Analyzing Lukas Reichel's difficult Blackhawks season, what he improved and what he didn't

LAS VEGAS — If Blackhawks forward Lukas Reichel hadn’t learned this season how to move on from blunders and avoid dwelling on the past, he easily could’ve gotten buried under the weight of his many miscues.

He did learn, though, and that represents one positive coming out of this severely disappointing season: his mindset has gotten healthier.

“In this league, it’s tough to score or have chances,” Reichel said. “Even little plays, it’s not going to be perfect. It’s about how you react to mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes — even [Connor] McDavid and [Sidney] Crosby — but their reaction after that is important. I wasn’t good at it early in the season, but I feel like now I’m way better.”

His performance in the Hawks’ 5-1 loss last Friday against the Predators offers a good example. He struggled during the first half of the game, just like the rest of the team, making some dumb decisions with the puck.

Earlier this season, he would’ve spent the rest of the night figuratively beating himself up for that, letting his bad half-game extend into a bad full game. On Friday, however, he flushed it and played a much better second half.

“I wasn’t thinking about the turnovers; I was trying to make the next shift better,” he said. “Even when it’s like a 4-0 game, you can’t be like, ‘It’s over.’ You have to try your best. You know fans are paying for tickets, so it’s already embarrassing, but you don’t want to [let it get to] six or seven goals.”

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

The Hawks would obviously prefer for Reichel to play well for the entirety of games, not just half of them. That’s what they drafted and developed him to do; that’s what his natural talents should allow him to do.

After that Predators game, coach Luke Richardson talked to Reichel about the importance of bringing maximum effort from the opening puck drop rather than waiting to gauge the pace of the game before settling in.

“I want him to be a little more determined from the beginning and [to see] him dictate how that shift is going to go,” Richardson said. “It might not lead to a breakaway right off the hop, but then the next shift, do it again. Then the next shift, do it again — instead of waiting for a break to happen and then [thinking], ‘I’m going to get it going.’

“But once things do happen, he gets really involved in the game. I’ve liked some of his aggression on the walls and puck battles and [him] shooting the puck a little bit more.”

There are some marginal indications of improvement in Reichel’s play since he returned to the NHL on March 16. His stat line of five points in 14 games since then is hardly impressive, but his point-per-minute rate has more than doubled compared to before his Rockford stint, when he tallied 10 points in 50 games.

He’s also shooting slightly more frequently (9.4 vs. 8.8 shot attempts per 60 minutes), and prior to Tuesday, he had recorded multiple individual scoring chances in five consecutive games for the first time all season.

The Hawks have only been outscored 8-5 during his five-on-five ice time this stint. The previous stint, it was 34-11. Their scoring-chance ratio during his ice time has nonetheless dipped a bit from 37.3% to 36.7%.

Reichel plans to spend the bulk of his offseason training at home in Germany, where he quipped he’ll finally get some “good food.” He could participate in the AHL playoffs before then. By the time he returns for training camp in September, he’ll have a new contract.

Gaining strength and weight won’t be as massive a priority for him this summer as it has been the last few summers. Conversely, Richardson wants Reichel to focus on treating every workout, skate and scrimmage like the Stanley Cup Final, forming a habit of always giving 100% effort no matter the situation.

“That’s going to be huge for him to . . . implement that into his mindset so [he feels like], ‘That’s how I just play,’ ” Richardson said. “If he’s out playing three-on-three summer hockey in Europe, that’s how he’s playing.

“Then it becomes repetition, so every time you go out, that’s how you play.”