Blackhawks trying to get back to basics

If anyone has a right to be mad about how the Blackhawks have played at times this season, it's veteran forward Tyler Johnson.

After all, since turning pro, Johnson has known nothing but winning before arriving in Chicago 2.5 years ago. He won a Calder Cup in the AHL, played in five conference finals in the NHL and lifted the Stanley Cup Trophy twice with Tampa Bay – in 2020 and 2021.

If we cheat a bit and include Johnson's AHL numbers, he's appeared in more playoff games than Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Brent Seabrook.

It hasn't always been easy, though.

Johnson struggled during the 2020-21 season, scoring just 8 goals and ending up on waivers twice for salary-cap reasons. But coach Jon Cooper stuck with his veteran, and in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, Johnson scored 2 goals in a 6-3 victory over Montreal to give the Lightning a 3-0 series lead.

“There’s a reason Tyler Johnson’s trophy case is fairly full, and it’s because he’s an ultimate team player,” Cooper said afterward. “We never lost faith in Tyler Johnson and he never lost faith in himself.

“Roles change, you have to adapt and nobody has done it better than Tyler.”

Three weeks after that championship, Johnson was traded to the Blackhawks as part of the Brent Seabrook deal. All the losing he's dealt with in Chicago is a foreign feeling, so it wasn't exactly a shock to hear him say he was “pissed off” after a 7-1 loss at Seattle last week. “It's just unacceptable for this to continue to happen. So we have to figure something out.”

Doing so will be easier said than done. The Hawks, who prevailed 3-2 over visiting Colorado on Tuesday thanks to Johnson's game-winner at 8:19 of the third period, are missing stalwart defensemen Seth Jones, Alex Vlasic and Kevin Korchinski as well as speed demon forward Andreas Athanasiou. Depth forward Joey Anderson and veteran D-man Jarred Tinordi are on injured reserve. Taylor Hall (knee) and Corey Perry (released) are done for the year.

And goalie Arvid Soderblom (1-9-1, .854 save percentage, 4.46 goals against average last 12) is going through some growing pains in his first full season.

“It's different,” Johnson said when asked what he's thought of this season overall. “I've never really liked to look at results and try to base how you play because of that. It's more, are you doing the right things? …

“In Seattle that was just a meltdown on multiple levels of just not playing the right way, not being in our structure and that's what happens when you play good teams.”

Look, while it's tough for players to admit, the Hawks just don't match up talent-wise with most of the rest of the league. They are using four defensemen with under 35 games of experience, their goalies are underwhelming and there's no top-end talent other than Connor Bedard. Lukas Reichel is supposed to be one of those guys, but he simply can not get into a rhythm.

To turn things around, Johnson, Nick Foligno and others are trying to preach two things:

∎ Stay aggressive when the tide turns. Too often, Johnson said, guys are afraid to make mistakes. “(After goals), we get into our shell and that's the wrong way to get out of things.”

Asked to expand on that, Johnson said he notices teammates backing off too much when opponents attack the offensive zone. “If you have a guy on a rush and you can step up, step up,” he said. “We allow them to have that time and space and that creates a lot of problems in our D-zone because they get in cleanly. When good players (do that), they're gonna make plays.”

∎ When in doubt, get pucks deep. It's Hockey 101 and can be boring, but Foligno does it all the time. It cuts down on turnovers and – theoretically – should create more scoring chances.

“The way teams create is by going east/west (and) behind the net,” Johnson said. “The 'D' collapses and then you make your plays after that.

“Sometimes we hold onto the puck a little too long around the hash marks or around the blue lines, and those are turnover areas. When you turn the puck over there, it's gonna be really tough coming back. …

“When you get the puck behind the net, you have to have guys dashing through the middle and trying to create some opportunities. We can't be so (much on the) perimeter.”

The Hawks (10-20-1) looked better Tuesday, hanging with Colorado (19-11-2) thanks to first-period goals by Ryan Donato and Reichel, and stellar goaltending from Petr Mrazek (35 saves).

Reichel was dangerous all night in what might have been his strongest game of the year.

Johnson made it 3-2 by tapping in a perfect feed from Foligno while the Hawks were on the power play.

Bedard had 2 assists and took 6 shots on goal.

“It is (a big win) and I think we have to grab it and use it,” said coach Luke Richardson. “We can't just sit on it and think that it just happened. It was a lot of hard work and the guys stayed focused. Consistency's a word we've been looking for this year and tonight 60 minutes was really good.”