Chicago Blackhawks watching Jokiharju's ice time
So much for my idea to put Henri Jokiharju on the power play.
The Chicago Blackhawks did mix up their units at practice Tuesday before heading off on a three-game road trip, but Jokiharju - probably the team's most dangerous defenseman - still was not included.
Coach Joel Quenneville and assistant coach Kevin Dineen are opting to use Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook with Nick Schmaltz, Artem Anisimov and Patrick Kane on the top unit, and Erik Gustafsson with Alex DeBrincat, Jonathan Toews, Brandon Saad and Luke Johnson on the second.
So why the reluctance to go with the 19-year-old Jokiharju, who did get significant PP time in Games 4-7?
"He's still a young guy and we're watching his ice time," Quenneville said. "We feel one day he probably could be a regular on the power play.
"His play since he's been off the power play (has) been more consistent. It's a lot (to) ask of a young kid.
"What he's doing for our team has been really beneficial in a lot of ways. (In terms of) matchups or quality of ice time, he's doing an excellent job."
Fair enough.
But the Hawks absolutely must figure out a way to start scoring on the man advantage, where they rank 28th with a 12.2-percent success rate. Given that, it's a minor miracle Quenneville's squad is 6-3-3 and right on the heels of Nashville, Colorado and Winnipeg in the Central Division.
Dineen worked with the units for about 15 minutes Tuesday at MB Ice Arena. Despite talk of wanting to have a shot-first mentality, there were an awful lot of passes that got broken up and very few goals being scored.
According to naturalstattrick.com, the Hawks rank 27th with 1.35 shot attempts per minute of PP time. Winnipeg (2.08), Dallas (2.03) and San Jose (1.98) lead the league.
When I asked Schmaltz about this afterward, he said there needs to be more focus on getting pucks back after the initial shot.
"Then those seam plays open up and you get those second and third whacks because they're tired and they can't clear the puck," Schmaltz said. "But if you take one shot, don't get the rebound and they clear it right down, they get fresh guys on the ice.
"It's never going to work that way if you only get one look each time you enter the zone. Just make sure we're battling like it's 5-on-5 for those loose pucks."
Kane echoed those thoughts.
"Even if we're not scoring, let's try to get some momentum off it," he said. "Let's try to get some shots, try to recover some pucks, have some zone time. … The more emotion we have, the more we're playing loose and free, I think the better off it'll be."