{"id":134757,"date":"2025-08-10T16:24:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T16:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134757\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T16:24:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T16:24:18","slug":"inside-jeff-blashills-plan-to-begin-teaching-blackhawks-winning-habits-in-training-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/134757\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Jeff Blashill\u2019s plan to begin teaching Blackhawks ‘winning habits’ in training camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Blackhawks<\/a> coach Jeff Blashill wasn\u2019t surprised by the team\u2019s lack of offseason moves.<\/p>\n

In fact, Blashill expected his new boss, general manager Kyle Davidson, to stay out of the fray. During their interviews and meetings leading up to Blashill\u2019s hiring in late May, Davidson told him that was the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is our growth will be based on how quickly our young guys mature,\u201d Blashill recently told the Sun-Times. \u201c[Not only] how they mature physically, but more importantly, how their games mature.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019ll] go from a young, talented group to a group that plays winning hockey. The most exciting opportunity we have as a coaching staff is to mold our players into winning players as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that organizational philosophy in mind, much of Blashill\u2019s summer has been spent familiarizing himself with the Hawks\u2019 horde of young players and designing a plan for training camp \u2014 his first opportunity to start that molding process.<\/p>\n

He lived five minutes away from the U.S. National Team Development Program during his time as Red Wings coach, so he already knew a bit about USNTDP products-turned-Hawks Alex Vlasic, Frank Nazar and Spencer Knight. And Michigan State coach Adam Nightingale was previously a Wings assistant under Blashill, so Blashill already knew a bit about Artyom Levshunov.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Blashill has made an effort to get to know all of his new players personally this offseason, either by meeting in person with the Chicago-based guys (Vlasic, Nazar, Connor Murphy, etc.) or through phone calls and texts with the rest. He and Connor Bedard, for example, texted about the Panthers\u2019 tactics<\/a> during the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

He has also reached out to agents and former coaches to learn more about which types of coaching styles and communication work best for each player.<\/p>\n

He has spent time in the film room, too, re-watching Hawks games from last season \u2014 particularly the last nine, after Sam Rinzel and Oliver Moore joined the group and the Hawks rolled out some prospect-laden lineups. Predictably, the April 14 victory in Montreal<\/a> stood out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be a different animal as we get into this season, but it gives me some perspective,\u201d Blashill said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Blashill<\/p>\n

Blashill has spent the summer getting to know his new players, including captain Nick Foligno (left).<\/p>\n

Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Camp plan<\/b><\/p>\n

Hawks players and fans alike should prepare to hear Blashill utter the phrase \u201cwinning habits\u201d constantly this season.<\/p>\n

That will begin day one of training camp, which will occur sometime during the week of Sept. 15-19. (Rookies participating in the annual Tom Kurvers prospect tournament, taking place in Minnesota this year, will report the previous week.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first system we\u2019ll implement will be our backchecking track,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cThe reason for that is, one, it\u2019s a work-ethic indicator. That will show how willing our team is to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd two, it\u2019s one of the best ways to create transition offensive opportunities \u2014 by being smothering in your effort to come back as forwards. That allows your [defensemen] to gap up, create turnovers and go the other way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forwards will need to take efficient routes to the puck, stop on the puck and then get sticks on the puck. If they do that correctly, then they\u2019ll need to be ready to push hard in the opposite direction to help the Hawks spring a counterattack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll put a huge emphasis on our first three steps in any kind of transition, both from a reload perspective, but also when you create turnovers,\u201d Blashill said.<\/p>\n

While learning about his roster, Blashill identified the Hawks\u2019 ultra-young defense \u2014 as it stands, eight of the nine men who will compete for NHL jobs are 24 or younger \u2014 as an immediate strength. He hopes to craft his system around that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the \u2018D\u2019 corps, we\u2019re big and we can skate, as a whole,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what ways can we utilize that? One area is on breakouts. They\u2019re going to use their feet to help us get out of our end. From there, [they should] move pucks to open people, and then let\u2019s beat people up the ice. Now you\u2019re involved in the rush and creating out-numbered situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once in the offensive zone, Blashill wants the Hawks to adopt more of a shoot-first mentality.<\/p>\n

That will be music to fans\u2019 ears, since the team has finished last in the NHL in shot attempts per minute (during five-on-five play) in three consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still shot selection, but … when the puck goes low to high, the first read should be looking to the net and having a shot mentality,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019re going to emphasize early.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Blackhawks<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks will hit the ice for training camp in mid-September.<\/p>\n

Considering how little possession time the Hawks have generated in recent years \u2014 and how wasteful they\u2019ve been with the rare possessions they\u2019ve had \u2014 the key points of Blashill\u2019s plan make sense.<\/p>\n

Implementing any system is easier said than done, and the Hawks\u2019 lack of experience and star power will accentuate that. Blashill has his work cut out for him, no matter how logical his plan. But just like in his introductory press conference<\/a>, he continues to say the right things.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the whole point of the game is to create more chances than you give up,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you do that over and over again, you\u2019ll score more goals than you give up.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it\u2019s all a balance of understanding risk\/reward. Is the reward worth the risk? If it is, that\u2019s when you attack and try to make plays. And there\u2019s times where the reward is not worth the risk and you make a safer play with the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff assignments<\/b><\/p>\n

Blashill has assembled the Hawks\u2019 most proven, impressive group of assistant coaches in some time. The staff has been meeting primarily over Zoom, but they\u2019ll finally convene in a couple weeks.<\/p>\n

New assistants Michael Peca and Mike Vellucci will oversee the forwards, with Peca also coaching the penalty kill and Vellucci the power play. Anders Sorensen will oversee the defensemen \u2014 a role he previously held in Rockford. Long-tenured goalie coach Jimmy Waite retained his position.<\/p>\n

Blashill said he learned from Lightning coach Jon Cooper the value of wholehearted delegation, but there will still be plenty of overlap, collaboration and sharing of responsibilities within the staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a group of coaches that really see things similarly \u2014 from a hockey standpoint, from a habits standpoint [and] from an importance-of-discipline standpoint,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cThey\u2019re guys I know will be able to challenge me, as well. You want both those things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill wasn\u2019t surprised by the team\u2019s lack of offseason moves. In fact, Blashill expected…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":134758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-134757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115005401853779741","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}