CHICAGO — Five hundred and seventy-eight men have played at least 200 minutes of five-on-five hockey this season in the NHL.
Five hundred and seventy-seven of them are having better seasons than Philipp Kurashev.
There’s no getting around the numbers. Kurashev is dead last in the league with a sickly 11.54 goals-for percentage. That’s not expected goals, that’s actual goals. The Blackhawks have been outscored 23-3 with Kurashev on the ice this season. No other player is worse than minus-14.
And yet Kurashev has been a seemingly immovable presence in the Blackhawks’ top six. Interim head coach Anders Sorensen, and Luke Richardson before him, seem unable to move past the Kurashev of a year ago — who reached career highs of 18 goals and 54 points while showing sparkling chemistry with Connor Bedard — and accept the Kurashev of this season, who has three goals and two assists in 28 games.
Kurashev has played more than 186 minutes on Bedard’s line, per Natural Stat Trick, as the Blackhawks desperately tried to rekindle that 2023-24 magic. And he played 86 minutes as a unit with Tyler Bertuzzi and Taylor Hall, the nominal second line. Yes, he was healthy scratched three times. But he also spent the majority of the other 28 games on one of the top two lines.
The numbers weren’t pretty. When Bedard has played with Kurashev this season, the Blackhawks have been outscored 10-2, with an expected-goals share of just 32.66 percent. When Bedard has played without Kurashev, the Blackhawks have outscored opponents 15-9, with an expected-goals share of 48.23.
Richardson kept waiting for Kurashev to reignite. Then Sorensen did the same thing for his first five games behind the bench, even as the results continued to be brutal. Lukas Reichel and Bertuzzi would get a spin on the top line here or there, but it’d never last more than a game or two. Kurashev always got more chances, longer chances, seemingly endless chances.
The fifth-year pro took solace in their faith.
“It’s good, it’s nice when the coach believes in you,” Kurashev said. “I haven’t been able to play them back on that belief. But I’ll keep working at it and try to keep getting better.”
Kurashev said that after Tuesday’s morning skate, during which he skated on the second line while Taylor Hall took the morning off with an apparent illness. Seven hours later, Kurashev was a healthy scratch. His time with Bedard is certainly over, for now at least.
Faith only goes so far, and Sorensen seems to have accepted reality.
“It’s five games here now and it hasn’t been working with Connor, so we’re looking to make a change there and see if we can ignite him somewhere else and take it from there,” Sorensen said before the Blackhawks rallied for a 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals. “We’ve seen it in the past. He had 54 points, did a lot of good things.
“It’s a tough league. The league figures you out. So he has to find ways now to evolve his game, and we’re here to help him out.”
Sorensen’s confidence in Kurashev is clearly shaken, but so is Kurashev’s confidence in himself.
“It’s hard when you’re struggling,” he said. “It’s hard not to get too frustrated or be negative and stuff. I try to learn from what doesn’t help me, and then try not to do it anymore.”
Kurashev repeatedly said he “can’t look at the past.” He meant he can’t dwell on how miserable his season has been, but also that he can’t just look back on how well last season went and assume he’ll magically get back to that level. He said Sorensen told him he needs to win more battles, which will get him more touches and hopefully more production.
“I’ve got to be better in that aspect, and I will be better in that,” Kurashev said.
He might not get the chance anytime soon. Kurashev started the season as the second-line center — it was a chance to prove he could drive his own line away from Bedard, yes, but it always felt like he was just keeping Frank Nazar’s seat warm. There’s a reason Kyle Davidson’s summer spending spree didn’t include a second-line center, after all. That’s Nazar’s home in the grand plan. Now that Nazar is here, called up ahead of Saturday’s game in New Jersey, it’s getting harder to find a role for Kurashev.
