Seth Jones has improved in the second half of the Blackhawks’ season.
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If Seth Jones meets with a hockey genie on Jan. 13 every year, that’s a secret he’s unwilling to share with the world.
“[Maybe] the eclipse has been on that day and we didn’t know about it,” Jones hypothesized.
Whatever the reason, the Blackhawks defenseman has somehow turned each of his last two seasons around on that exact date.
This year, Jan. 13 was the day he returned from a shoulder injury that cost him a month of action. In 27 games before getting hurt, he tallied zero goals — a goose egg that hung over him throughout his absence — and 11 assists.
In 38 games since then, he has erupted for eight goals — tying him for sixth among all NHL defensemen in that span — and 12 -assists.
His analytics have also improved significantly. He has tried to adopt more of a trigger-happy, shoot-first mentality, and the stats reflect that effort. His rate of shot attempts per 60 minutes has increased from 12.4 pre-injury to 14.1 post-injury.
Even his overall scoring-chance ratio (during five-on-five play) has increased from 43.3% pre-injury, which ranked fourth among Hawks defensemen, to 46.3% post-injury, best among Hawks defensemen.
Remarkably, an identical pattern holds true when comparing his performance before and after Jan. 13 in the 2022-23 season.
In 30 games before that date, he tallied two goals and 11 assists and had a 41.5% scoring-chance ratio. In 42 games after it, he broke out for 10 goals and 14 assists and had a 47.8% scoring-chance ratio.
“I don’t know what to attribute it to,” Jones said. “I try to go out and play the same every night. Obviously, I have focused on shooting the puck more … but I feel like my defensive game has been the same and my puck movement has been very similar.
“To be honest, I think I’ve been playing the same. I don’t know what it is about the first-half [versus] second-half thing, but I need to make it an 82-game thing.”
Hawks coach Luke Richardson has talked to Jones frequently over the last two years about not trying to do too much by himself.
When he follows the mentality that every breakdown or miscue by the team is his responsibility to sort out — Richardson describes it as “running around putting fires out” — he can become part of the problem, too, because he’s out of position and spread too thin.
When Jones focuses solely on his responsibilities, Richardson thinks he’s much more effective. And Richardson has also noticed Jones’ trend of playing better in the second half of seasons. Perhaps it simply takes a few months every year to wrap his head around that concept.
“There’s some adjustment,” Richardson said. “He’s competitive, he wants to get off to a good start and he wants to help the team win every night. Sometimes if it’s not there, he’s pushing a little too hard. Then he settles into his role — and he’s a top defender, for sure. People talk about his offense — and his offense is coming back — but it’s more his shutdown play.”
It’s impossible, though, to completely eliminate Jones’ belief that some risks intended to generate more offense are worth it. Perhaps those risks have just paid off more frequently — and backfired less frequently — since January.
“We’ve always talked about that fine line between doing too much and not doing enough,” Jones said. “There are times where you try to push the pace and it’s not going to work. But if you’re looking at maybe seven or eight out of 10 times it works, that’s a pretty good percentage.
“With a team that’s struggling to score, I’m trying to take one or two more chances a game to make those offensive plays -happen.”