CHICAGO — Tyler Bertuzzi didn’t lose Wednesday’s game against the Boston Bruins for the Blackhawks. There were plenty of reasons for the 4-2 defeat.
The problem is he again didn’t help them win it.
Twenty-six games into the season, Bertuzzi hasn’t nearly lived up to the expectations that came with the four-year, $22 million contract he was given this past offseason.
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson thought highly enough of Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teräväinen to break away from his trend of short-term deals. Bertuzzi and Teräväinen became the first free agents Davidson signed to contracts over two years. Bertuzzi was even worth an extra year than Teräväinen to Davidson.
“I think their style of play, how they can fill different roles up and down the lineup, but especially their ability to play in the top six and help drive offense was something that we see value in, but it wasn’t something we wanted just to have for one year or something,” Davidson said in July. “Frankly, if we wanted to go one or two years, we probably wouldn’t have signed them. A little bit of necessity to get the players, but also guys at this point in their career will be able to sustain a high level of play through those contracts.”
Teräväinen hasn’t been what the Blackhawks hoped either, especially at five-on-five where he has just four points. Mark Lazerus focused on Teräväinen’s play recently. This time it’s about Bertuzzi and his struggles.
Bertuzzi’s game will never be described as pretty from the way he skates to his ruggedness around the net, but it has always proven to be effective. He came to Chicago a four-time 20-goal scorer, including a 30-goal year. A season ago, he played a top-six role for the Toronto Maple Leafs and produced 21 goals and 22 assists in 80 games. He was tied for fourth on the team with 15 goals in five-on-five play.
The Blackhawks were hoping he could provide them something similar. He might not be surrounded by the same talent as he was in Toronto, but the thought was he could bolster the Blackhawks’ top six and their top power-play unit along with Teräväinen and potentially complement Connor Bedard while getting even more opportunity than he had been with the Leafs.
And if Bertuzzi had been anywhere near that player over the first 26 games, the Blackhawks would probably have a better record. He has five goals and five assists through 26 games. In five-on-five play, he has one goal and three assists. Of the 345 forwards who have played at least 200 minutes in five-on-five play this season, Bertuzzi is ranked 315th with 0.77 points per 60 minutes.
There are some notable differences in Bertuzzi’s output from last season. With Toronto in five-on-five play, he was averaging 6.87 shots on goal per 60 minutes, 8.48 scoring chances and 5.05 high-danger chances. This season, he’s at 3.85 shots on goal, 4.42 scoring chances and 2.88 high-danger chances.
While it isn’t completely fair to lay total blame on Bertuzzi for the Blackhawks’ inability to win close games and their offensive woes, he is one of the few players who actually seemed to carry some realistic expectations this season. With a lot of the roster, the Blackhawks weren’t exactly sure what they’d get this season. With Bertuzzi, they thought they knew.
Bertuzzi isn’t oblivious to that. He expected more of himself and the Blackhawks at the start of the season, too.
“Obviously it’s been frustrating for everyone,” Bertuzzi said after the Blackhawks’ morning skate on Wednesday. “It’s not where we want to be. It’s not what anyone anticipated it to be. We just got to put our head down, move forward and keep working.”
Bertuzzi arrived to Wednedsay’s game hopeful he could change his offensive fortune. He had gone 10 games without a goal in any situation and 14 games in five-on-five. Playing alongside Bedard and Taylor Hall in Monday’s loss to the Maple Leafs, the line showed some potential.
Bertuzzi broke down what he thought he could improve on in five-on-five play.
“Just be more around the net, hold onto pucks more,” he said. “We need some more O-zone time. That’s the biggest thing is creating chances off that, off them being tired. We did a little bit of that last game. We got to be better.”
But Wednesday played out like a lot of games for Bertuzzi and the Blackhawks this season. The team was close to winning. It was the 25th time they either led, were tied or within a goal in the third period. For Bertuzzi, he was also close to scoring. He had a few quality chances around the net. Yet neither the Blackhawks nor Bertuzzi executed in the end.
Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson was asked after the game whether he needed more production from Bertuzzi.
“We need the whole team to start to do that, for sure,” Richardson said. “Bert’s a guy who is used to scoring. I think he’s had some good opportunities lately. Even tonight, I think it was the end of the first period, he had a chance that he would usually slam home there. It was one of those greasy ones. It was a rebound. But they play you hard. I think he was battling with a guy and he got his stick on the puck and just hit the side of the net. So we need some of those to start going in. Sometimes you have to have that internal will to make something happen. We got to get to that. Just stingy, get a little crusty out there and get some direct line goals.”
Bertuzzi has felt his game building. As he said earlier in the day, he just needs one to go in and he can turn things around. He is someone who has gone through significant slumps throughout his career and later turned them into hot streaks.
Just last season, he had stretches of 12 games, another 12 games and then 23 games where he didn’t score a five-on-five goal for Toronto. He broke out of the 23-game streak by scoring in three consecutive games. Also, from late February to end of the regular season, he scored 11 goals in five-on-five play.
“Just for anyone, just seeing it go in, it just builds confidence,” Bertuzzi said. “It hasn’t been in in a while, but I feel like I’m playing pretty well now. I’m starting to feel better out there, so hopefully it’ll come.”
Could the contract and the expectations that come with it be weighing on Bertuzzi? He rejected the idea that he was feeling pressure.
“No,” he said. “I just come to work, I try to do my best, do your work hard, try to get better, see what happens.”
What’s happened so far hasn’t been good enough. It doesn’t sound like the Blackhawks regret signing Bertuzzi by any stretch, but they would like to eventually see him play as they had hoped. Although this season is slipping from the Blackhawks’ grasp, he’s signed long enough to play a key role as the franchise tries to move forward with the rebuild.
Bertuzzi isn’t giving up on this season, though. He believes he and the Blackhawks can right themselves.
“Obviously we’re in every game, but you can’t look at it that way,” Bertuzzi said. “You need to come away especially when we’re winning, finish games off. We definitely have better in here as a group. We’re in these games. We just need to find that extra inch to go, that extra play, that extra goal and hopefully we can get things turned around here.”
(Top photo: Bill Smith / NHLI via Getty Images)
