The Chicago Blackhawks are officially halfway through their 2022-23 season. The Seattle Kraken game on Jan. 14 marked the 41st contest of this 82-game campaign. Their record is currently 11-26-4, good for 26 points and last in the league. This is right on track with the team’s plan to obtain a top pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. In other words, the focus is definitely more on success in the future than success in the present.
Related – Blackhawks By the Numbers, Christmas Edition
Nevertheless, there is still a team on ice, and a push for development and growth, especially for the younger players. The Blackhawks’ coaching staff is tasked with developing the right culture, despite possessing a team that’s set up to fail. Now that we’re at this midseason point, it’s an appropriate time to revisit where the Blackhawks stand individually, and as a team, with their latest numbers and statistics. We’ll also compare some of the changes and updates since our Christmas edition.
Blackhawks’ Points Leaders
Per usual, everyone wants to know who’s on top of the leaderboard offensively. After all, scoring goals is how you win games. We look below at the leaders in goals, assists and points.
Leader With 13 Goals, Domi
Jonathan Toews has led the way in this department all season, although at the Christmas mark he was tied with Max Domi (both with 11 goals). It turns out Domi has finally pulled ahead, and leads the pack with 13 goals.
Everyone expected Domi to be one of the better players for the Blackhawks, and he’s certainly lived up to expectations. The idea when he was signed was to highlight his skills so he could be flipped at the trade deadline. But recently there have been rumors Domi might be interested in staying with the Blackhawks. His tenacious style of play certainly matches the identity the Blackhawks are trying to obtain.
It’s now Toews and Taylor Raddysh that are tied for second place, with 12 goals apiece. Andreas Athanasiou is third with nine goals. Patrick Kane, who has struggled to score all season, is currently in fourth place with eight tallies.
Leader With 20 Assists, Kane
This is actually quite interesting, because Kane was the front-runner with 20 assists at Christmastime, and no one has caught up to him even though he hasn’t added any since. Granted, he’s recently missed three contests while nursing a lower body injury. He’s also scored three goals in the last six games he’s played since Christmas. Will it just be a matter of time before he puts them both goals and assists together?
Domi is still in second place on the team with 17 assists. This is five more than he had at Christmas. A new name enters in third place; Seth Jones quietly added three assists in the 8-5 loss to the Kraken on Jan. 14 to bring his total to 14 helpers.
Leader With 30 Points, Domi
We have a new leader for overall points. Yes, Domi has moved ahead of Kane with 30 points. Granted, we know Kane has played in three less games. But it’s still commendable of Domi to be the leader in this department. Since Christmas, he’s registered two goals and five assists to reach this distinction.
Related – Blackhawks Getting Much Needed Passion & Fire From Max Domi
Kane is now in second place with 28 points and Toews is third with 24 points. I would expect all three of them to be neck in neck for this top spot for the rest of…until one or all of them are traded at the trade deadline.
Top Defensive Statistics
- It’s quite a testament to Jarred Tinordi and his commitment to a physical game that he STILL leads the team with 92 hits (in 25 games), despite being out since Dec. 18 due to a facial fracture. Having the most hits is usually a distinction for a defensive player, but depth forward Reese Johnson is currently second with 89 hits. He’s done this while participating in only 32 games. Jake McCabe is in third place, with 88 hits in 38 contests.
- McCabe leads the team with 88 blocked shots, and Connor Murphy is right behind him with 85. Jack Johnson comes in third, with 69 blocked shots.
- Not surprisingly, Seth Jones continues to lead the way averaging 24:45 minutes of ice time. He’s currently averaging well over four minutes more ice time than anyone else on the team. Jack Johnson is second with 20:05 ATOI, and Murphy third among defensemen with 19:26 minutes. Kane’s 19:52 ATOI is third among the team as a whole.
- Jones also currently leads all defensemen with 82 shots on goal. This is actually third on the team behind Kane and Domi. Jones’ shots paid off when he registered his first power play goal of the season (and first for a Blackhawks’ defenseman since May 1, 2021) on Jan. 3 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
- In other defensive news, the NHL All-Star representatives were announced on Jan. 5. Jones was selected from the Blackhawks to attend the festivities on Feb. 4 in Sunrise, FL. Yes, the rules state there must be a representative from every team, even the worst one in the league. Needless to say, it’s a somewhat hollow honor for Jones. But his name is also all over these defensive statistics. There’s a reason he got the call.
Miscellaneous Stats for the Blackhawks
- Domi still leads the team with 34 takeaways. Jason Dickinson comes in second with 28 takeaways. Dickinson has struggled to find his way since contributing two goals and five points in his first four games as a Blackhawk. This and a beautiful primary assist during the recent Kraken game should help his confidence. Athanansiou is third with 27 takeaways.
- Kane is up to 140 shots on goal, which leads the team despite having only eight goals. Domi is second with 92 shots, and S. Jones third with 82 shots (as we already mentioned above). The forward next in line is Athanasiou, with 75 shots on goal.
- Raddysh still leads the team with a 19.4 shooting percentage. Toews is at 16.9% and Domi at 14.1%. These were also your leaders at Christmas, in that order. Again, it’s no coincidence they are also the top goal-scorers. Kane’s shooting percentage? I’m glad you asked. It’s 5.7%, which is actually improved from a dismal 4.2% at Christmastime.
