The Chicago Blackhawks have had a roller-coaster start to the season so far. The team sits at 9-8-2 and just outside the second wild-card spot in the West. The scoring overall has lacked outside of a few games and the defense has struggled to keep up with opponents. This is all very unlike the what the Blackhawks have been the past decade, and they are in need of finding consistency.

With a lot of depth changes over the years, it can be difficult to find the right chemistry year in and year out. Especially when there are a lot of young players.

One that sticks out is Alex Debrincat. The 19-year old rookie had big expectations after making the roster out of pre-season camp this season. One of the Blackhawks top prospects has 19 NHL games under his belt and has had a productive November.

Contributions

While the Blackhawks have scored 11 goals the past two games, they had been struggling to score. Prior to their Sunday night 7-5 loss to the Devils, the Blackhawks had just averaged two goals since mid-October (nine games in that span). However, DeBrincat has been an overall positive contributor to the offense this month. He currently has six goals and seven total points this November, including four goals in his last three games. He is also averaging 14:35 minutes per game this month, so he is getting decent ice time.

DeBrincat now is tied with Brandon Saad with the second-most goals (7) on the team which is two behind goal-scoring leader Artem Anisimov. There was a question if he would stay up with the NHL club or go down to AHL Rockford after his first month as he scored just one goal and recorded four assists, but lately, he is proving he is here to stay.

He still has work to do to develop, but he is showing a lot of promise so far. Despite his size at just 5'7" he has a wicked shot and agility to weave around defenders which is tough to do going straight from the Juniors to the NHL.

Toews and Kane

One of the best duos in the league the past decade now have gotten off to an overall slower start.

Kane leads the team with 18 points, which is 38th in the league and Toews has just two goals and two assists this November so far. Kane himself just has one goal in his last nine games, which is very unlike him. This has been a key reason why the Blackhawks have not produced offensively consistently so far this season.

The season is still young, and the pressure of a long season before a potential playoff run is nothing new to the Chicago Blackhawks. Once Kane and Toews find their mojo, then the team tends to kick into full gear. As for DeBrincat, expect some growing pains with the rookie, but also expect him to continue to grow more comfortable in the NHL and becoming a force.
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