Suddenly hot Hossa stays the course through droughts, streaks
Marian Hossa knew the goals would come eventually.
The Blackhawks' 36-year old forward, playing in his 17th NHL season, has gone through scoring slumps before. He's always rebounded with scorching-hot scoring streaks, so what's happened the past two games shouldn't be all that surprising.
Hossa has scored the Blackhawks' last 4 goals in the past two games and needed only 5 shots to do it. He breathed new life into his stat line, which now boasts 14 goals to go with 24 assists. His shooting percentage has climbed a whopping 2.4 points in the past two games to 8.9 percent on 158 shots.
"Sometimes you're getting great chances and great opportunities, but (the) puck doesn't go in," Hossa said Monday, after scoring both of the Blackhawks' goals in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Arizona Coyotes at United Center. "(Sometimes) you just go around the net, shoot two times and it's 2 goals. You just have to keep working hard and good things will happen."
Hard work has never been the issue.
According to War-On-Ice.com, Hossa leads the Blackhawks with 131 individual scoring chances during 5-on-5 play this season. That's tied for seventh in the NHL with Toronto Maple Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk, but there's a significant difference between the two players and teams.
The Blackhawks have generated 92 more 5-on-5 scoring chances with Hossa on the ice than they've allowed, while the Maple Leafs have allowed 133 more scoring chances than they've generated during van Riemsdyk's shifts.
Hossa is still "playing the right way," but isn't beating goalies as much as he's done in the past. His goal-scoring struggles date back to last season's Stanley Cup playoffs, when he shot just 2.7 percent on 75 shots for the lowest postseason success rate of his career.
The dry spell carried over into this season, when Hossa scored only 10 goals on his first 153 shots (6.5 percent). His career shooting percentage in the regular season is 12.6 percent on 3,782 shots (478 goals), so the odds of a big uptick in scoring appear to be good.
Either way, it won't affect Hossa's approach.
"I just play my game and I know good things will happen," he said. "I just can't get frustrated."
Power-play issues return:
The Blackhawks have gone cold again in man-advantage situations. They're 1-for-13 on power plays in the past six games and went 0-for-4 against the Coyotes, including a failed opportunity in overtime.
Coach Joel Quenneville was not pleased. The Blackhawks didn't practice Tuesday, but more power-play practice could be in the offing if things don't improve Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks.
"I didn't like it," Quenneville said. "You could talk about all of them. They started off poorly and ended poorly. You could talk about every aspect of (the power play) tonight. We didn't have any possession time really, didn't have any net presence or shot threats."
The Blackhawks are 14th in the NHL in power-play success rate (18.3 percent), but rank 22nd on home ice (16.7 percent). It's an issue they need to correct with seven more games left on this homestand.
Roster watch:
Joel Quenneville said after the game Monday that potential roster moves had not yet been discussed, despite the pending return of injured forward Kris Versteeg. Once Versteeg comes off injured reserve, the Hawks will likely send a forward back to Rockford. The most likely candidates are Joakim Nordstrom and Teuvo Teravainen.