- We always have to cover a few negative stats. Domi has led the team in penalty minutes all season. He’s still there, with 41 penalty minutes. Toews has 37, and Murphy has 31 penalty minutes.
- Domi has surpassed Toews in giveaways since the latter led at Christmas. Domi is credited with 33 giveaways, Toews with 31 and S. Jones with 29.
Faceoff Finesse
It’s a little uncanny the Blackhawks continue to be so strong in the faceoff department while being at the bottom of the league in most other statistics. Overall, they currently rank 56.4% in faceoff wins, which is best in the league.
Here’s a look at the individual player numbers, with their Christmas numbers in parentheses.
- Toews, 63.9% (65.6% before)
- Domi, 55.9 % (55.6% before)
- Dickinson, 49.9% (50.9% before)
- Sam Lafferty, 52.7% (52.3% before)
- MacKenzie Entwistle, 48.5% (50% before)
Toews’ 63.9% incidentally leads the entire league, and everyone else’s numbers are trending towards or above 50%. Hopefully the Blackhawks can continue these impressive faceoff numbers in the future when they’re a better team.
Blackhawks Special Teams Stats
At the Christmas mark, the power play was holding it’s own while the penalty kill had faltered a bit. At the halfway point of the season the opposite is true. The Blackhawks just can’t seem to find their way on the power play, although their penalty kill has improved.
Power Play
The Blackhawks power play was 6th in the league at Halloween, 18th at both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it currently ranks 21st in the league at the halfway mark, with a 20.5% success rate (26 goals scored on 127 attempts).
Related – Blackhawks Bytes on Adversity: Stalock, Johnson, Kane, More
Something just isn’t working on the man advantage. I personally think they defer to Kane too much. That said, he’s only notched two PP goals this season so far. Domi and Toews are both tied for the lead with seven PP tallies, and Raddysh has five.
We mentioned above that S. Jones finally scored a power play and was the first defenseman to do so since May of 2021, a span of 124 games. The top unit has been experimenting with Jones roving a little bit more and shooting from different areas, instead of just manning the point. This should provide more movement and unpredictability for that top unit. We’ll see if it pans out.
Regarding the less utilized second PP unit; Dickinson, Athanasiou, Tyler Johnson and Jujhar Khaira! have all notched one goal on the power play.
Penalty Kill
Moving on to the penalty kill, the Blackhawks ranked 26th in the league at Halloween, 24th at Thanksgiving and 28th at Christmas. There has been some minor improvement in this department, as the team ranks 25th in the league at the halfway mark of the season. They’ve allowed 33 goals on 127 attempts.
Special teams always have their ebbs and flows throughout any given season. It will be interesting to track this through the second half, and see where they eventually end up at the end of their 2022-23 campaign.
Blackhawks’ Firsts
We’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss some of the firsts that have occurred between the Christmas and midseason mark. We already mentioned S. Jones and his power play goal. Here are some other notable highlights.
- Forward Lukas Reichel recently joined the team for a three-game stint while Kane was absent with a minor injury. The top prospect notched his first NHL goal on Jan. 8 against the Calgary Flames. He also provided two primary assists, including on the overtime winner, for his first multi-point game in the NHL.
- In that very same contest, Colin Blackwell scored his first goal as a Blackhawk. He was the last forward on the team to record at least one goal this season.
- 21-year-old defensive prospect Isaak Phillips has suited up for nine games with the Blackhawks so far in this campaign, and he tallied his first NHL goal on Jan. 14 against the Kraken. He’s also credited with two assists, for three total NHL points.
Goaltender Numbers for Mrazek & Stalock
After both Petr Mrazek and Alex Stalock sustained injuries earlier in the season, they have both been healthy and sharing starts in net since Christmas. Here’s a quick look at their goaltender numbers.
Mrazek – .875 save percentage and a 4.26 goals against average, with a record of 3-10-1 in 16 games played
Mrazek has struggled this season. In his most recent tilt on Jan. 14 versus the Kraken, he allowed six goals on seven shots and was chased from the net. Perhaps he’s still dealing with some groin issues from earlier in the season. Regardless, his confidence is at an all-time low.
Mrazek was supposed to be the No. 1 goaltender this season. It will be interesting to see how many starts he gets moving forward.
Stalock – .918 SV% and a 2.70 GAA, with a record of 6-6-1 in 14 games played
Since returning from a concussion on Dec. 23, Stalock has started six of the last 10 games for the Blackhawks, and came in in relief for the Kraken game. It’s obvious he’s usurped the starting role from Mrazek. He might have even gotten another start or two in there, but he’s recently been under the weather.
Nobody expected Stalock to have this kind of a resurgence this season, but his numbers look phenomenal, especially considering the porous defense in front of him. He’s also become quite the veteran leader on the back end, with an excellent voice in the room and on the ice. He could easily garner some interest from other teams at the trade deadline.
Related – 3 Potential Landing Spots for Alex Stalock
Well folks, we’re halfway there. The 2022-23 season has been a challenge so far, but there have been a few bright spots. We shall see what the rest of the season has in store for the Blackhawks. I’ll check in with another By the Numbers edition around Valentine’s Day!