Rozner: Blackhawks' Colliton toes fine line with his defense

It's been nearly three years since Erik Gustafsson made that fatal mistake in St. Louis.

It was his poor choice in the third period of a tied Game 7 against the Blues that cost the Blackhawks the opening series, when he tried to make a move at his own blue line instead of hitting Artemi Panarin or Patrick Kane in stride.

He had 41 NHL games under his belt at the time and a mere 5 playoff games, and when the puck wound up in the back of his own net, Gustafsson was banished.

After playing half of 2015-16 in the NHL, he didn't appear again in Chicago for a year and a half, until January 2018.

Today he is ninth among NHL defensemen in scoring with 45 points going into Wednesday night's game in Anaheim, his offensive ability never a question.

His defense may always be so, but it wasn't going to get better if he didn't get a chance to play consistently at this level.

“It feels good,” Gustafsson said a few days ago. “This has been good for me. I have a lot of confidence in myself and feel good with the puck.”

When Gustafsson arrived back in the NHL some 13 months ago, Gustav Forsling — only 21 at the time — disappeared. After a strong start to the 2017-18 season, Forsling went the way of most young defensemen — witness Henri Jokiharju this year.

Forsling is still trying to figure it out and it was one of his mistakes that cost the Hawks a game Sunday afternoon.

Slater Koekkoek was the culprit Friday night when he tried to make a cross-ice pass for the one-timer — think Doug Wilson to Steve Larmer — but in a tie game in the third period, the proper play was getting the puck to the net.

The pass was picked off and Colorado went the other way for the game-winner.

“I think we had couple people there (in front of the net),” said coach Jeremy Colliton. “Ideally he would (get it to the net), but this is a game of mistakes.

“It's not just the mistakes you make, it's how you recover. I know that he's been really good for us for a long stretch of time, and I expect he'll get back to that level.”

Gustafsson, Forsling, Koekkoek, Connor Murphy, Carl Dahlstrom and Jokiharju. Add them all up, not to mention the many defense prospects on the way, and what do you have?

Reasonable question.

Young defensemen are like young pitchers. Good luck trying to figure out what they will be three years from now. If you had watched Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith as rookies, you would not have been impressed.

But you can only find out if you play them and that's something Colliton is willing to do.

“We've made a lot of progress,” Colliton said of the young defensemen in his four months on the job. “When I look at the defense from when we started to where we are now, huge improvement. And I think that's no coincidence why our record's been better.”

It's not a coincidence, but it also speaks to the difficult nature of what Colliton is trying to do, developing players while also trying to make the playoffs.

It's something of a contradiction, but entirely necessary for where the Hawks are today, thinking about next year while keeping veteran players and fans engaged.

So what do the Hawks have?

Well, Seabrook is a third-pairing guy at this point. Keith might be a No. 4 if he had a solid No. 3 next to him. Gustafsson could be a No. 4, but he also needs a stay-at-home guy with him, like Murphy, though Murphy's best games occurred when paired with Dahlstrom.

“I just think his minimum level just hasn't been as high as it was before,” Colliton said of Dahlstrom. “For the most part he's played well, but the games that aren't as good (have occurred) a little bit more often lately.

“We're very pleased with him overall, but it's a competition. It's not a bad thing.”

Jokiharju looked like a legit 3 or 4 early, but is trying to find his legs again. Koekkoek and Forsling? Most of these guys haven't played 100 games, let alone the 200 you generally need on defense to feel at home in the NHL.

Until the Hawks figure it out, and find themselves six to eight legitimate NHL defensemen, any discussion of competing again is moot.