BLOG: Colliton on Crawford, Improving for Next Season

The Blackhawks took strides during the 2019-20 season, but head coach Jeremy Colliton knows there are more to take in becoming an elite team. On Friday, he spoke to reporters about the year and how to improve going into next season.

Here are some of the highlights:

On the impact of Corey Crawford this year...

He's a big part of our group. He's been around. He's won. Leadership. All those things. I think it was very impressive how he was in a tough situation coming into camp, didn't get much preparation. We get him going with just a few days of practice and start him against Edmonton and he found a way to compete for us. I thought he got better as the playoffs went on, just more reps and getting into the rhythm. Very, very impressed. It just shows his character and commitment and professionalism. I thought he gave us some really big games, especially against Vegas. Even the third period (in Game 4) against Edmonton, he was outstanding for us. He's an excellent player for us.

On team giving up quality chances against and how to improve that...

We're making progress. We're certainly not where we'd like to be to be an elite team. You look at Vegas, at least the numbers that we're looking at, since January they were number one in chances for and chances against. It's not as if just because you want to defend hard you're not going to create anything, but that's part of why they're an elite team.

A lot of it is just commitment to do the right things every time you're on the ice and understanding that you're out there for hopefully 35-40 seconds and you've got to be totally focused on your job and beat the guy you're up against.

Where we get into trouble, particularly our team and where we're at now, is when we don't manage the puck. I think when we have a structure and we're fresh and you're able to defend from structure, then I think we do a pretty good job. Where we get into trouble is when we start turning the puck over in critical areas, whether that's in our own end or around the blue lines, those important areas, it's really tough to get your structure back. You put a lot of stress on the team as far as the reaction to get back on the right side, get defensive position. Maybe you're outnumbered or, the next part of it is, you end up playing tired.

We've got to do a better job of getting off, finding a way to advance the puck, get it in and then change one at a time, so that even if we don't create offense out of that particular shift, we're in a good position to defend. I think when we've been good, we're able to build one shift at a time and start to play in the offensive zone, start to tilt the ice and then all of the sudden you end up fresh and you're playing against tired guys and now they have trouble defending and you're fresh and able to win 50-50s and win battles.

I think we've been talking about it a lot and we made progress. Particularly the Edmonton series where we were out-changing them and we were defending when we're fresh and we're forcing them to defend when they're not and then we looked pretty good defensively. As soon as you start turning pucks over or you're over-stay on your shift, it becomes hard. We're going to keep working at that. We've shown there's a path there to be a better defensive team and we've got to reach it if we want to be an elite team and go deep into the playoffs.

On opportunities for young players, prospects to establish roles within the team next year...

I think there's going to be a lot of opportunity. We need to get better. I think it's a big step forward, the playoffs we had. I don't think there were many people picking us to make the playoffs in October. We got better as the year went on. We got a chance because of the circumstances, the pandemic to qualify and we beat a team -- I don't think too many (people) were picking us to win -- a series that we deserved to win and we had a hard series against an excellent team (Vegas).

That's just a step forward. We need more. We want to get better. Part of how we're going to do that giving opportunity to young players. And they're going to have to earn it to get more, but we're going to expose them to the chance to be part of our team and how can they help us have more depth, be more relentless, have a better forecheck, able to hold teams down for one, two, three, four shifts at a time, draw penalties, change momentum in a game. We need more. We saw that in the playoffs. Those are the teams that are having success. In order to do that, we're going to have to inject young guys and they're going to have to do a job for us.

Who that's going to be, that'll play out. This year we gave a lot of opportunities to young players and we were better for it and we'll be better for it in the future. There's no reason to stop now.