Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill vows to 'stay steady with what we believe in' amid adversity

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill has become public enemy No. 1 among Hawks fans, who eviscerate his lineups and systems online every day.

Blashill himself probably isn't scrolling the social-media threads or listening to the podcasts ripping him and his team. For his mental health's sake, one hopes he isn't.

But he is aware of the league standings. He knows the internally set and proclaimed expectations of improvement this season aren't being met. He has some sense of the mounting pressure, which could potentially reach a fulcrum during a break in the schedule next week.

"I'd prefer the word 'urgency' over 'desperate.' I think when people do desperate things, they're usually bad," Blashill said Wednesday. "There's certainly an urgency level. But that hasn't changed. Our urgency level has been high for a while."

However, he doesn't seem to be letting that urgency affect his decisions or coaching style. Nor is he second-guessing any of the decisions he has made since September.

"I just haven't really looked and said, 'We should've done this different,'" he said. "You're evaluating all the time, but [it's] more evaluation as to, 'This is done. What can we do moving forward?'

"That doesn't mean we didn't learn from every day we've gone through with this group. [We] make tweaks where we feel we've needed to make tweaks — without making wholesale changes to approach or systems or things like that, because that lead to mega confusion. There's a balance to it."

Much of the criticism of Blashill's lineups and systems boils down to one crucial, overarching difference in philosophy.

Fans expect him to design those based on what would maximize the Hawks' chances of winning games right now. Instead, he's designing them based on how the Hawks will ideally look and play years from now as a contending team.

He's letting Frank Nazar and Anton Frondell center their own lines — instead of loading them up with each other and/or with Connor Bedard — because, as he has mentioned often, most elite NHL teams have three dangerous lines.

The current Hawks are far from elite, so they don't have enough talent to form three dangerous lines — especially since all three centers are relatively inexperienced. That leads to Frondell being flanked by uninspiring wingers (Cole Smith and Teuvo Teravainen on Wednesday) while trying to handle matchups against the league's best.

What's better for Frondell's development: playing with the best possible linemates, or accumulating experience in the long-term role the Hawks foresee for him? Fans seem to think the former; Blashill seems to think the latter.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

It's the same theme with Blashill's systems, which involve pressuring opposing teams aggressively in all three zones.

The Hawks run a 2-1-2 forecheck with not one but two men pursuing the puck, which sometimes leaves the "F3" on an island. They're supposed to step up in the neutral zone instead of trapping at the blue line, too.

Those tactics work better for fast players than slower players. Some Hawks veteran forwards struggle with it. But the speedy kids fit it well — and more as prospects graduate into the NHL, that speed should become more universal throughout the lineup.

In the defensive zone, there's a lot of complexity. The fact the Hawks play man-on-man defense up high (compared to zone down low) and swarm loose or bobbled pucks along the boards puts heavy decision-making pressure on every individual player.

That often backfires because young players are prone to mistakes. But in theory, the system makes good use of the Hawks' long, agile defensemen. Retreating into a passive box around the net would probably reduce scoring chances against in the short term, but there's a reason most contenders don't play that way.

One could argue the Hawks need wins to build a winning culture. Perhaps that should come before worrying about the intricacies of their future identity. But Davidson hired Blashill knowing this would be his approach.

"I do see the benefit of playing a certain system and learning within that rather than playing one way that maybe has training wheels on it," Davidson said last November. "You just [say], 'You know what? You guys are NHL players, and you're going to play like the NHL-level team we want to be.' I like that process."

Hawks players remain on board with it, too.

"Part of [Blashill's] emphasis is to play fast and hard, and our team is just as fast as any team in the league," Alex Vlasic said Wednesday. "We have a lot of players that are explosive and quick. If we're able to execute defensively and transition the puck and play that fast-and-hard style, it's going to be hard for teams to keep up."

Vlasic, for the record, also praised Blashill's "passionate" and detail-oriented coaching and added that "it's on us as players...to execute things at a higher percentage."

It's truly unclear how much runway Blashill has left. The aforementioned urgency could force Davidson to take action soon if results don't improve.

Blashill is carrying on unfazed, though.

"An important part of coaching [is] staying steady on the rudder in the midst of challenges," he said. "Certainly we're facing challenges right now, but we've got to stay steady with what we believe in."