Jeff Blashill trying to help Blackhawks navigate lack of practice time

PHILADELPHIA — During the Blackhawks' stretch of 21 games in 40 days between Christmas and the Olympics, coach Jeff Blashill tried to give his players as many breaks as possible, but the young roster still got worn down by the gantlet.

At that time, Blashill was already thinking ahead to a spring gantlet, as well. He mentioned on Dec. 27 that March would be an even "harder stretch" schedule-wise.

That has proven accurate. The Hawks are currently in the middle of a stretch of seven games in 11 days, which is part of a larger stretch of 12 games in 21 days.

Every off-day must be cherished when there are so few, which means the Hawks haven't gotten to practice (aside from brief morning skates) since March 16 — and have practiced only twice since the March 6 trade deadline.

Their next practice opportunity won't be until next Monday, March 30, at the earliest. And even that might not be the wisest idea, since it falls during a stretch of four games in four different time zones — moving one zone west each game — in a seven-day span.

"It’s a crazy amount of games, so you do the guys a disservice if you practice and they have zero energy," Blashill said last weekend. "And sometimes you do your team a disservice if you don’t practice at all. So it’s a balance. But right now, the balance has really shifted toward playing.

"We’re going to have to learn on video. And I’ll say this: Our team has done a pretty good job of learning on video. Usually when we show them stuff, they go out and apply it as good as any team I’ve been around."

Newly arrived rookie forwards Anton Frondell and Sacha Boisvert are most disadvantaged by the lack of practice time. They aren't getting much on-ice time to learn their teammates' tendencies and body language or rehearse the Hawks' systems.

Schaefer show

Islanders rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer, this year's runaway Calder Trophy winner-to-be, looked extremely good Tuesday against the Hawks, and they noticed.

Schaefer logged a career-high 31:59 of ice time (as in more than half of the 60-minute game) and recorded 17 shot attempts, including eight on goal. He has 22 goals and 30 assists in 72 games as an 18-year-old defenseman — an unbelievable stat line.

"He's a guy that finds ways to get pucks to the net a lot," Ryan Donato said Thursday. "And his engine is pretty crazy. It's nonstop, getting up and down the ice. With those type of guys, you just try to limit [them].

"It is fun to watch that guy play, I'll tell you that. Not fun when you're on the ice, but when you're watching him from afar."

Soderblom’s stat

Although Hawks goalie Arvid Soderblom has overall struggled this season (.883 save percentage in 22 appearances), he has also delivered some spectacular performances behind a leaky defense.

He has made 44 or more saves in each of his last two starts (against the Avalanche and Islanders) and now has four games with 44-plus saves this season.

Entering Thursday, only eight other NHL goalies had any games with 44-plus saves this season, and none had more than one.

"I've been getting used to it here over the years," Soderblom said Tuesday. "Even though you [face] a lot of shots and sometimes you might might be a little tired, then it's even more important to just stay in there and keep battling and just have the focus up all the way."