Fingers pointed at Kyle Davidson following major call out of weakness

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Joshua Deeds
November 8, 2024 (4:55 PM)

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The Chicago Blackhawks have come off of a disappointing 3-1 loss to the Dallas Stars last night.

The Hawks would try and mount enough pressure to close the gap in the last period but couldn't connect. Connor Bedard would try and drive offense, but wouldn't generate a point until the last period, with an assist on Tyler Bertuzzi's power-play goal.

Bad news travels fast, and this news should consider changing Kyle Davidson's timeline on acquiring a 2nd-line center.

Waking up on Friday, the Blackhawks rank 30th out of 32 NHL teams in team faceoff percentage at 45.2 - ahead of only Florida and Anaheim. (Oh, and when the Blackhawks played in Anaheim this past weekend? Chicago won 49 percent of the faceoffs.

The Blackhawks Ryan Donato, and Philipp Kurashev were unable to overcome the odds, as they won only 7 out of 22 face-offs.

«When you start out without a puck, that's a hard thing,» Richardson said on the Chicago Sports Network postgame show. «We're chasing the game quite a bit.»

While winning face-offs isn't solely a lonesome job, the Blackhawks need help. Even Jonathan Toews credited Marian Hossa for helping him win more in the circle.

You might recall the dozens of times that Jonathan Toews mentioned how much Marian Hossa helped his faceoff percentage (and Toews was a damn jedi in the circle). Having wings that win fights for loose pucks that aren't won clean off the drop helps everyone, and the Blackhawks aren't doing much of that right now.

So how do you solve the problem with a lack of puck possession after losing in the circle? Well you're going to have to find talent somewhere. Will it be in Rockford, with Frank Nazar who has 7 points in 7 games? Ideally, but he'd have to clear waivers which wouldn't happen.

the NHL roster is at the maximum 23 players already. And you can't just «launch {player] into the sun» or «cut [player]» or «rip up his contract» because that's now how things work in a CBA world.

Only Nolan Allan can be sent down without clearing waivers, and Isaak Phillips will eventually be exposed again when Alec Martinez is off of injured reserve.

Whose a free agent add that could add to the Blackhawks depth, and not break the bank as far as losing or trading prospects go?

Tab Bamford thinks that Mikael Granlund could be a good target for the Blackhawks. He has an affordable $5 Million AAV cap hit, and with the ascendance of Will Smith, and Macklin Celebrini in San Jose could find himself out of a job in the Sharks organization soon.

The Blackhawks themselves have no internal answers, as for the last two seasons they've had Jason Dickinson, who had a career year last season. But has had a slow start this year.

The depth is lacking and it shows as Nick Foligno has been asked to shore up the 2nd line often down the middle.

There's no high-priced free agent worth giving up your best prospects in Rockford for, even if it is Nazeem Kadri, or Sean Couturier.