Blackhawks still ‘trying to get better’ as season winds down and last-place race heats up

The Hawks have dropped into a nearly dead heat with the Sharks and Blue Jackets for last place in the NHL — and the best draft-lottery odds — with nine games to go. But the coaches and players still believe they have things to prove during the stretch run.

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Blackhawks foward Mike Hardman battles for the puck.

The Blackhawks will keep working during their final nine games, despite the futility of their situation.

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Five consecutive losses in regulation have dropped the Blackhawks into nearly a dead heat for the NHL’s worst record.

The Hawks have 54 points in 73 games. The Blue Jackets have 53 points in 72 games. The Sharks have 53 points in 73 games.

That puts them all within decimals of each other in points percentage: .370, .368 and .363, respectively. The Ducks also are hanging around with a .384 percentage (56 points in 73 games) entering Monday.

The last three weeks will determine which team enters the May 8 draft lottery with a 25.5% chance of receiving the first pick (and a guaranteed top-three selection), which team enters with a 9.5% chance of the first pick (and the possibility to slip to sixth) and which teams fall in the middle.

The tankers’ remaining strengths of schedule are comparable, too. The Hawks have five games left against teams in the playoff field, while the Jackets have six, the Sharks seven and the Ducks six.

Whichever team plays the worst will benefit the most in the long run.

But as has already been discussed extensively, that’s neither the concern nor the objective of the Hawks’ active players or coaches. Even though their lack of talent has caught up to them after their work-ethic-driven surge a few weeks back, they believe there are still things to learn and accomplish in these last nine games.

Coach Luke Richardson said he has tried to break down the season’s final stretch into “small goals.” 

This week’s four-game homestand, which began with a loss to the Canucks on Sunday, continues Tuesday against the Stars, with the Blues and Devils also on tap.

“We’re going to start trying to filter some guys in as we get to the end of the year,” Richardson said Sunday. “[These] are guys who have an opportunity here to show themselves, and that’s a real inspiration.”

Trade-deadline acquisitions Joey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Anders Bjork — the latter two just returned from injuries — fit that bill. They’ll feel an urgency to prove they’re worth re-signing.

The same will apply to longer-tenured but fellow pending free agents Jujhar Khaira and Ian Mitchell, as well as to recently signed prospect Wyatt Kaiser in a different way.

Meanwhile, Richardson will continue to work on specific technical improvements during the few practices and morning skates left on the schedule.

That was evident last week in Washington when he began a practice by breaking down how to defend when an opponent connects a seam pass to the weak-side defenseman in the Hawks’ defensive zone.

In that situation, he wants the Hawks’ weak-side forward to first check if there’s someone in the slot he should be covering — which was a problem (particularly off faceoffs) earlier this month — and, if there isn’t, to pressure the defenseman with the puck.

“If [the defenseman] goes down [the boards], our guy always goes down with him,” he said. “But if [the defenseman] goes up a little bit higher to the blue line . . . [our guy should] find that lane and be in the middle and make it a difficult pass where you can react to it or cut it off with your stick.”

And the Hawks are listening, too. The steady, supportive team culture that Richardson is so proud of having facilitated this season means effort levels likely will remain high to the end.

“We all have something to play for,” defenseman Seth Jones said. “We’re all trying to get better as individuals and as a team and build something.

‘‘We’re not going to get better [next season] out of thin air, so it starts now with the way we play the game every night.”

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