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<\/p>\nCHICAGO \u2014 Jeff Blashill has been addicted to watching this season\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n
For the coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, that\u2019s not all that surprising. But it\u2019s not like he hasn\u2019t been an NHL coach before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say, I\u2019ve probably watched more of this playoffs than I have ever,\u201d Blashill said on a recent afternoon in his office at the Blackhawks Ice Center, the team\u2019s practice facility. \u201cNot to say I hadn\u2019t in the past, but I\u2019ve watched a lot and from a lot of different angles. A little bit of the coaching decisions, you know, matchups. How hard are teams matching? What are their tactics when they\u2019re trying to match certain players? To calling timeouts, to challenging, to all those things, just seeing what other coaches are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, he\u2019s looked at the style of play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a huge believer there\u2019s a lot of different ways to play hockey,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cI know that because different teams win a lot in different ways. So, there isn\u2019t like a style that has to fit your personality, your team. But within the different styles of the way teams play, what\u2019s a common factor in success? For example, if you want to score in this league, you have to be really, really hard at the net. And that just shows in the playoffs over and over and over again. It\u2019s just a good reminder to me that, hey, that\u2019s gotta be a priority coming into next year, things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s been fun to watch. And just different players having success and how they\u2019re having success and why? Is it the right chemistry? Is it the team at the right time? Is it all those things? So just kind of watching all that has been a good continued education process for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been nearly two months since Blashill and the Blackhawks played their last game. He has mostly been at his home in Florida since then and will spend time in Michigan for another part of the summer. During a brief stop back in Chicago, Blashill sat down with The Athletic to talk about the playoffs, this past season, the future and more. This is part one of the interview.<\/p>\n
(Note: Questions and answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.)<\/p>\n
Do you feel like you saw a defined playing style from the Blackhawks this season?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good question. I think I would say, yes and no. Yes, in a sense that I think our guys understand certain things that are important to me \u2014 taking time and space away, pressuring in almost what I would call smart pressure, some of what we talked about in the penalty kill. But I also think it\u2019s hard to really show your identity as a team when you don\u2019t have the puck enough, and we didn\u2019t have the puck enough. I think that\u2019s just for numerous reasons, mainly because we\u2019re really, really young. And so, I think your style gets more on display as your team grows and continues to get better and better.<\/p>\n
Do you think you want to do anything different next season?<\/p>\n
I would say, from a systematic standpoint, I wouldn\u2019t anticipate any big changes within our systems. One of the advantages I think that teams have that have been together for a while is that systems become second nature to them. And so, you don\u2019t have to think about them. You don\u2019t have to practice them as much. And then, you can practice different things. So, I think from a systemic standpoint, don\u2019t anticipate major changes.<\/p>\n
I thought from an offensive standpoint, our expected goals on line rushes \u2026 was fairly good. From an offensive zone standpoint, I think there\u2019s more offense to be created in our O-zone. A little bit of where our emphasis is in the O-zone is something we\u2019re going to look at through the course of the summer and make sure we have a good plan. Other than that, systematically, it\u2019ll be similar, which is important too because our training camp\u2019s shorter and we\u2019re playing more games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond that, I think it becomes what are some key factors that are points of emphasis? Certainly, we want to continue to grow our habits, our daily habits. I think a piece of it is making sure we emphasize winning puck battles. We have to continue to win more of those 50-50 puck battles. That\u2019s where a lot of offense comes from, to be honest with you, is kind of a puck battle wanting to transition, and it goes back the other way. I look at \u2014 it wasn\u2019t a puck battle off a turnover, but a transition goal, I think, Carolina scored in its second goal (in Game 2). That kind of quick transition out of either a turnover or a loose puck recovery and you go. So, that\u2019s an area that we\u2019re going to emphasize.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll see what the offseason brings, but Anton Frondell finished the season in the NHL, and Roman Kantserov is signed. It seems like you have potentially two top-six players you didn\u2019t start last season with. What can that change?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen Frondell up close, having come here and played for us. In Kantserov, I\u2019ve watched a lot on video. Certainly, until you kind of get right in the action, you never know for sure exactly what you have. But I think in both those guys, we have guys that are going to be top-six players, and as soon as next year. Will they have their ups and downs? Yes. And can we expect them to just hit the ground and everything to be great? No, there\u2019s gonna be adjustment time, whether it\u2019s right away, whether it\u2019s at Game 52, who knows, but there\u2019s going to be learning the league.<\/p>\n
