Scoring trends — none of them good — coincide with 1-13-1 slump
The Blackhawks will play their 30th game of the season Sunday against the New York Rangers, and there are certain trends that have marked their recent slump.
The numbers tell the story.
6 straight losses
The Hawks lost their sixth straight game Friday, 4-1 against the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, Minn. They had an eight-game winless streak recently, but it’s the first time this season the Hawks have lost six consecutive games in regulation.
3 hat tricks
Wild forward Mats Zuccarello put up the third hat trick of the season against the Hawks, cashing in on feeds from Kirill Kaprizov in the first and third periods and scoring on the power play in the second. Connor McDavid registered the first hat trick against the Hawks on Oct. 27, and Alex Ovechkin’s hat trick Tuesday pushed him to 800 career goals.
1 win since Nov. 12
The Hawks’ last win came against the Ducks more than a month ago, a 3-2 victory in Anaheim. They have gone 1-13-1 since then and have been outscored 66-29.
1 goal or none
In five of the last six games, the Hawks have scored one goal or been shut out. The only outlier: They scored three against the Capitals on Tuesday — a 7-3 defeat.
10 goals
In the third period against the Wild, Jonathan Toews tied Max Domi for the team lead in goals (10) with his sixth power-play goal, which also tied Domi for tops among the Hawks on the man advantage.
8 feet
Petr Mrázek made some spectacular saves against the Wild — just ask Matt Boldy — but the Wild were on top of him for most of the game. The five-on-five goals they scored averaged 8 feet, by far the closest distance (11 feet is the next closest), according to naturalstattrick.com.
2-for-17
Toews’ power-play goal salvaged what would have been a dismal showing in five man-advantage opportunities — the worst being the three short-handed shot attempts they allowed on the third power play. Even with that goal, the Hawks have scored on only two of their last 17 chances, which coincides with the six-game losing streak.
5 straight games
The Hawks’ penalty kill has allowed a goal in five consecutive games and six of the last seven.