Taylor Hall helping Blackhawks enter offensive zone, but he's still waiting for more production
Blackhawks forward Taylor Hall aimed ambitiously for 30 goals this season. Right now, he's on pace for just 10.
Unlike some of his offensively struggling Hawks teammates, however, there are several reasons to be encouraged by Hall's play and optimistic that a scoring surge will come. Despite tallying just two goals and four assists in 16 games so far, he believes that, too.
"You can't abandon everything you're doing just because the production hasn't been there," Hall said Wednesday. "After 30 or 40 games, if you're still on a bad pace, then you look to change something. But I feel like I'm doing some decent things."
He has carried the puck effectively across both blue lines throughout the first month of the season, helping maintain possession into the offensive zone. His deceptive speed and low center of gravity make a big difference in that aspect.
Hall leads the Hawks with 28.8 offensive-zone entries per 60 minutes, exceeding second-place Ryan Donato (24.0) and third-place Lukas Reichel (23.1), per All Three Zones. And 54.0% of Hall's entries have been carry-ins rather than dump-ins, a percentage nowhere close to Connor Bedard (81.3%) but still above the league average of 50.5%.
"The part of my game that comes really easy is puck transportation: getting it out of my zone and skating it into the other team's zone," Hall said. "I have seen those stats, and it's good. That really speaks to how well I'm skating and how I feel with my knee."
Added coach Luke Richardson: "He's strong on the puck. There are times where you think he might get squeezed off or checked, and he somehow drags everything in with him. ... That's helpful because [zone entries are] an area we want to make sure we really clean up [as a team]. We've had a couple turnovers that have been costly."
Once inside the zone, Hall hasn't dominated, but he hasn't been bad, either. He's shooting the puck frequently: His 17.4 shot attempts per 60 minutes represent his highest rate since 2018-19 and rank second on the team. He's just behind Donato and just ahead of Craig Smith and Bedard in that category.
He is due for some better luck, since his 5.6% shooting percentage is barely half his career average of 10.1%; that should regress to the mean.
He has also been deprived by the NHL's official scorers of several extra assists that he probably deserved, including one on Philipp Kurashev's overtime winner Sunday when he forced a critical Wild turnover.
But as Hall suspects, it would behoove him to get his shots off from more dangerous areas. He's all the way down at sixth on the team in terms of expected goals per 60 minutes.
Something that could help is the reinstatement of Nick Foligno as the second-line center between Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi beginning Thursday against the Kraken.
Richardson promised to "look at the numbers" when arranging the Hawks' lines for their two-game road trip this week, and he evidently did. He put Teuvo Teravainen back on the top line alongside Bedard and Kurashev and slid Lukas Reichel back between Craig Smith and Pat Maroon on the fourth line, uniting two trios with favorable stats together this season.
The same can be said about Foligno, Hall and Bertuzzi. In 50 minutes together, the three of them have posted an even 3-3 goal differential while generating 62.3% of the expected goals. In Hall and Bertuzzi's 111 minutes without Foligno, conversely, they also have an even goal differential (4-4) but have generated only 44.0% of the expected goals.
"Nick makes a line jell...and we need that," Hall said. "When Nick was on our line, we had a ton more zone time and a couple greasy goals around the net."