Weekly Chicago Blackhawks Review: Wrapping up week 4

In week 4 of the regular season (October 30-November 5, 2022), the Chicago Blackhawks played four games: three at home and one in Winnipeg. The Blackhawks lost 4-3 to the Wild in overtime, lost 3-1 to the Islanders, beat the Kings 2-1 in overtime, and lost 4-0 to the Jets.

Positives

1.) Jonathan Toews extended his point streak to seven games against Los Angeles Kings. It was ended in the 4-0 shutout loss to the Jets, but it is good to see the captain producing and having fun again.

2.) 23-year-old Arvid Soderblom got his first career NHL win against the Kings as well. Soderblom played three games for Chicago last season, and finally secured his first win in his third appearance of this season.

The Chicago Blackhawks went 1-2-1 in week 4.

Soderblom is toting a .924 save percentage and appears to be a great option for the Blackhawks in net for the future.

3.) Aside from the game against Los Angeles, the Blackhawks have been phenomenal in the face-off dot. They won 62.5% against Minnesota, 53.1% against the Islanders, and 51.9% against the Jets.

Chicago currently leads the league in face-off percentage, sitting at an even 57%.

Negatives

1.) Injury bug. The Blackhawks have gotten themselves into trouble with players getting hurt. Tyler Johnson has been out for some time now, but the more recent injuries may have more of an impact.

Petr Mrazek, Alex Stalock, and Arvid Soderblom have all gone down to injuries, leaving the Blackhawks with (technically) their fifth-string goalie, Dylan Wells.

Seth Jones will also be out for a month or so with a broken thumb, which is a big blow to Chicago’s defensive end.  Jones averages about 25 minutes every night, and now those minutes have been divided among two or three other defensemen.

2.) The Blackhawks power play was not great this week, scoring only once on nine attempts.  Despite currently sitting at 11th in the league for power play percentage, the Blackhawks saw a rough 4-game week for the man advantage.

On the play that saw Alex Stalock get injured against the New York Islanders, the Blackhawks were awarded a five-minute power play that they failed to score on.

3.) The loss to the New York Islanders was the fourth in a row for the Blackhawks. As most of us could predict, that will probably not be the longest losing streak of this season.

The losing was snapped in the Blackhawks’ overtime win against the Kings, but they ended the week with another loss, so we could be at the start of another winless streak.

Record

Weekly: 1-2-1

Season: 5-5-2

My 3 Stars of the Week

*** Jake McCabe – 1 G, 1 A

** Arvid Soderblom – First career NHL win

* Jonathan Toews – 3 G