Breaking down Blackhawks’ aggressive new defensive systems under Jeff Blashill

The Blackhawks will be aggressive in their defensive zone under new coach Jeff Blashill.

That’s a common theme in all of the new systems Blashill has implemented. They won’t simply hunker down while giving their opponents oodles of possession time anymore.

It’s a higher-risk, higher-reward approach. In the short term, it’s going to be a learning process, which may make those risks obvious. But as the Hawks’ youth movement progresses and the team improves, it should fit them better and better over time.

“It’s just going to be more responsibility [on everyone],” defenseman Wyatt Kaiser said. “And I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

Five-on-five defense

Blashill’s five-on-five defensive system is technically a hybrid of zone and man-on-man defense.

Last season under Anders Sorensen (and Luke Richardson), the Hawks’ defensive system was a pure zone, which has surged in popularity around the NHL since the Golden Knights used it to win the Stanley Cup in 2023.

When the puck is down low, the Hawks will still play zone defense, with all five players in the same quadrant of the ice as the puck.

That’s not too different than last year, but Blashill wants the Hawks’ five players slightly tighter to the puck — paying less attention to the weak side — than Sorensen did.

Ideally, that tight pressure (“swarming”) will trap in the puck in the corner and force a turnover. But if an opposing player does escape and carry the puck low-to-high toward the blue line, the Hawks will play man-on-man defense.

For example, if a defenseman is pressuring someone down low, and that someone skates up the boards with the puck, the defenseman will continue following and pressuring him along the boards.

That’s a notable difference from last season, when Hawks defensemen weren’t allowed to go higher than the faceoff-circle hash marks. If the puck-carrier went higher than that, the defenseman had to peel off for a switch, and the Hawks’ center had to sprint — often from a considerable distance away — up to take over covering the puck-carrier.

Opposing teams began exploiting that by cutting quickly in toward the slot during the interval between the defenseman’s peel-off and the center’s arrival, Connor Murphy said.

Blashill’s system closes that loophole. However, it means defensemen will sometimes end up near the blue line. That’ll test their agility and quickness, although Blashill believes the fact the Hawks have such young, smooth-skating defensemen makes them well-suited to pass those tests.

“I know, when I’m on a guy who has the puck, I can keep going at him and not think,” Murphy said. “He’s my one-on-one, and everyone else takes care of it around me. As a defender, you want that freedom.”

When a defenseman is pulled up high, more responsibility will fall on a forward to take over his duties, covering for him down low or in front of the net. That’ll test the strength and positioning of the Hawks’ forward corps.

“If you’re told to box out, you better box out,” center Jason Dickinson said. “There’s not going to be any gray area to it like, ‘Yeah, this guy was a little bigger than you.’ You’re playing center; your job is to keep that guy away from the net.”

If a defenseman is up high, a forward is covering for him down low and then the Hawks force a turnover, the forward may need to orchestrate a breakout from behind the net, or the defenseman may need to join a three-on-two rush in the other direction. Positions are more amorphous.

If it all sounds complicated and difficult, that’s because it is. But it also has the potential to be more effective.

“It sounds so simple to say, but if you have a chance to get the puck, go get it,” Dickinson said. “Everyone else…can make reads off of that.”

Penalty killing

Blashill claims his penalty-killing system is a hybrid of several different systems, but it’s predicated on applying pressure on the puck instead of sitting back passively — the conventional wisdom when shorthanded.

When the opposing power play’s point man has possession in the center of the ice, the Hawks’ penalty kill will resemble a diamond, which is what they’ve employed the past few years.

When either power-play winger has possession on the flank, however, the Hawks’ high forward (the top of the diamond) will apply pressure from above, as he would in a traditional push-down penalty kill. That should help the Hawks dictate where the winger goes with the puck.

All the while, the Hawks will watch for moments — a bobbled puck, a tight area, an errant glance — where they can spring out of formation and either tie up the puck or intercept a pass.

“Before, our PK was good, but we were pretty passive because we were standing in our lanes and teams were able to move the puck for a while,” Murphy said. “Now, we’re going to be a lot more aggressive. [We’ll] try to…jump guys so they’re not able to set it up and move it around the horn.”

Said Dickinson: “We’re supposed to strike quick and early, [clear the puck] down the ice and get off. And the next guys are fresh, so they can strike quick.”

This system requires constant decision-making — particularly from the Hawks’ defensemen — about whether to jump out and pressure or hang back and protect the net. Those decisions must be decisive and correct, because if they’re a half-second slow, things fall apart.

“If you’re chasing pressure, then you’re probably in trouble…because if I’m two steps late, you’re going to be able to make the play,” Blashill said. “If I meet it, you have no time to make the play. The No. 1 thing in their head should be, ‘Can I meet the puck?'”

The team spent extended time practicing this system this week, but there’s still some lingering confusion.

Blashill said he expects it’ll take some time for the Hawks to master it, because the same thing happened with the Lightning last season. They ranked 22nd in the NHL in net penalty-kill rate (77.8%) in October, but they were the best in the league (88.8%) from Nov. 1 on.

Other systems

The Hawks’ neutral-zone trap remains similar to the 1-1-3 system Sorensen installed last winter, albeit with slightly more aggressiveness involved.

A 1-1-3 trap involves one forward (the “F1”) pressuring the breakout, a second forward supporting him and three Hawks guarding the blue line. If there’s a contested puck, it can morph into more of a 2-1-2.

The Hawks’ defensive-zone breakouts after dump-ins by the opposition will look different. Instead of both defensemen skating below the goal line, one will hold above the net and wait for the puck-retrieving defenseman to either wheel around the net or reverse direction.

The retriever won’t have the option of a “D-to-D” pass, but he should also encounter less forechecking pressure.