Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy wants to earn his playoff debut

Six NHL seasons — four in Arizona, two and counting in Chicago — have yet to get Connor Murphy to the playoffs, but a trip home to Columbus for the first part of his offseason nearly did.

“It was great — the city definitely lit up with (the Blue Jackets) doing well in that first round and shocking the hockey world,” Murphy said Tuesday.

But he wasn’t about to get caught up in the fever.

“I didn’t go to ‘em,” he said, laughing. “A couple of guys invited me, but I didn’t really feel like supporting (the Jackets).”

Murphy and Carl Dahlstrom formed the official “shutdown pairing” on the Hawks’ defense this past season, but that title meant little on a team that allowed 3.55 goals and 14.2 high-danger chances against per game — the latter being the worst single-season performance by an NHL team in at least 12 years, per Natural Stat Trick.

With Murphy on the ice — often in disadvantageous, defensive zone positions — the Hawks were better at suppressing shots from most areas of the zone, but still bled chances right in front of the net.

The 6-4 blue liner’s affordable sub-$4 million contract for the next three years likely makes him immune to the inevitable back end changes coming this summer, but he knows he still must improve.

“What’s cool is (that with) the character of all of our D-men, we all take failures personally, and not making the playoffs is unacceptable for all of us,” Murphy said. “Taking your training seriously, whether it means watching games back or finding a new skill you can work on this summer that will make a difference individually, will collectively make us that much better too.”

Hawks preview upcoming street hockey tournament

While the team itself makes its second- through seventh-round selections on Saturday, June 22, in Vancouver, the United Center’s expansive parking lots will instead be populated by dozens of rinks as the world’s largest street hockey tournament makes its Chicago debut.

Chicago Blackhawks Photos

HockeyFest founder Brad Jones, who recently signed a multi-year contract to include the event within the Hawks’ summer fan festival, said he expects 100 to 150 teams to compete this year, with time still left to sign up. The traveling tournament also hosts annual events in numerous Canadian cities.

“Traditionally we can double that (number of teams) in year two,” Jones said. “We’ve got to show people what it’s all about. When I grew up in Canada, you played ice hockey in winter, you played street hockey with your neighbors in the summer months. We feel what’s old is new again.”

Murphy played with a handful of kids at Tuesday’s preview event and said street hockey contributed significantly to his own childhood hockey development.

“You look at the hours that you put into going where you go with your hockey career, and most of them are played on ... driveways and cul-de-sacs,” he said. “A lot of the skills you develop are from that, rather than the few hours of ice time you get per week.”