Among the many things that did not happen for the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2021-22 NHL season was a statistical anomaly that hadn’t occurred in just over five decades.
For the first time since the ‘70-71 Buffalo Sabres expansion season, the Blackhawks went a full NHL season without a defenseman scoring a power-play goal.
It was a strange development for a Blackhawks’ power play which certainly wasn’t good but has also been worse. During the 70 games from the pandemic-shortened ‘19-20 NHL season, Chicago’s power play scored just 33 goals in 217 opportunities: a 15.21 percent conversion rate that was 28th in the league. Chicago finished this last season 21st at 19.18 percent.
So, how did this happen?
The obvious starting point is how the Blackhawks divvied up ice time while playing with the man advantage. The top power-play unit featured four forwards, so there were only two defenseman in the top 10 for Blackhawks power play ice time this season: Seth Jones…
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