Kantserov has played a number of years of pro. Frondell had the advantage of playing some years of pro before this. They both have what I think are really complete games, and I think that\u2019s probably the No. 1 barrier for young players coming in terms of gaining the ice time they want is when they don\u2019t have complete games. These guys already have complete games, so that\u2019s gonna help their adjustment. But there\u2019s still gonna be an adjustment. There\u2019s still going to be ups and downs.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re both really, really, really talented players. You know, as a coach, when you get the opportunity to be able to help really talented players grow and get better, that\u2019s all you want. Then both of them, I think, from a personality standpoint, seem to be really A-plus people, A-plus competitors. So it\u2019ll be fun to add both those guys to our mix. I think they\u2019re going to help us be better. I know they\u2019re gonna help us to be better long term. I think they\u2019ll help us better pretty quickly. But we\u2019ll see how quickly, based on their adjustments.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Anton Frondell got a taste of the NHL last season. Now, a full season awaits. (Bruce Bennett \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
You started Frondell at wing, but you already had in mind a big-picture plan with him at center. Where do you see Kantserov fitting in?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good question because Roman played a lot of center this year and liked it. He and I spoke about that. First off, I would say, and Anton said this to me as well, the way that we play, there\u2019s a lot of interchangeable pieces between centers and wings, so it\u2019s probably not as big a deal either way as maybe it\u2019s made out to be at times. Anton, I think, at his kind of size and based on the team we have, I just felt long-term with his skill set that he was a really good fit to kind of be a center on our hockey team. I think Roman could do either. I really do. But I also think, you may end up playing wing to put him in a position to play with players that I think that he kind of can, I guess, exponentially be better with.<\/p>\n
I certainly have had a lot of times in my own coaching career where, first off, seeing other teams that do it, no different than maybe like a (Leon) Draisaitl and a (Connor) McDavid, where they at times play apart, at times play together. I had Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, who would play center, but then at times they would play together. And when those guys played together, it didn\u2019t matter who was the center. And so, whoever I piece Roman with, it\u2019s not gonna matter who\u2019s the center. They\u2019re both gonna spend time down low in D-zone coverage. They\u2019re both gonna spend time in the middle of the ice. I think Roman\u2019s skill set, he can be equally as good at wing as at center and vice versa. I think it\u2019s great to be able to add somebody with that type of versatility, but yet that type of high-end skill set.<\/p>\n
What was your takeaway from playing five forwards on the power play?<\/p>\n
I liked it. I thought Connor (Bedard) was very, very good up top. He did a really good job of condensing the zone, did a good job of distributing the puck. He did a very good job of being a shot threat. Whether it\u2019s the right thing for us next year, that kind of remains to be seen based on the group that we have. He\u2019s a little further from the net, so it probably takes some of his scoring threat away as just a pure scorer. So, we\u2019ll see what the best fit is. I think he enjoyed it. I liked him up there.<\/p>\n
I think the key to five forwards in a power play is that the guy who was up there is really good at it. I\u2019ve done it before with five forwards, and it didn\u2019t work because the guy just wasn\u2019t comfortable up top. When I watched Mitch Marner (in the Stanley Cup Final), he was very comfortable up top. Now, Mitch and Connor are different players, but he\u2019s certainly really comfortable up top, and I thought Connor was too. But if somebody else is equally as good up there, and Connor can play the flank and be a little close, that can make sense, too. So, we\u2019ll see where it goes.<\/p>\n
Do you feel like that\u2019s an incentive for Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel or Kevin Korchinski to win that spot in training camp?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure they want that position. Yeah, for sure you want that. If you\u2019re one of those guys, you want that position, and so, come in and be great at it. I think that competition\u2019s an important piece of this, too. I think we let a number of those guys, certainly two of those guys that you mentioned, get lots of opportunity up there, and that was part of our plan. But also part of it is, at some point, you\u2019ve got to grab it and be good at it. So, if one of these guys comes into camp and looks like they\u2019re great right up top, maybe that moves Connor to the half wall. If not, maybe Connor stays up top. We\u2019ll see where it goes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Jeff Blashill has been addicted to watching this season\u2019s Stanley Cup playoffs. For the coach of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,385,99],"class_list":["post-697889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697889","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=697889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}