Blackhawks defenseman Ian Cole spent some of this week coordinating logistics with an entourage of family members coming to the United Center for his 1,000th career NHL game Friday.
The 37-year-old Michigan native has arguably improved with age, and he's now set to reach one of hockey's most impressive milestones a month into his stint with his 10th different organization. It will be a special night for him.
Hawks coach Jeff Blashill, who first met Cole when he was getting recruited to Notre Dame and later coached him with the Lightning, described Cole's weight-room workouts as a "great example" of the "day-to-day dedication that it takes to have longevity in this league."
But Cole spent an even larger portion of this week studying — along with the rest of the Hawks' defensemen — what's going wrong with their defensive-zone breakouts and how they can improve them.
Blashill took accountability Tuesday for not working on breakouts enough right away this season. Regardless, the Hawks' inability to consistently retrieve dump-ins and get the puck back out across the blue line (ideally with possession) has been backbreaking throughout their first nine games.
Three practices this week — as well as a number of "hard meetings" and video-review sessions — offered an opportunity to dig deep into the issue and get on the same page before hosting the Canadiens on Friday.
Considering the Hawks' next nine games will come rapid-fire in a 16-day span, they better be aligned now.
"It is objectively a tough job when somebody puts a bouncing puck into a corner and they're coming to hunt you," Cole said Thursday. "But that is our job, and we need to accomplish the job.
"We want to move [the puck] to our forwards as quickly as possible, with as much space as possible, with as much speed as possible. Then it becomes, 'If that's the end result we're looking for, how do we go about navigating the road to getting that?'"
It turns out the answer is extremely complicated. There aren't any foolproof strategies that will work every time, because every breakout presents a unique puzzle.
Cole did a remarkably good job explaining the science of breakouts in an easy-to-understand way.
"Guys have routes and they're coming back into certain spots, and the puck ends up in different spots. It's like this long equation that's constantly changing," he said.
"When you go get a puck, the variables may be different when you touch it than when you were skating to it. Maybe a guy peeled off and you'd be like, 'Now this is open.' These are things we need to train our brain to solve quickly."
Plus, the Hawks have to stay one step ahead of the opposition, who will watch for patterns and start anticipating and covering for anything the Hawks do more than once or twice.
"Sure, maybe a weak-side rim is the play, but it might not be the play every time," he added. "If their 'F3' goes and stands in front of our winger, we're going to rim it right to somebody. Maybe it's the strong side. Maybe it's a thing to the center. Maybe it's [time to] cut back and skate out of it. All these things are options.
"We need to do, as a team, a better job deciphering what those options are and when to use each option. That's what this week has been really good for. [We've been] going through those and saying, 'Here's a situation. What are your options? This guy is here instead of there. What are your options now?'"
If the Hawks' defensemen can nail this down, it should sequentially lead to more offense.
And that could help Cole finally earn his first point as a Hawk, even though production isn't what he's paid for. It would be fitting if it happened Friday.
