How the Blackhawks can fix their 'self-inflicted' mistakes

When you look at the Chicago Blackhawks 1-5 start, it's easy to list many different things that have gone wrong on both sides of the puck.

But maybe it's easier to focus on one thing they can improve on: self-inflicted mistakes.

Since the Blackhawks lost 5-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 10, that seems to be a recurring sentiment.

The Blackhawks have identified an area to improve on...

After the Hurricanes game, Patrick Kane got things rolling by mentioning the self-inflicted mistakes. He described, "Obviously, the first period is all right, and we give up one in the last minute, and then we get a power play, we get a couple looks, actually, and then all of a sudden we got another look and a broken stick, and they come down, and it's hard not to get frustrated when things are snowballing like that.

"It seems like you get some bad breaks. But we're also doing it to ourselves too, right? I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we haven't been good with the puck, and we turn it over, and then you got to play d-zone, and then you're a little bit tired because you're backchecking; you're coming back into your end when you should be going the other way. So, I think we can make it a little bit easier on ourselves. I mean, obviously we gave up a lot in the d-zone tonight, so, [we] need to get better with that. But I think it starts with being better with the puck, too."

It seems like amongst the Blackhawks, the theme of beating themselves has been a topic of conversation, as head coach Jeff Blashill said at practice on Oct. 11, "We had a tough meeting this morning, but they came out and had good attitudes and competed hard, and I think we understand that a lot of our issue right now is self-inflicted. So, we just got to cure that self-infliction."

Dominic Toninato also mentioned it when I asked what he had seen from his team during this stretch: "We got a great team. We got a good group of guys, good players, and we're piecing it together right now. The big thing I think we've been talking about, and that's happening, is we're kind of shooting ourselves in the foot. Playing hard. But like I said, the little mistakes, simple mistakes, are costing us in the end."

...But what can help?

They have identified a problem: they can make the game harder for themselves. Kane already mentioned that being better with the puck is a solution.

However, there's another one. Blashill said about how to combat the self-inflicted mistakes, "I would say maturity. And the question for our guys is, 'How quickly do we want to mature?' And that's just the reality of it. Like, are we going to mature in it quicker than teams that are kind of established teams? We played the two Stanley Cup finalists last year in Carolina and Vegas. They don't do a lot of beating themselves. Those players have gotten to a point in their careers where they take what's given and they understand risk/reward. But it takes time to get to that point.

"We got a whole bunch of guys on our team that are trying to learn that, and so, learning, taking what's given, learning risk/reward, and there's a line to it, and as I've said to our team lots, like this group's going to win. We're going to win when we mature. How quickly do we want to do that, and how long do we want to wait? So, hopefully we can learn those lessons sooner than later. But I can't guarantee that. It's just something that as we go through it... there's not like a magic pill that you can give them for it. They just have to learn that."

The Blackhawks have had to learn early lessons through this stretch of adversity. But if they can narrow it down to improving on the little things, like not giving up a goal soon after scoring, limiting turnovers, etc., that can make a big difference.

The good news is the Blackhawks have had two strong practice days ahead of their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 13, and their determination to turn things around is high.

As Alex Vlasic told me, "I think we have a lot of compete in our group. I think... it obviously sucks to be losing some of these games, but we all have a burning desire to win, and you can definitely see the frustration for some of us just because we do want to win so badly, and it's something that we're kind of using to our advantage. You know, use our frustration and turn it into momentum, turn it into some motivation to keep getting better and working on our game every single day."