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Every third period in which they\u2019re trying to hold a lead, the Blackhawks slip into a strategy of hunkering down and trying to survive until the clock expires.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t take a statistics degree to know that isn\u2019t a smart approach.<\/p>\n
“[When] protecting a lead, you have to toe a line where you make smart decisions and get pucks deep but you can\u2019t sit back, either,\u201d defenseman Alec Martinez said Monday. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to keep attacking. If you just sit back and allow them to enter the zone, you increase the sample size, you give them more zone time and the odds are further and further stacked against you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Around the NHL, it\u2019s common for the ice to tilt somewhat in favor of a trailing team pushing for a late equalizing goal, because that team will take more risks by pinching defensemen, throwing extra support into board battles and such. But that aggressiveness usually results in occasional odd-man rushes in the other direction, and the Hawks aren\u2019t enjoying many of those.<\/p>\n
The Hawks held leads entering the third periods of all three games last week but ended up losing twice, allowing the Ducks to score twice in the third period in a 3-2 loss and allowing the Flyers to do the same in a 3-2 overtime loss.<\/p>\n
They did hold on to beat the Panthers, but only because of goalie Petr Mrazek\u2019s heroics, considering they incurred a 13-2 deficit in scoring chances during the third period.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s [about] managing pucks in certain areas to keep us out of the \u2018D’-zone for extended lengths of time,\u201d coach Luke Richardson said. \u201cSometimes it leads to goals; sometimes it doesn\u2019t. Eventually, it\u2019s too much and it wears out all your good energy playing defense [rather] than creating offense, which is part of our problem offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those offensive problems are indeed dire, but excellent goaltending and good-enough defensive coverage have nonetheless put the Hawks in winning positions fairly often. Entering Monday, they ranked 12th in the NHL in terms of five-on-five time spent leading this season (359 minutes), ahead of contenders like the Panthers, Lightning, Canucks and Avalanche.<\/p>\n
The Hawks\u2019 struggles to maintain puck possession, however, have created a massive imbalance in time spent in the defensive zone compared to the offensive zone, and they can only play bend-but-don\u2019t-break defense for so long.<\/p>\n
During those 359 minutes spent leading, they\u2019ve conceded 430 shot attempts while generating only 292 themselves, a 40.4% ratio that ranks 27th in the league. Specifically in the nine games they\u2019ve led at the second intermission, they\u2019ve conceded 191 shot attempts in the ensuing third periods while generating only 88 themselves, equating to an even uglier 31.5% ratio.<\/p>\n
As a result, they\u2019ve converted all that lead time into the league\u2019s second-worst record at 7-12-2. Compare that to the plucky Flames, for example, who have played only 189 minutes of five-on-five time with a lead this season \u2014 second-fewest in the league \u2014 but entered Monday sitting in a playoff spot at 12-6-3.<\/p>\n
The Hawks would ideally like to play the same way in third periods that they do in the first two. Their five-on-five shot-attempt ratios in first and second periods \u2014 44.7% and 44.0%, respectively \u2014 aren\u2019t great but are at least closer to 50%.<\/p>\n
Why don\u2019t they? It\u2019s likely connected to all the recent chatter \u2014 originating from Connor Bedard, Teuvo Teravainen and others \u2014 about the team\u2019s low confidence levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would be a fool to say confidence doesn\u2019t exist, because it certainly does,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cIf you have experience where you\u2019ve held those leads and been successful in that, then you fall back on your experience. There\u2019s a knowing that, \u2018We\u2019re going to get this job done.\u2019 It\u2019s a process [to get there]. Every team goes through it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Hawks have led at the second intermission in each of their last three games, but they wound up losing to the Ducks and Flyers and barely survived against the Panthers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks","category-nfl","category-san-francisco-49ers"],"yoast_head":"\n