The impact of Alec Martinez’s absence on the Blackhawks‘ defense probably hasn’t been appreciated enough.
“There’s just a calmness that comes with him,” captain Nick Foligno said recently. “He’s so good with the guys in the room. But also [because of] the way he plays, he just seems to settle everyone down back there.”
Martinez, 37, will miss his 12th consecutive game Sunday against the Wild. He hasn’t played since the Hawks’ four-game season-opening road trip, meaning he still hasn’t yet made his United Center home debut.
He missed some time on-and-off during training camp with a nagging groin injury, then re-aggravated that injury Oct. 15 against the Flames. Coach Luke Richardson said on Oct. 17 that the team would give him some time for it to settle down, but it didn’t seem like anyone expected him to miss nearly a month.
The good news is Martinez might be finally nearing a return. He participated in the first half of practice Saturday, which Richardson described as a “graduation” in his ramp-up process. It seems possible he could play during the Hawks’ road trip later this week to Seattle and Vancouver.
And Martinez’s presence, even in the typical array of drills Saturday, was noticeable. Richardson, laughing as he went, told a story about him teasing assistant coach Derek Plante for accidentally breaking up a pass to Pat Maroon.
“That’s a good, light moment, and we could use it,” Richardson said. “[Alec] knows that, and he’s confident enough to bark that out and still do his job on the next drill.”
It’s not a coincidence that the Hawks played their most consistent hockey of the season so far during that opening trip with Martinez in the lineup, even though it didn’t translate into many wins — a common theme.
Individually, his stats were solid but unremarkable. He tallied one assist, four shots on goal and an impressive 15 blocked shots while averaging 21:02 of ice time on the top pairing with Seth Jones. The Hawks had a 48.7% share of the expected goals during his five-on-five shifts.
Filling his hole in the lineup, however, required bumping every other Hawks defenseman one spot higher than he was playing before, and that has negatively affected the team stats. The Hawks allowed 2.69 expected goals per 60 five-on-five minutes during their first four games (ranking 18th in the NHL) and have allowed 2.85 expected goals per 60 since then (ranking 27th).
Young Wyatt Kaiser has held his own in a top-four role and young Nolan Allan has held his own in an every-day third-pairing role, but they would be even more valuable dominating easier minutes rather than surviving tougher minutes.
Nonetheless, Kaiser and Allan’s steadiness is an encouraging sign for the Hawks’ future, since those are two guys who will ideally stick around far longer than Martinez (who is on a one-year contract). The same applies to Alex Vlasic, who continues to expand his game in unexpected ways.
Among the veteran defensemen — beyond Jones, who is obviously locked into a top-pairing role for years to come — the most effective this season has arguably been Connor Murphy, the Hawks’ old reliable. The Hawks have outscored opponents 11-8 and posted a 45.7% expected-goals share during Murphy’s ice time, both of which are far better than the past few years.
“Some games [have] felt good with certain parts of my game, and then I would do something wrong…on the penalty kill, or play well on the kill and give up something five-on-five that I usually don’t,” Murphy said. “It’s probably the same story of our team.”
Conversely, T.J. Brodie, whose struggles have already forced Richardson to scratch him in three of the last four games, could fall further down the depth chart when Martinez returns.