Chicago Blackhawks on the hunt for a power (play) surge

Another season, another rough start for the Chicago Blackhawks' power play.

Go figure.

Since Joel Quenneville took over as coach 10 years ago, the Hawks' power play has ranked in the top 10 just three times while ranking 19th or worse five times.

It's a strange phenomenon, considering Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have been here the entire time. Throw in other big-time scorers such as Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp and more-than capable point men Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, and you'd think the Hawks would boast a perennial top-of-the-league unit.

Last year, however, the Hawks converted 16 percent of their chances to rank 28th in the league. Through five games this year, they are just 2-for-18, which ranks 24th.

This while Auston Matthews' Toronto Maple Leafs have gone 9-for-19, Jamie Benn's Dallas Stars are 7-for-15, Alexander Ovechkin's Washington Capitals are 7-for-19 and Vladimir Tarasenko's St. Louis Blues are 7-for-23.

Big names often equal big results.

Just not in the Blackhawks' case.

A glaring issue last season was the Hawks' inability to set up in the offensive zone. Their entries often were disrupted at the offensive blue line or retrieved deep in the zone and fired 200 feet the other way.

Anybody who watched the 4-3 overtime victory over St. Louis can see this still is an issue.

On the Hawks' first power play they failed to cleanly enter the offensive zone six times. Kane was stripped at the blue line. Henri Jokiharju lost the puck. Toews had it stripped by Colton Parayko. Dominik Kahun's no man's land dump-in was easily cleared. Another dump-in was shipped out, and the Hawks then proceeded to lose a board battle.

Finally - with four seconds remaining - Kahun got in, gave it to Brandon Saad and Saad ripped a shot with two seconds left on the man advantage. Jake Allen made the save, but Artem Anisimov fired home the rebound just as the power play expired.

The next two power plays were better, but mostly because the Hawks won faceoffs in the offensive zone.

"In the past (entries) were always a strength of our team," Quenneville said. "We could always get it in, get it settled and go from there. That's kind of what's made it look a little disorganized."

Assistant coach Kevin Dineen, who is in charge of the power play, spent about 20 minutes working on entries at Monday's practice. What seemed strange - to me, anyway - is they never brought out a full penalty-killing unit to apply pressure. Saad and Andreas Martinsen defended but offered little resistance.

"Sometimes you're looking for confidence and routes and patterns," Quenneville said when I asked him about it.

It still seems like an NFL offense practicing plays without a defense on the field. How can you truly improve without gamelike conditions? Practice entries against four penalty killers for a while, then put two minutes on a clock and see how both units fare.

Maybe - just maybe - that will end these issues and give the Hawks a much better chance to become a true force on the power play.

• The Blackhawks agreed to terms with MacKenzie Entwistle on a three-year, entry-level contract worth $925,000 per season. The 6-foot-3, 181-pound forward was acquired in the trade that sent Vinnie Hinostroza and Marian Hossa's contract to Arizona.

A third-round pick of the Coyotes in 2017, the 19-year-old Entwistle has 4 goals and 3 assists in nine games with the OHL's Hamilton Bulldogs.