SHAW SPARKS TOP POWER-PLAY UNIT
Shaw’s a top dog again on Hawks’ power play — just in a supporting role
From 2013 to 2015, Andrew Shaw was a staple of the Blackhawks’ top power-play unit. But over the next half-decade, his ice time on the man advantage declined — including his three seasons with the Canadiens and his return to Chicago last year.
Now he’s back on the top unit, adding a scrappiness that has been missed throughout coach Jeremy Colliton’s tenure.
“He gets pucks back, and he’s willing to get to the net,” Colliton said. “That’s something we’ve struggled with in the past — since I’ve been here, anyway — getting pucks back and extending the zone time so we don’t have to break out two or three times. Even off a lost faceoff, just finding a way to stop the kill from clearing it [is important].”
Shaw’s impact on the power play also comes from a different position than in the past. Instead of using him as a front-of-the-net guy, as the Joel Quenneville-led Hawks and the Canadiens normally did, Colliton instead has stationed Shaw in the slot — not as a primary shooting threat, like slot players in most other teams’ setups, but as a roaming retriever. Shaw’s location in the middle of the zone gives him opportunities to track down rebounds and engage opposing penalty killers in puck battles in all corners of the zone rather than simply around the net.
Shaw said the transition to slot was a little bit of an adjustment, but he feels he has done well there.
“[I’m] being a support, being a threat to shoot the puck and sustaining pucks, getting them back, making sure we can have that zone time,” he said. “A tired penalty kill makes mistakes, and that’s when we’re going to capitalize. Just got to keep working for them, competing for them and being there for them.”
All three of the Hawks’ currently injured forwards — Jonathan Toews, Kirby Dach and Alex Nylander — were deployed often last season on the Hawks’ 28th-ranked power play. Toews and Dach saw a lot of time in the slot and net-front roles, and their absences have forced Colliton to turn to Shaw, Dylan Strome and
Pius Suter to fill those gaps.
Shaw is still close enough to the blue paint to head there when necessary, either to temporarily replace Strome — the top unit’s current net-front guy — or when a rebound pops loose in the lower slot.
Shaw and Strome’s gritty work down low has given Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat plenty of time and space on the wings, where they have been characteristically dangerous. As a result, the Hawks scored a power-play goal in each of their first three games.
Shaw hasn’t directly gotten in on the scoring yet, but Colliton sees him as a sneaky possibility in the future, especially if opponents start keying more on DeBrincat.
“[He] has some touch, too — he’s shown he can score in the past,” Colliton said. “We haven’t hit the slot a ton in the first few games, but it’s certainly a good option for us.”
The unexpected power-play success has added to an overall happy time for Shaw, who worked through more than a year of concussion symptoms to return for this season. Mindful that one more unfortunate hit could end his career, he has used new self-protection techniques during this season-opening road trip. Overall, his return to NHL competition has gone about as smoothly as he could have imagined.
“Being away from the game, it’s tough to jump in and have your timing perfect,” he said. “Whether it’s supporting your teammates or getting in on pucks, it took a little time to get there. [But] I’ve felt pretty good. My energy’s there. Timing was off the first game, but I think I figured it out.”