The NHL closed the book on the Blackhawks’ 2019-20 regular season last week, so before the League hopefully picks back up we’ll look back at what happened concerning the Blackhawks. A lot of these feel like they happened years ago, which is the effects of quarantine boredom slowly taking hold of your brain.
NHL debuts: Seven players made their NHL debuts, including Nicolas Beaudin, Adam Boqvist, Lucas Carlsson, Kirby Dach, Brandon Hagel, Dominik Kubalik and Anton Wedin.
First NHL goal: Five players found the back of the net for the first time with Boqvist, Dach, Kubalik, Dennis Gilbert — who made his NHL debut during the 2018-19 season — and, of course, Dylan Sikura.
First NHL point: Carlsson joined the pack above with his first NHL point with an assist March 3 at Anaheim. He has yet to score his first goal.
Team debuts: Along with the seven rookies, eight other players made their Blackhawks debuts: Ryan Carpenter, Calvin de Haan, Robin Lehner, Olli Maatta, Alex Nylander, John Quenneville, Nick Seeler and Zack Smith.
Only two of those players scored a point in their debut: Nylander against the Flyers in the season opener, and Nick Seeler, who had an assist Feb. 9 at Winnipeg.
40 points: Four players scored 40 points, with Patrick Kane (84), Jonathan Toews (60), Kubalik (46) and Alex DeBrincat (45).
30 points: Six players hit at least 30 points, with Dylan Strome (38) and Brandon Saad (33) joining the four above.
20-goal scorers: Three players reached the 20-goal mark, with Kane (33 goals), Kubalik (30) and Saad (20).
Shootout results: Five Blackhawks (Dach, DeBrincat, Kane, Strome, Toews) took shootout attempts and they combined to go 12-for-22 (54 percent). Kane was the best, going 6-for-8 (75 percent), followed by Toews’ 5-for-8 (62.5 percent) and Dach’s 1-for-2 (50 percent). DeBrincat (0-for-3) and Strome (0-for-1) both did not score.
Shootout goalies: Crawford and Lehner combined to go 11-for-22 (50 percent), and Crawford was the better of the two with an 8-for-12 (66.7 percent) success rate compared to Lehner’s 3-for-7 (30 percent).
Hat tricks: Chicago had two hat tricks from Kane (Dec. 15 vs. Wild) and Kubalik (Feb. 27 at Tampa).
Penalty shots: Chicago missed both of its penalty shots from Smith (Nov. 13 at Vegas) and Saad (Feb. 21 vs. Predators).
Team leaders
Goals and points: Kane (33 goals and 84 points)
Power play goals: DeBrincat (10)
Power play points: Kane (23: 8G, 15A)
Shorthanded goals: Saad (2)
Shorthanded points: Carpenter (3: 1G, 2A)
Save percentage: Lehner (.918), Corey Crawford (.917)
Goals Saved Above Average: Lehner (10.17), Crawford (9.01)
Quality starts (games with better save percentage than season average): Crawford (25), Lehner (17)
Really bad starts (games with a save percentage below .850): Crawford (3), Lehner (4)
Average ice time: Duncan Keith (24:23)
Shooting percentage: Kubalik (19.1 percent)
Shots: Kane (275)
Blocked shots: Murphy (138)
Faceoff percentage (more than four draws): Toews (57.3 percent)
Giveaways: Keith (74)
Takeaways: Toews (58)
Penalty minutes: Toews (48)
Toews was MAD! pic.twitter.com/P5Qxb9rCJd
— Second City Hockey (@2ndCityHockey) February 10, 2020
Others statistical milestones
- Crawford had his 250th career win Dec. 6 against the Devils in New Jersey.
- Toews scored his 800th point, an assist, Feb. 9 against his hometown Jets.
- Kane scored his 1,000th point, another assist, Jan. 19, also against the Jets.
- Keith scored his 100th goal Feb. 25 against the Blues./
Advanced stats
Corsi above 50 percent at even strength: Six players played more than 10 games at the clip: Slater Koekkoek (52.05), Andrew Shaw (51.8), Saad (51.13), Kubalik (50.56), Toews (50.39) and Connor Murphy (50.12).
Half of those players also had an expected goals share above 50 percent with Koekkoek (53.81), Kubalik (51.79) and Murphy (50.8).
Goals above replacement: Toews led all skaters with 11.2 goals above replacement and 2 wins above replacement while Kubalik led with 14.1 expected goals above replacement and 2.5 expected wins above replacement. Crawford led the Blackhawks with 14.2 goals above replacement and 2.5 wins above replacement.