Chicago Blackhawks looking to get offense rolling
Jonathan Toews knows it. Joel Quenneville knows it. Marian Hossa, Artemi Panarin and Viktor Tikhonov all know it as well.
Each and every Chicago Blackhawks player on the roster understands that the scoring drought the team is mired in had better end soon or W's are going to be awfully hard to come by.
"Of course we all want to score goals," Toews said after the Hawks beat Anaheim Monday. "We've got a lot of guys that are capable of scoring on a regular basis. That just hasn't really happened for us."
That's for sure.
This four-game winning streak the Hawks are riding is nice, but relying on 1-0 overtime victories (like they got vs. the Ducks and Lightning) obviously isn't going to fly.
Quenneville's squad hasn't scored a regulation goal in 139 minutes, 43 seconds. That goes back to their 3-2 victory over Florida when Patrick Kane scored on the power play 17 seconds into the third period.
The Hawks also have 1 goal in 5-on-5 play over the last three games - a stretch that coincides with Duncan Keith's knee injury - and a mere 3 at full strength over the last six.
"We'd like to see some production," Quenneville said. "You look at the lines this year, and a lot of lines haven't scored. … One of our strengths is we never have to worry about scoring because we'll always find a way to score goals. Right now I don't know if I can say that, knowing (whether or not) it's going to happen."
The Hawks prevailed in the last three games for three primary reasons: stellar puck control, good support when their opponent does manage to cross the blue line and outstanding goaltending from Corey Crawford.
In those 3 wins, Crawford stopped 76 of 78 shots. His save percentage (.943) ranks fourth in the NHL heading into Wednesday's games.
"Our goalie is doing a great job and we definitely need to help him out by scoring more," said Panarin, who then smiled and added: "Pete's (Kane) got to find me better with the passes."
Even having said that, Panarin and Tikhonov agreed that it's time to start firing shots at goaltenders and stop being too cute with the puck.
"Absolutely, yeah," Tikhonov said. "The goalies can't last forever. The more we shoot, the more chances we're going to get. We won't pass up those chances (in the future) by making passes."
For obvious reasons, Quenneville has been happy with the Kane-Artem Anisimov-Panarin line all season. Those three have combined for 10 of the Hawks' 19 goals, and they also have 14 assists between them.
Still, the coach believes they can shoot even more.
"They should be thinking a shot-first mentality," Quenneville said. "But all of our lines, we need more shots, more traffic. We don't mind our zone time, but I still think (we're playing) a little too much outside. Gotta get inside."
Toews said the same thing after the win over Anahiem: Get in front of the goalie. Find the rebounds. Get the "ugly ones."
They might be able to get going Thursday as Winnipeg has allowed 16 goals over the last four games (14 with the goalie in net). Ondrej Pavalec has just a .902 save percentage in his last three games.
"You see some teams in the league where everything is going in for them right now," Toews said. "I think everyone goes through some tough times in that regard.
"If we can go through those moments … where we're not scoring a ton of goals and still win those games, I think that's huge for us.
"We'll just keep working for those breaks, working for that puck luck to kind of come our way."