{"id":281187,"date":"2025-11-09T11:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T11:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/281187\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T11:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T11:53:12","slug":"seven-important-stats-from-blackhawks-first-15-games-connor-bedards-pace-spencer-knights-gsaa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/281187\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven important stats from Blackhawks’ first 15 games: Connor Bedard’s pace, Spencer Knight’s GSAA"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT \u2014 Consecutive wins<\/a> have unfurled the Blackhawks<\/a>\u2019 sails again entering the final city of their grueling road trip.<\/p>\n

Fifteen games into the season, they continue to exceed expectations. They look like a very legitimate, very competitive, very real NHL team.<\/p>\n

Oddsmakers still consider them the third-most likely team to finish with the league\u2019s worst record, but their 7-5-3 mark can\u2019t be disputed. At least they\u2019re no longer considered the most likely team, as they were a month ago.<\/p>\n

Here are seven important stats that lend insights into the Hawks\u2019 performance:<\/p>\n

Expected-goals ratio: 46.8%<\/p>\n

Considering the Hawks\u2019 58.3% actual goals ratio during five-on-five play \u2014 having outscored opponents 35-25 \u2014 ranks third in the NHL, this subpar five-on-five expected-goals ratio suggests they won\u2019t keep this up.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, 46.8% is way better than past years. It puts them 24th in the league, up from 32nd last season. Breaking the ratio into two parts, they rank 17th offensively and 24th defensively.<\/p>\n

Shooting percentage: 12.5%<\/p>\n

This high shooting percentage, which ranks fifth in the league, also suggests unsustainability. So does the fact the Hawks have hit the fifth-fewest posts and crossbars.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, many of the Hawks\u2019 best offensive players seem like genuinely above-average finishers, either because of shooting accuracy (Connor Bedard and Andre Burakovsky) or because they get to dirty areas (Ryan Donato and Tyler Bertuzzi). All four of those guys are at or above 16%. The Hawks quietly ranked 10th in shooting percentage as a team last season, too.<\/p>\n

Knight\u2019s GSAA: plus-10.3<\/p>\n

Spencer Knight, the Hawks\u2019 new franchise goalie, has enjoyed a tremendous start to his first season as a full-time starter. His plus-10.3 goals saved above average \u2014 which takes into account quantity and quality of shots faced \u2014 leads the league, per Natural Stat Trick.<\/p>\n

His .926 save percentage trails only Washington\u2019s Logan Thompson. His .886 high-danger save percentage, which has always been a strength, ranks fifth.<\/p>\n

Bedard\u2019s point pace: 120<\/p>\n

Entering the season, 82 points \u2014 a point-per-game rate \u2014 seemed like a reasonable expectation for Bedard in his third NHL season, coming off 67 last season. 100 points seemed like a best-case scenario.<\/p>\n

Bedard has put himself on pace to smash those projections, with his 22 points in 15 games translating to 120 over 82. He trails only Macklin Celebrini in the NHL scoring race. Although the usual caveat \u2014 \u201ckeeping this up will be difficult\u201d \u2014 applies, Bedard conclusively looks like the kind of superstar<\/a> a contending team can be built around.<\/p>\n

Bedard-Burakovsky minutes together: 174<\/p>\n

Coach Jeff Blashill has avoided ex-coach Luke Richardson\u2019s mistake of switching up Bedard\u2019s linemates too frequently. Bedard has spent 69.6% of his five-on-five ice time with Burakovsky. Last season, nobody accompanied him for more than 32% of his ice time.<\/p>\n

That consistency has allowed them to build chemistry, and that chemistry is reviving Burakovsky\u2019s career. The veteran on his fourth team has goals in four of his last five games and 12 points in 14 games.<\/p>\n

Minutes spent trailing: 165<\/p>\n

The Hawks have started strong, then faded, then finished strong in many games. As a result, they\u2019ve trailed for only 165 minutes, the second-smallest amount in the league (behind only the Hurricanes).<\/p>\n

They also boast the NHL\u2019s second-best third-period goal differential of plus-11 (behind only the Avalanche) \u2014 a sharp contrast to their minus-seven differential in second periods.<\/p>\n

Points by rookies: 17<\/p>\n

By far the most important \u2014 and most encouraging \u2014 aspect of the Hawks\u2019 success is that it\u2019s being powered by their youth, much more of which is on the way. This season matters, but the long-term outlook still matters most.<\/p>\n

Only Canadiens rookies have earned more points, and plenty of other young Hawks are also contributing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Consecutive wins have unfurled the Blackhawks\u2019 sails again entering the final city of their grueling road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-281187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}