Blackhawks’ Alex DeBrincat heating up, outplaying rookie season

Sometimes Alex DeBrincat’s goals just don’t make sense. Even on replay, knowing the outcome, it’s hard to envision how he’s possibly going to get an angle and get the puck through to the back of the net.

Blackhawkscoach Jeremy Colliton describes it ambiguously as a “knack to be in the right spot,” and DeBrincat seems equally lost for an explanation on his scoring run.

“I’ve been getting pretty lucky lately with the puck bounces, but you go through stretches like this, and then you go through stretches where you can’t buy a goal,” he said. “I just put them in when I can.”

That’s a frequent occurrence lately, and DeBrincat’s growth is a bright spot amid the Hawks’ tumult this season. He’s tied with Patrick Kane for the team lead in goals at 17 — that ranks 22nd in the NHL — and is third in points with 31.

DeBrincat has eight goals and seven assists in the last 17 games and went into the Christmas break with five points in three games.

The Hawks resume play Thursday with a home game against the Wild, then visit Colorado on Saturday before heading to Notre Dame for the Winter Classic matchup against the Bruins.

It’s a chance for DeBrincat to keep building on a season that’s tracking well ahead of what he did as an impressive rookie. He’s on pace for 65 points after reaching 52 (28 goals, 24 assists) last year.

“When he gets his chances, he puts the puck where it should be,” Colliton said. “So it’s a positive for us. He continues to find a way to produce.”

Colliton and DeBrincat have blended well. Colliton shifted DeBrincat to the third line last week to spread out him, Kane and Jonathan Toews and keep a top-notch scoring threat on the ice longer during the game. DeBrincat embraced the move.

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Instead of playing with Kane and Dylan Strome, DeBrincat joined David Kampf and Dylan Sikura. His first game on the new line was at Dallas, where he had three points. He showed immediate cohesion with Kampf and Sikura, scoring on a set play off a faceoff.

“You look at the teams that are difficult to match up against, I think they have three lines that you’re really worried about that they’re gonna produce offensively,” Colliton said at the time. He added that playing on the third line also might be advantageous for DeBrincat because “they get better matchups, and that maybe is a little bit easier.”

No matter what line he’s on, DeBrincat’s strong play is so commonplace for the Hawks that they don’t seem to notice the things that make him an anomaly.

Fresh off his 21st birthday, he remains one of the youngest players in the league. Teammates still jab him about that, but they mostly have backed off because of his size. He’s one of three NHL players under 5-8, checking in at 5-7, 165 pounds.

Looking past his size, by the way, is one of the Hawks’ smartest draft moves in the last couple of years.

DeBrincat was a steal at No. 39 overall in 2016, a great pick for a team that didn’t have a first-round selection that year. He’s fourth in his class in career goals (45) and fifth in points (83). The players ahead of him in either category were top-seven picks, and the three players who have scored more goals have appeared in 45-plus more games than him.