Blackhawks debut adjusted defensive system in first practice after Olympic break

Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill's hints of a system adjustment coming out of the Olympic break came to fruition Wednesday.

The Hawks spent the second half of their first of six official practices before the regular season resumes Feb. 26 working on an altered defensive-zone system.

Blashill took inspiration from his penalty-killing system, which has worked brilliantly. It torments opponents with its high-pressure approach and leads the NHL with an 85.7% kill rate. And that's with just four men on the ice, so why not do the same with five during even-strength play?

"I’ve said it lots of times: we have really good killers. But those same guys are on the ice five-on-five," Blashill said Wednesday. "If you can dictate where the puck’s going, you have a better chance of [dialing up] pressure. If you can’t dictate where the puck’s going, you can’t pressure it.

"On our penalty kill, we’ve done a good job of dictating and reading those pressure points. We’ve [also] done a good job on the penalty kill of knowing when to reset and protect the middle. Those two things are going to be important for us in the 'D'-zone [system], as well."

This season, the Hawks are using a hybrid defensive-zone system: zone defense down low, man-on-man defense elsewhere. The past couple years, they played entirely zone defense. That man-on-man element means, for example, their defensemen sometimes have to follow opposing forwards all the way up toward the blue line.

The biggest change Wednesday is that their strong-side wingers will now be more aggressive pressuring the puck along the boards.

Previously, the Hawks' strong-side defenseman would pressure the puck, and the winger would hang back and read off of the defenseman. Now, the strong-side winger will pressure the puck-carrier no matter what, and if the defenseman reads that the winger has him properly covered, he can drop back to guard or box out around the crease.

"[The winger] doesn't need to make a read anymore: 'Does this guy have space? Is my 'D'-man going downhill, or is he going to the inside?'" forward Jason Dickinson said. "[Those were] different reads he had to make in those situations. Now it's just pressure. You create the pressure; then everybody else will react off of that. That's the biggest change."

This adjustment will force Hawks' centers to make more reads and think harder when they come out of the corners, and it also necessitates more coverage handoffs that could momentarily leave opposing players open.

But it should generally reduce the workload placed upon the Hawks' defensive corps — an extremely young unit that sagged under that heavy weight in January.

"Our 'D'-men won't have to climb high as often," Dickinson added. "It'll still happen where we'll be like, 'Hey, you have to go with this guy.' But more often than not, they should be able to retreat back to the net because our winger will be striking that guy, and then our center will be able to come out from underneath."

The Hawks had their AHL affiliate in Rockford test out this altered system during back-to-back games last weekend, producing video clips for the Hawks to review and analyze this week. Blashill has tried to keep his and Rockford coach Jared Nightingale's systems in sync as much as possible.

Then the Hawks called up Sam Rinzel and Kevin Korchinski from Rockford, giving them seven healthy defensemen even with Wyatt Kaiser expected to miss time due to a lower-body injury suffered in the final game before the Olympic break.

Enigmatic rookie Artyom Levshunov's individual development program continues, and he skated as the seventh defenseman in practice Wednesday. But Blashill said the lineup for next Thursday at the Predators won't be determined for a while yet.

Notes

• The Hawks will have only 41 home games again next season — despite the regular season extending to 84 games — because they've been selected for an undisclosed NHL "special event." That suggests a Europe trip, which would be the Hawks' first since they visited Berlin and Prague in 2019.

For the 41 home games, season-ticket prices will rise by a modest average of 2%.

• Connor Bedard has resumed taking his own faceoffs, allowing Frank Nazar to move back to his own line. On Wednesday, Bedard centered Ryan Greene and Andre Burakovsky, and Nazar centered Oliver Moore and Tyler Bertuzzi.

• Kaiser and Teuvo Teravainen, who advanced to the Olympic semifinals with Finland, were the only players absent from practice.

• Prospect goalie Stan Berezhnoy, who has made 15 appearances for Rockford this season, has been suspended for 20 games by the AHL for testing positive for a prohibited substance (Rockford has 23 games left in their season). General manager Kyle Davidson said in a statement the Hawks were informed last week.

"While Stanislav did not knowingly take a prohibited substance, we believe his positive test is a result of a supplement he was consuming at the time," Davidson said. "Stanislav has taken full responsibility for the situation, and the organization praises him for the maturity and accountability he has shown."