Spanning last week’s games against the Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs, there was a stretch in which the Blackhawks allowed six consecutive goals that were all some form of a back-door tap-in.
On Wednesday, the Jackets scored their fifth goal in a 7-3 win when the Hawks fell a man behind in a cycling defensive rotation and center Connor Bedard ultimately let Dmitri Voronkov get free for a back-door tap-in. The Jackets’ sixth goal came when Hawks winger Boris Katchouk laid a hit on Kirill Marchenko but lost track of him afterward, leaving him alone for a back-door tap-in. And the seventh goal came when defenseman Wyatt Kaiser turned the puck over and Patrik Laine executed a give-and-go around defenseman Isaak Phillips, beating him to the net for . . . a back-door tap-in.
In a 4-3 Hawks overtime victory Friday, the Leafs scored their first goal when Kaiser, defending the rush on the weak side, left Nicholas Robertson open behind him and Robertson buried a back-door feed. They scored again when Hawks defenseman Alex Vlasic failed to check Calle Jarnkrok, and TJ Brodie fed Jarnkrok for a back-door tap-in. The third goal came when Kaiser and Phillips didn’t shift over aggressively enough after the puck ricocheted across the ice, allowing Ryan Reaves to find space between them to tip in a centering shot-pass.
The pattern finally ended Sunday in a 4-2 loss to the Blues, although the Blues’ third goal was also a back-door tap-in by Pavel Buchnevich — albeit on a power play. Hawks defenseman Connor Murphy was most responsible for that one.
But while it was happening, the pattern was hard to miss, and coach Luke Richardson certainly noticed and discussed it.
The Hawks believe they can better defend in these situations by working harder to box opponents out of the crease entirely — as Vlasic explained while discussing what went wrong on Jarnkrok’s goal.
“I checked my shoulder, I thought he was on the left side of me, and then as soon as I turned my head, the pass was already coming back-door and he was behind me,” Vlasic said. “Watching over it again, it’s definitely tough to prevent a goal from going in . . . if you are right on the guy. It’s almost easier to open up and box him out.
“It’s definitely tough [to do that], depending on who you’ve got coming to the net and how heavy and strong they are. But crafty players are going to find ways to lift your stick right before the puck comes. So you’ve got to do your best to turn forward and not even let him get close to the net. If it goes off your foot, that’s the only thing that can really happen as long as you’ve got his stick tied up.”
Another key adjustment: tighter gaps when defending transition attacks, as well as tighter coverage on the strong side of the “D”-zone, which ideally prevents passing lanes to the back door from opening up at all.
Murphy said the Hawks have talked more about “closing the play off where the puck starts” than about covering the back-door guy specifically.
“If we can push them when they enter our zone [and] get them uncomfortable earlier, it doesn’t allow them to sift the puck through to the far side,” Murphy said.
Said Richardson: “If they can saucer a pass 85 feet across the ice and land it flat, then we’ll give them that.”
This message has been especially directed at the Kaiser-Phillips pairing, since their gap control has been subpar. But it’s hardly surprising the Hawks are struggling defensively — allowing the third-most scoring chances and the most high-danger scoring chances in the NHL — considering their defensive lineup includes four de facto rookies.
