams are crucial,” said assistant coach Denis Savard, whose responsibilities include working with both the power play and penalty-killing units. “Our penalty killing has been tremendous, but for us to go anywhere we need to improve our power play, especially with the three guys injured.
“The problem I find with the power play is the chemistry. We have a plan every game, but when we get away from our plan it doesn’t work. We have skilled players and guys like to make the play, which is a lot more fun.
“I’ve always felt it’s more important to get guys in front of the net, and shoot the puck. Until we establish shots and have people in front of the net, we’re not going to be successful.
“In preparing the penalty killing I watch tapes. I’ll tell the guys: `This team wants to go low’ so we try to take away the low and give them shots on top. Teams watch our tapes and they see us trying to make the play and they see that we don’t consistently have that traffic in front of the net. The quarterback is the guy with the puck. If he dribbles with it two, three, four times it won’t work. He’s got to pass it and make their box [defense] work. That’s the way you get open. Move low . . . get on top . . . go to the seam. Then, boom. And you need someone in front for a screen and to get the rebound if there is one.”
Testing: General Manager Mike Smith and coach Alpo Suhonen have seen the results of the physical fitness tests the Hawks took last week but they’re not making them public. “The main thing it tells us is how we’ve been doing [in terms of conditioning] for the last five months–as a team and individually,” said Suhonen. “There is a big improvement for some of the players, but some haven’t improved as much as we expected.”