When he does get back in the lineup, it’d make the most sense in the bottom six. But where, exactly? Will he rotate with Joey Anderson and Craig Smith on the fourth line? Ilya Mikheyev has carved out a nice niche for himself on the third line in a checking role, and scored for the second straight game on Tuesday night, so there’s no room there, either. Maybe Kurashev will get another chance in the top six out of necessity, either through injury or trade, but the harsh truth at the moment is there’s nobody on this roster he should be bumping out of the lineup. Oliver Moore’s impending arrival at the end of the college season doesn’t bode well for Kurashev, either.
Suddenly Kurashev, who seemed to establish himself as a real piece of the puzzle last season, is an awkward fit. His $2.25 million cap hit was a steal last season. Not so much this season. Still, it’s unlikely a 54-point player is going to sneak through waivers during the dog days, when so many teams are banged up and in need of bodies. If it’s going to happen for Kurashev, if he’s going to find whatever he’s lost since last season ended, it’s going to have to happen here, in whatever minutes and whatever role he gets.
“It obviously has not been a good year for me so far,” he said. “It’s been really frustrating for me, personally.”
And for the Blackhawks, too.
Some quick thoughts off a rousing comeback victory over the league-leading Capitals:
• Thirty-eight minutes into this one, the Capitals had just seven shots on goal. They also held a 2-0 lead.
But hey, scoring first wasn’t working for the Blackhawks. Neither was holding a lead in the third period. So why not try it the other way around?
The Blackhawks rallied for three third-period goals — Mikheyev’s beauty of a shorthanded tally less than a minute in, T.J. Brodie’s equalizer off some excellent puck movement with less than six minutes left and Ryan Donato’s gritty game-winner with 2:18 to go — to stun the Capitals.
“It’s great because we’ve been in spots where we’ve been up a couple goals and end up losing,” Donato said. “So it feels good to be on the other side of things, knowing that whatever the score is, it could be a lot worse, right? (Arvid Söderblom) played a great game, but being down a couple goals and being able to battle back just goes to show we can come back in games like that.”
It was Chicago’s second straight win — they haven’t won three in a row since February of 2023 — and improved Sorensen’s record to 3-3-0.
• Teuvo Teräväinen had his second straight three-point game, assisting on all three Blackhawks goals after posting just two assists in his previous eight games. Teräväinen did get a couple of bonus shifts with Bedard in the third period as the Blackhawks chased the lead, but Sorensen isn’t about to promote him to the top line full-time. Not with the way he and Mikheyev are clicking. Over the last two games, the Blackhawks out-attempted the Islanders and Capitals 17-12, out-chanced them 7-5 and outscored them 2-1 with that duo on the ice.
Teräväinen had the primary assist on both of Mikheyev’s goals, including Tuesday’s shorty.
“He and Mikky have been so good together,” Sorensen said. “We’re really happy with his game.”
Mikheyev showed off his wheels when he turned Jakob Chychrun inside out before roofing a shot over Logan Thompson for the crucial first goal. Mikheyev also pulled up and found an oncoming Brodie for the tying goal later in the period. His penalty killing has kept him in the lineup, but the Blackhawks could sure use some more of this offense.
“He’s been dynamic,” Donato said. “I mean, he can fly.”
• Both of Washington’s goals were ones the Blackhawks would like to forget. Pierre-Luc Dubois torched Louis Crevier on the first one, and Andrew Mangiapane twisted Brodie into a pretzel on the second.
Sorensen felt both redeemed themselves with their play the rest of the game — especially Brodie, with the big goal.
“Tough gap,” Sorensen said of Brodie on the Mangiapane goal. “He didn’t have great control of the situation. But you have to move on, right?”
• The Blackhawks are still tied for dead last in the league in points and points percentage with the Nashville Predators, but have now defeated five of the top 10 teams in the league based on points percentage with wins over Edmonton, Los Angeles, Florida, Dallas and Washington.
Donato can’t explain it, either.
“There are so many questions that I wish I could answer,” he said. “I’m not sure. I think guys are just ready to play (those games). It’s not like we’re not ready to play for other games, either. But it’s a great question.”
(Top photo of Nick Foligno jawing with Tom Wilson on Tuesday night: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
