If you were taken aback by Taylor Hall’s healthy scratch before the Chicago Blackhawks’ game in Vancouver on Saturday, you’re not the only one.
Hall was too.
“Yeah, I was surprised,” Hall told reporters after practice Monday at Fifth Third Arena. “It was unexpected from the standpoint of I didn’t know that I was even close to being in that spot really. If there (were) some conversations in the days leading up about my game, or if I was constantly being shown video (by coaches), it would be one thing.
“I was a bit surprised.”
That wasn’t the only surprise coach Luke Richardson has had in store in the past few days.
He trotted out the umpteenth new forward line combination during practice Monday, a move to gin up offense for the club that’s dead last in the NHL with a 2.33 goals per game average.
“Just trying to find something that’s going to create (offense),” Richardson said. “I thought last game (was) probably one of our best games creating primary scoring chances. We just didn’t get more than the one (goal).
“So we have to keep trying things to see if something works.”
Here are the latest changes:
- Connor Bedard will play left wing for the first time this season, which also will be his first game playing with center Jason Dickinson and right wing Joey Anderson.
- Hall, who returns to action Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks, will play with Ryan Donato and Ilya Mikheyev, another brand-new alignment that Richardson believes will unlock Hall (but more on that later).
- Nick Foligno will center a line with Philipp Kurashev and Teuvo Teräväinen.
- Tyler Bertuzzi drops to the fourth line with Lukas Reichel and Craig Smith, but may rotate with Patrick Maroon.
First of all, you can’t knock everything about these new assignments.
There has been grumbling in various corners for a while that the Hawks should’ve tried Bedard at wing a long time ago — the “Hockey Night in Canada” panel argued that case after the loss to the Canucks.
Bedard has been stuck at three goals for the last nine games (and he’s been subpar at faceoffs, to put it kindly), so it’s not sacrilege to experiment with him at wing.
And there have been no steadier forwards on both ends of the ice than Dickinson and Anderson.
But when the Hawks host the Ducks on Tuesday, this will be the fifth configuration in as many games.
At this point, Bedard has to be showing up to practices and morning skates wondering, who his linemates will be that day.
His and Hall’s issues (and the rest of the roster’s issues, for that matter) are tied together in a sense: It comes down to consistency and communication, and the Hawks have been lacking in each.
You don’t spring a move like this on a former Hart Trophy winner, especially one who has been a behind-the-scenes mentor for your franchise player, Bedard.
“We communicated,” Hall said of Richardson. “It wasn’t anything argumentative. He thought it was best for me to just reset, and so that’s what I’m going to do.
“I’m not immune to coaching and I’m not immune to being held accountable. So I just want to play better and I want to be better for our team, and there’s some things in my game that when I’m not playing well, Luke and the coaching staff obviously just want me to do a bit better.”
Richardson acknowledged he could’ve handled the situation better.
“That could be part of my problem, too,” the coach said. “Sometimes you give veterans a little more of a grace period and I know he’s been frustrated. I don’t want the frustration to lead too long, so it was a good time for maybe a little setback.
“But for me to communicate with him, I need to get to know the player more to see how they like to handle that. We’ve talked lots during and after (the benching) but maybe it needs to be more before.”
Hall and Richardson said they’re on the same page now, but that didn’t seem clear after each expressed what they thought was the issue with Hall’s play during Thursday’s game in Seattle.
“I think (it’s) just like turnovers inside the blue line offensively,” he said. “No coach likes that, but there’s coaches that may give you a bit more leeway on those things, and I haven’t earned that here in Chicago yet. So definitely that’s what I want to fix … and just really eliminate, eradicate, from my game.”
However, Richardson said “five or six guys” had the same problem, and that’s a fact he has to concede.
Rather, Richardson said, Hall’s problem was “just his speed and burst down the wing and shooting pucks and then retrieving.
“I saw it today at practice, just even more jump in that area. I’m not trying to play mind games or anything with a player. I tell them straight up the way it is and I thought it was a good plan. … Part of me juggling the lines is to help a guy like that, too, find the right combination, what works well with him.”
Hall’s benching came as a surprise to Kurashev.
“Seeing a guy like him getting scratched is definitely like a wakeup call or something for everyone,” he told the Tribune.
It’s reminiscent of when Kurashev was a surprise healthy scratch on Oct. 22 versus the Canucks. Richardson disliked Kurashev’s effort in the Buffalo Sabres game that preceded it.
The coach said at the time, “I just didn’t think he had a great game. I spent some time with him this morning, showed him some clips. We just need more from him.”
When Kurashev was asked whether he would’ve appreciated more communication before getting the hook, he replied, “I don’t know, we play so many games, sometimes you don’t have too much time before each game to do all that.
“But yeah, we were kind of all surprised by it, definitely, and we’ve got to move forward, and we’ve got to make sure we don’t get sat out again.”
Team captain Nick Foligno said of Hall’s one-game scratch, “I’m not running to Luke, but obviously it sucks, especially (because) Taylor is a great pro, and you don’t want to see that. It’s a reflection of just where we’re at right now. We’re trying to find a recipe of what’s working, and I think the coaching staff is doing the best they can to try to figure that out.”
Foligno noted that Hall has been working his way back to form after missing all but 10 games last season with knee and shoulder injuries.
“He’s trying to find his game and get his game going,” Foligno said.
Really, it’s grasping at straws for a team that desperately needs an offensive jolt.
Foligno said, “We’re trying to find a way to get on a roll here.”
“You can’t fault anybody. I think it’s just a bad situation when you’re not where you want to be. And this is what happens,” he said of Richardson’s decisions to scratch players. “Sometimes it’s a play by the coach to get guys going. And, hey, see a guy like Taylor Hall out of the lineup? I think it puts everyone on notice.
“No one’s safe here,” Foligno added. “We better pick up our game and that’s I think the message that we’re taking from that, and hopefully it resonates with the group.”
But what message does that really send to the Halls and Kurashevs? One bad game and you’re going to be made an example?
There are a lot of Hawks who could’ve lined up to get scratched before Hall or Kurashev.
Send a “message” to T.J. Brodie, already.
He sat for three games but the official line was that Isaak Phillips needed ice time.
Teräväinen has had just one goal and no assists in the last 13 games.
You could go down the lineup.
The Hawks have been communicating “consistency, consistency” since camp, but their decisions this season — who to send a message to, who not to — have been anything but consistent.
What about chemistry? Continuity?
When that was brought up to Richardson, he said, “Some of it is we need to get on our horse and work a little harder and play a little harder to draw more penalties and get more opportunities on the power play as well.
“Right now we’re at a point where we’re desperate to find more offense and we’re just going to try things until we get it.”
That’s the proverbial throwing things against the wall to see what sticks. The bottom line is a reality the Hawks may not want to face.
Either the roster isn’t the talent upgrade we all believed it would be or there are some real organizational problems with culture and accountability that this collection of mostly veterans isn’t able to overcome.
They all say the right things but aren’t able to do them consistently.
A fan recently asked me to find out “what the identity of this team is?”
With these Hawks, damned if I know.
