Artyom Levshunov out of Blackhawks' lineup while coaches work to reset 'foundational' skills
The Blackhawks adopted a new approach to developing rookie defenseman Artyom Levshunov after watching his disastrous performance Thursday against the Penguins.
On Friday, Levshunov began a miniature program to "reset some foundational things" in his game, working with coach Jeff Blashill, assistant coach Anders Sorensen (who oversees the defensemen) and skills coach Brian Keane.
The 20-year-old Belarusian was a healthy scratch Friday against the Blue Jackets — fellow rookie Sam Rinzel was called up from Rockford to take his place — and may or may not play in the Hawks' final two games before the Olympic break, which begins next Thursday.
"Rather than send him down [to Rockford] to play more games, I don't think that's really what he needs," Blashill said Friday. "He had a great session today, I think. He'll have another couple sessions here, and we'll go from there."
Levshunov has 21 points in 52 games this season while averaging a sizable 19:11 of ice time. Since Jan. 7, however, the Hawks have been outscored 16-3 and outshot 119-70 during his five-on-five ice time.
The Hawks identified three specific areas to address. One is his "puck play," which includes accurate passing, holding onto the puck while absorbing contact and making smart decisions about when to try to make a play and when to dump the puck in.
Blashill mentioned how "the puck should always be delivered in the right spot," possibly referencing Levshunov's inaccurate breakout pass to Andre Burakovsky on Sunday that should've been easy and instead led to a Panthers goal against the Hawks.
The second area is his defensive footwork and positioning. That's one weakness of Levshunov that has been obvious to anyone who has watched him this season. It hit rock bottom Thursday during a few inexplicably all-over-the-place shifts.
"He's an instinct player that's got to learn how to play with enough structure," Blashill said. "One of the things him and I talked about was attacking the game offensively, and that's probably teetered too far. Now he's giving up some things defensively. We've got to refocus it and make sure [he's] super sound defensively and learns how to produce that offense with that balance."
The third area is Levshunov's shooting technique, which the Hawks have already been working with him on for weeks now.
His arms and hands are extremely strong — Blashill said he's "almost like a freak athlete in terms of how strong he is" — but modern sports science can show him how to use that strength more efficiently.
This break should transition smoothly into the Olympic break, which will give every Hawk two weeks of refreshing vacation time before practices resume Feb. 18 and games resume Feb. 26. Levshunov previously said he planned to spend the break in south Florida, which is also where he spends his summers.
Those late-February practices could end up resembling a short training camp, but nobody is thinking too much about that right now. Mental and physical fatigue levels are running high around the league and especially within the Hawks' ultra-young roster.
"[This is] more than most of these guys have played in their lives, specifically with the intensity level," Blashill said. "There are some guys that could use a little bit of a reset."
The Hawks found some success earlier this season with unconventional 11-forward, seven-defensemen lineups, which allowed the coaches to shelter both Levshunov and Rinzel with relatively easy workloads despite keeping them in the lineup. That could be considered again later this season.
"It's all part of the trial by fire," Blashill added. "As I've said to all these guys, it's OK to make mistakes. We've just got to keep learning from them. Along the way, sometimes that makes for tough nights, but that's what we're here for as a coaching staff — to continue to help the growth process of these guys."