5 Thoughts: Enough with the head shots; is new blood helping Blackhawks?; time to see Delia

Three nights after tasting blood — and plenty of it — Connor Murphy smelled blood at the United Center on Sunday.

And he did not waste the opportunity.

Murphy, not exactly known for his offensive exploits, sensed an opportunity to do some damage after jumping on the ice and seeing Dylan Strome behind the Florida net in the first period of the Hawks' 6-3 loss at the United Center on Sunday.

Murphy slyly skated to the right circle, accepted a pass from Strome and ripped a shot that found its mark at 13:23 of the first period. It was just the defenseman's 16th goal of his career and third in 85 games in a Hawks uniform.

As for the blood Murphy tasted, that came courtesy of a Tyler Pitlick elbow in the waning moments of the Hawks' 5-2 win at Dallas on Thursday. The hit left Murphy with a nasty cut on his nose and a pair of black eyes.

It was the fourth serious blow to the head suffered by a Hawks player in the last few weeks. Artem Anisimov, Marcus Kruger and Corey Crawford all suffered concussions, but Murphy escaped serious injury and played against Colorado on Friday and Florida on Sunday.

“I wasn't sure where the bleeding was coming from,” Murphy said. “You just kind of wait and hope that you get your senses back for a second and make sure it's fine. Once we knew that the blood was coming from the nose, it was all right.”

These head shots — accidental or not — are becoming far too common, and the league really ought to be doing more to prevent them.

Fines. Suspensions. Or both.

The one Kruger absorbed came from Nashville's Ryan Hartman on a play that looked innocent enough, but NBC Sports Chicago analyst Jamal Mayers was adamant that Hartman knew Kruger was coming and purposely backed into his former Blackhawks teammate.

Murphy was jolted by Pitlick in the Hawks' offensive zone, and many felt the Stars' forward deserved a penalty.

“It seems like the league battles to find the balance of what's intentional and what's just a fast-paced, accidental play,” Murphy said. “They look at whether a guy is lining a guy up. It seems like if they make eye contact and intentionally try to get a piece of a guy, they definitely bear down on those with suspensions and fines.

“But (those) that are mid-play where a guy's trying to do something different than just take a guy's head, it seems like they don't act as much on those.”

Murphy said he watched the play a couple days later and didn't believe Pitlick was trying to hurt him.

Still ...

“You definitely would like guys to be more aware of body positioning with their elbows and arms,” Murphy said. “But it looked like he was just trying to slow me up. It's the end of the game; they're so desperate to score. I think it was just more of that.”

A few other tidbits as we hit the Christmas break:

New blood:

Isn't it interesting that the Hawks have gone 4-2-1 since Dylan Sikura and defenseman Carl Dahlstrom were called up from Rockford? Neither player is lighting the world on fire, but it's possible those moves sent a message to some players that, hey, you better pick it up or you're going to end up on the bench.

Or worse. You could end up like Luke Johnson, who stuck around for just two games before being sent back to Rockford in favor of Jacob Nilsson.

Coach Jeremy Colliton didn't exactly agree with that line of thinking after the Hawks' 6-3 loss to Florida on Sunday, though, saying: “I don't know if it's a message. We're just trying to build the best team we can and part of it is we felt there were guys in Rockford who could help us.

“And they've done a good job. (Sunday isn't) a perfect example, but for a stretch now we've had some contributions from guys who have spent a significant amount of time there, and the group looks better because of it.”

Cat purring:

It seems strange, but as Alex DeBrincat goes so go the Blackhawks.

In games where DeBrincat has scored, the Hawks are 8-4-3; when he doesn't, they are 5-16-3.

It was that way at the start of the season when the Hawks got off to a 6-2-2 start as DeBrincat scored in six of those games. And during this recent run he has scored in five of seven contests.

A more consistent DeBrincat would mean more consistent results for the Hawks. Let's see if he can keep it up after the Christmas break.

Sizzling Strome:

In 15 games since coming to the Hawks in a trade, Dylan Strome has 6 goals and 3 assists.

He's also getting much more comfortable in the faceoff dot. In his first four games in Chicago, Strome won just 33.3 percent of his faceoffs, but he's won at least 50 percent in 10 of his last 11 games.

Deal Delia in:

It's time to see what Collin Delia can do in net for a while. While Cam Ward has been a pro's pro off the ice and probably helped begin this mini-surge with a fiery locker-room speech after a brutal 7-3 loss to the Sharks on Dec. 16, the fact is he's been no better than average this season.

Assuming Corey Crawford isn't ready to come back from his concussion, let Delia start against the Wild on Thursday, the Avs on Saturday and — yes, even the Bruins in the Winter Classic on Jan. 1.

No matter how he fares, it will be good experience for the California native as he continues to develop into what the Hawks hope is a capable NHL netminder.