Blackhawks defensemen getting more involved offensively late in turbulent season

There are a lot of reasons why the Blackhawks have struggled to score goals throughout most of this season, but one major and perhaps overlooked reason is that their defensemen have contributed virtually nothing.

Seth Jones and Kevin Korchinski share the team lead among defensemen at just three goals apiece, which puts them in a tie for 99th league-wide. Alex Vlasic, Connor Murphy and Nikita Zaitsev have each chipped in two goals. Jarred Tinordi, Jaycob Megna, Isaak Phillips, Louis Crevier, Wyatt Kaiser and Filip Roos have not hit the net all season.

That adds up to a grand total of 12 goals from the Hawks' entire defensive corps through 65 games. Seven defensemen around the NHL have singlehandedly exceeded that number — a group led by Avalanche blueliner Cale Makar with 17 goals.

Many things have contributed to that dire situation. The fact 11 defensemen have all logged games — and none of them have played in all 65 — is one big factor; injuries have created all sorts of turbulence simply within the lineup. The fact six of those defensemen are de facto rookies without much NHL experience is another big factor.

And the fact that Seth Jones has been both inaccurate and unlucky is a third big factor. He has attempted the second-most shots on the entire roster (behind only Connor Bedard), but only 45.0% of those attempts have made it on-goal (his lowest rate since 2015-16) and — of those shots on goal — only 2.3% have gone in (also his lowest rate since 2015-16).

With only 17 games left in the season, the most encouraging way to view this situation is through the lens that the Hawks' defense should look significantly different next season.

The placeholder veterans — Zaitsev, Tinordi and Megna — are all pending free agents. Korchinski, whose lack of production this season — as a 19-year-old thrown into the fire — has been disappointing but not too surprising, will have a valuable additional year of experience. So will Kaiser, another guy with offensive upside, after spending the second half of this year developing in Rockford.

Digging deeper, though, reveals some encouraging signs even with the present situation. Over the past few weeks, Hawks defensemen have been finally getting more involved offensively.

Hawks defensemen have collectively averaged 18.7 shot attempts per game since Feb. 16, the most from any 11-game stretch this season. They've reached the 20-attempt threshold in three of the last four games, and their 25 attempts in Sunday’s win over the Coyotes were their most since Jan. 16.

Coach Luke Richardson said that has been part of the game plan "for a while," since the Hawks have been emphasizing more low-to-high puck movement within the offensive zone.

"If we can, we’d love to get it to the net [down low]," Richardson said. "There was one time [Bedard] drove the net out of the corner in the first period [Sunday] and almost tucked one in. But if it’s not there, a lot of teams collapse. If you can go low-to-high, we’re trying to promote the 'D' — if they’re on their forehand — to shoot right away before people get in their [shooting] lanes. In the second period, we had a couple really nice shot-tips that the goalie had to make a save on from the slot.

"That’s going to just benefit us even more. Because if we can spread [the defending team] out even more, maybe our three forwards down low can pick them apart a little bit, as well."

That tactical adjustment hasn't yet led to more actual production by defensemen; Jones is the only Hawks blueliner to score within the last 11 games, and one of his two goals was an empty-netter. But it wouldn't be shocking if that dam broke soon.