For the first few weeks of the season, there was a sense of impending doom whenever the Blackhawks had a man in the penalty box.
It was Pavlovian in its consistency — the Hawks commit an infraction and less than two minutes later an opponent would score a goal. No matter what the Hawks did, it seemed there wasn’t a solution to their woeful penalty kill, which was the worst ever through the first seven games of a season.
But a kill that bad is due for some statistical correction, and that has been happening for the Hawks over their last four games as they have killed their last 12 penalties.
Over the first several games, the Hawks said they had almost no confidence in their ability to kill penalties. But one kill breeds confidence, which breeds more kills and more confidence. Right now, the Hawks are in a good mental place when it comes to their kill units.
“Confidence is a huge thing,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “Mistakes are one (thing), but when you have a bunch go in the way we did, even if you feel like you’re already doing things right, sometimes pucks end up in your net.
“We’re working the right way and we’re definitely not taking it for granted knowing that we have a long way to do get our percentage where we want it to be, where it should be.”
That percentage is at 61.5 percent (24 of 39), which is still the worst in the league. The Flames, who are ranked 29th, have a kill rate of 73.1 percent.
So the Hawks still have a long way to go to make that number look respectable. But they managed to find a way to win games while their kill was finding its footing. During that time, the Hawks had multiple meetings and reviewed film to figure out what was going wrong, more than they normally would, according to center Marcus Kruger.
“It was something we didn’t want to go through but hopefully we can get through this, get better and have a strong finish. …” Kruger said. “When we’re not happy with how we play, we try to learn. Maybe if you’re on a roll you don’t want to mess it up in people’s heads, but we’ve been doing a little more video than we usually do.”
That has resulted in the Hawks applying smarter pressure against their opponents, winger Marian Hossa said. It has helped that Corey Crawford has been on fire. Crawford still has a pedestrian .667 save percentage shorthanded this season, but he has stopped every shot he has faced over the last three games shorthanded as the Hawks have been doing better at clearing the puck and preventing high-danger chances on the kill.
“It’s not just running around,” Hossa said. “When we can go, we go. Also we’re more in shooting lanes. We’re blocking more shots and we go with shorter (shifts). I think that’s the key.”
Whatever the Hawks are doing is working now, but it couldn’t get much worse than it had been.
Twitter @ChristopherHine
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