For Blackhawks' struggling power play, more practice isn't necessarily a solution

The Blackhawks' power play needs all the practice they can get right now. They've gone 10 consecutive games without scoring, failing to convert 26 opportunities during that span.

It's the franchise's longest drought since February 2012, and they're just five games away from the NHL's longest drought during the salary-cap era. They've fallen to 19th in power-play percentage (19.4%) after climbing as high as seventh on Jan. 10.

But there's a challenge with practicing the power play: Doing so pits them against the Hawks' superb penalty kill, which leads the league with an 85.3% kill rate — including 91.9% since Jan. 1.

"It's our job [as penalty killers] to make it hard on them, because that's what they're going to be seeing in a game," Landon Slaggert said Sunday. "You don't want to give them an easy way out or anything. We take pride in trying to knock the puck off their stick, limit their entries and stuff."

However, the Hawks' penalty kill actually isn't what the Hawks' power play will see in most games — not only because they're so good, but also because they run a relatively unusual system under coach Jeff Blashill. It's closer to a traditional push-down penalty kill than to a traditional diamond, but there are some differences from both.

For that reason, Blashill has considered creating an NFL-style scout-team penalty kill for his power play to practice against, although he hasn't yet pulled the trigger on that idea. If the Hawks had a "black aces" squad of extra players at their disposal, it would be an easier sell.

"You're always trying to debate if you [should] almost use a mock penalty kill, which [runs a] more similar system to what we're going to see, as opposed to our penalty kill, which is a little bit different than what we're going to see," Blashill said. "But you also don't want your killers to work on habits that are the opposite of what we want them to do in the game."

The coaching staff did switch up one thing in the power-play practice routine Sunday. Each unit first orchestrated their breakouts on "beginner level" — a five-on-zero format with no penalty killers. Then the killers joined in for the next rep.

"We used to do [five-on-zero practice] a lot in Tampa just to make sure the routes are right, you’re timing at the right time and there’s no resistance," Blashill said.

"We need to do a better job of getting in on our entries, specifically. When our power play struggles, it really has a lot to do with not winning faceoffs and not getting [into the offensive zone]. Once we’ve been in...we’ve consistently been fairly dangerous."

Gaining possession immediately off faceoff wins has indeed been rare. The Hawks' 47.6% power-play faceoff percentage ranks 30th in the NHL. But they also rank 29th in overall faceoff percentage, so that basically is what it is.

More can be done to tweak the entries. The Hawks hope the return of Sam Rinzel, who took over quarterbacking the top unit after his call-up Friday, provides a different look. Artyom Levshunov had been struggling with breakouts, among other things.

"I can come up with speed, try to push those [killers] back farther and then get the puck in [our forwards'] hands," Rinzel said.

The power play has been more dangerous, albeit not more fruitful, since last Monday when Connor Bedard moved over to the left flank — his one-timer side. (Tyler Bertuzzi, Frank Nazar and Teuvo Teravainen comprise the rest of the top unit.)

They've generated 37 shot attempts, 23 scoring chances and 3.55 expected goals during nine power-play opportunities over the last three games. They just haven't cashed in.

"Stick with it, and I think once one goes in, we'll get back [to scoring]," Bedard said.