When Blackhawks narrowly avoid blowing big leads, thank the goaltenders

When the Blackhawks hit the ice after the second-period intermission at the United Center on Sunday, they had a 4-1 lead over Toronto.

In the dressing room just moments before, Jonathan Toews and Co. talked about going all out in the first 5-10 minutes of the third period so that coach Mike Babcock's team couldn't dream of pulling off an epic comeback.

But that's not at all what happened as a near nightmare played out in front of another sold-out crowd.

Toronto took advantage of an Erik Gustafsson turnover, slicing the lead to 4-2 just 2½ minutes in. After that, the floodgates opened and the Leafs ended up bombarding Robin Lehner with a whopping 23 shots in the final 15.5 minutes.

The Hawks survived to post a 5-4 victory — thanks in large part to Brandon Saad's goal with 3:34 remaining — but Toews knows that teams with serious playoff aspirations don't play this way with 3-goal leads.

“We've got to find ways to get a little bit more confident when a team's going to come at us in the third period,” the captain said after scoring his third goal of the season and assisting on Saad's goal.

Toronto finished with 57 shots, marking the ninth time since Jeremy Colliton took over as coach that an opponent has finished with 45 or more. Three of those instances came in the last seven games alone.

The Hawks are actually 5-2-2 in those nine contests because — as you might guess — opponents were often trailing and pushing for offense.

But it's not a recipe for long-term success. And Colliton knows it.

“Ultimately you just want to squeeze the life out of the game,” Colliton said before catching himself and adding: “Actually what you want to do is continue to push, be aggressive, get in the forecheck, play in their end and then it's tough for them to create. We'd like to do more of that.”

Human walls

The Hawks are extremely fortunate that Lehner and Corey Crawford are in net.

Their incredible reflexes and experience in reading plays are keeping pucks from going in at ridiculous rates.

Imagine if Anton Forsberg, Cam Ward or Collin Delia were between the pipes. Nothing against those three, but it would be a bloodbath night in and night out.

Just consider these three examples from Sunday's second period:

• After Alex Nylander failed to corral the puck at center ice, Toronto's Auston Matthews created a pair of Grade-A chances right in front of Lehner. The second stop on a point-blank attempt by D-man Tyson Barrie was truly miraculous.

• Less than three minutes later, Erik Gustafsson was lucky a rebound didn't bounce right to a charging William Nylander, whom Gustafsson left unattended as he double-teamed Matthews along with Duncan Keith.

• With about four minutes left, Brent Seabrook was unable to change and watched helplessly as Alexander Kerfoot accepted a gorgeous 100-foot stretch pass. Inexplicably, Kerfoot attempted a low-percentage pass rather than take a breakaway shot on Lehner.

Once William Nylander scored early in the third, the Maple Leafs took advantage of poor defensive coverage and were awarded 3 power-play chances.

Only Lehner's spectacular play kept a gut-wrenching loss from transpiring for the Hawks.

Scheme or personnel?

Why do opponents continue to get so many shots on net? And high-quality ones at that?

Well, obviously this team isn't the one that won three titles in six seasons with players like Marian Hossa, Patrick Sharp, Bryan Bickell, Marcus Kruger, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Johnny Oduya and Michal Rozsival, along with Duncan Keith and Seabrook in their primes.

Instead, it's a team that is still getting used to adding eight to 10 new faces into the lineup. And it's one with four veterans in Keith, Seabrook, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane who are still getting used to Colliton's defensive system.

For proof, just consider Keith's comments on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast in October: “Probably one of the best things about Joel — for myself and for the teams we had — he allowed us to play the game and not overthink it,” Keith said. “Where I think sometimes the way it is now, it seems like every little situation is already played out for you — laid out for you (and) how to play it.

“When to me, in hockey you got to be able to read and react and think quickly and be natural out there. That's kind of what I appreciated about Joel the most.”

One thing Lehner and Crawford would appreciate is defensemen and forwards deflecting more shots with their sticks or absorbing them with their bodies.

It's a subject we broached when Arizona was in town late last year, pointing to the fact that the shot-blocking Coyotes were in the thick of the playoff hunt because of players like Niklas Hjalmarsson, Alex Goligoski and Jordan Oesterle.

The Hawks are averaging 14.4 blocks per game, a modest improvement from the 13.6 they blocked last season. The top five teams are the Islanders (18.4), Senators (16.9), Rangers (15.9), Capitals (15.6) and Blue Jackets (15.4).

Seven of the Hawks' next 11 games are against teams that rank in the top half of the league in shots per game, so it will be interesting to see how they fare during this stretch.

And interesting to see how they fare if and when they are trying to protect 2-, 3- and 4-goal leads.

“That's something that down the road here — if we want to be not only a playoff team but a contender — we have to thrive in those situations,” Toews said.

Regula signs:

The Blackhawks came to terms with defenseman Alec Regula on a three-year, entry-level deal ($897,500 cap hit). The 6-foot-4 Regula was acquired for Brendan Perlini in October and is a co-captain for the London Knights of the OHL.