The Blackhawks' First Quarter: Room for Improvement

There's better pictures out there of the championship baaner ceremony, but few of them fit very well in the quarterly graphic. So there ya go. (You can go here to watch the ceremony, or get a better range of images here.)

When the NHL dropped the puck on this 2013-14 season, it seemed to come up on a lot of people sooner than usual. That was partly because we were coming off a shortened season that didn't begin until January last time around and partly because this season did start a little sooner than usual thanks to the three-week interruption we'll get courtesy of the Homophobic Hockey Winter Olympics over on the other side of the planet. 

So whereas I was quite the dedicated fan last year who listened to or watched every single 'Hawks game, this season's competing with playoff baseball and regular season NFL as well as us finally cutting the cord with cable has ultimately seen me only pay passing attention to the developments of games I get in the form of various push notifications on my cell phone. And the one thing that has been an annoying constant thus far this season is being informed that Chicago will be up 2-0 or 3-0, but then later that evening I will be told to tune in because the game is tied and is going to overtime. Sure, the Blackhawks end up winning a majority of these contests (I'm a little stunned to read that the 'Hawks are 1.000 when leading after one and .917 when leading after two, but are 3-4 in overtime), but the defense late in games is my foremost concern. 

Some of that has to do with goaltending issues (possibly because of new equipment?), largely because Nikolai Khabibulin thus far has not shown any signs of being anywhere near the backup that Ray Emery was last year. However, another aspect concerns a penalty kill that has essentially been the complete opposite of the dominance showcased last year. Still, none of these are issues that cannot be corrected. 

And it's hard to complain too much when Chicago sits atop the division standings.

It's still a little weird to look at those standings and not see the Red Wings. Thus far, it's seemed that St. Louis is now the new local rivalry, but it probably won't be too hard to develop some hate for the surprising Avalanche now that their head coach sees fit to put their ("allegedly") woman-beating goaltender back in between the pipes because, you know, he'd be the victim or something if they didn't.

Let's face it, my refrain until the Olympics are over will be a concern about the team's health. Khabibulin isn't too likely to be much of a loss now that he's being rumored to be place on LTIR, but Marian Hossa has already missed multiple games. This is supposed to be a joyous time with the recent return of Kris Versteeg, and the 'Hawks indeed appear poised to be possibly enter the playoffs with another deep and experienced yet still young and talented roster. It's way too early to be speculating about seeding, but the potential for a repeat certainly remains there.

Thus far, it's been a strange flip-flop of the concerns we had in the playoffs when the team couldn't score on the power play but were setting records for penalty kill efficiency. Now the opposite is true. Chicago's seventh-best PP of 21.1 percent has helped them average a league-leading 3.57 goals per game, but the league's second-worst PK of an abysmal 73.8 percent is a factor in the ninth-highest 2.81 goals being allowed per game. And while I wouldn't write the Blackhawks off in a shootout, it's not the type of game I'd prefer the team to regularly enter. The strength has always been the defense, but from what I've seen (very little of) and heard (a little more of), that seems to be the aspect needing the most improvement after 20 games.