The Blackhawks have struggled to break down the Kings’ defense in recent years.
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The Blackhawks aren’t going to be more talented, more cohesive or more experienced than the Kings anytime soon — as is the case when comparing them to any current NHL playoff contender.
That disparity has already been put on full display once in the Kings’ dominant 5-0 victory Friday in Chicago. It may well be demonstrated again Tuesday, when the Hawks rematch the Kings in Los Angeles, and again April 18, when the two teams face off in the regular-season finale.
But the fact the Hawks have and will see the Kings so frequently during these final five weeks offers an opportunity to at least practice and improve their ability to tactically adapt as a group.
As the rebuild progresses over the next several years and the Hawks try to slowly climb the standings, they can’t solely rely on the gradual injection of talent graduating from their loaded prospect pipeline. Their players will also have to learn how to succeed together — and how to do so faster and more cleverly than the other 31 franchises following their own respective philosophies.
Connor Bedard, Kevin Korchinski, Alex Vlasic and Lukas Reichel — and eventually Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, Sam Rinzel and plenty of others — will need to not only develop individually but also develop together.
Rookie defenseman Wyatt Kaiser, whom the Hawks called up from the AHL on Monday for the first time since December, can be included in that cast, too.
Behind the bench, meanwhile, coach Luke Richardson and his staff will have to learn how to not only help players develop individually but also craft lineups and systems to help them fit best together.
For now, expectations are minimal. This roster has too many flaws to be able to improve too much, no matter how hard they try. They are healthier and deeper now than at any previous point this season, though, so it would be encouraging if they can finish out the year playing close-to-.500 hockey — something they have a head start on after winning four of their last six games.
Their upcoming performances against the Kings could provide an interesting litmus test of that adaptability and growth.
That’s because the Kings use a unique, conservative version of a 1-3-1 defensive structure in the neutral zone that has consistently flummoxed the Hawks, limiting them to only four total five-on-five goals across their last six meetings.
The 1-3-1 formation — in which one forward pressures the puck, three players form a wall along the blue line and one defenseman hangs back to retrieve the dump-ins that opponents are inevitably forced to make — isn’t rare, but the Kings employ it particularly well. They allow the fourth-fewest zone entries per minute in the league, per All Three Zones.
“They know exactly what they’re doing on every puck, so everybody is moving in sync,” Hawks forward Jason Dickinson said.
But the Kings, while far better than the Hawks, aren’t a juggernaut in general. At 34-22-11, they’re only tied for seventh in the West.
Dickinson observed one effective play Friday where MacKenzie Entwistle cut across the blue line, disrupting the middle of the Kings’ formation and forcing their far-back defenseman to scramble to defend him. What’s stopping the Hawks from making maneuvers like that more often?
“If we don’t learn from it, what was the point of losing 5-0?” Dickinson added. “It’s something we can use as a lesson to say, ‘OK, this is what beat us. If we do the same recipe, they’re going to beat us again.’ We have to look at the video and say, ‘These are the openings; this is what worked.'”
If the Hawks can do that Tuesday and in April — even if doing so leads only to more competitive scores, not necessarily outright wins — it would be a good sign for the future.