Nick Foligno's focus on Blackhawks' big picture makes it hard to appreciate his own productivity

Blackhawks forward Nick Foligno has recorded at least one point in all six games since the All-Star break.

Based on what he talked about Monday after the Hawks' loss to the Hurricanes, however, that would be impossible to deduce.

"I don't even think about those things anymore," Foligno said.

As has been the case all season, the 36-year-old functioning as the Hawks' de facto captain was far more interested in discussing the latest round of lessons — in a year full of them — that the team is learning from their struggles.

"We're overthinking too much," he said. "When you get a team like [the Hurricanes] that just come at you, you get caught if you overthink. You look slow, you look lethargic and that's what happened. All of a sudden, in the third, where we just said, 'Let's forget about that and just go play,' our game comes to life because of it.

"We're going to have to go through it as a group here and understand there's a way you have to compete and play where you have to think, but you also have to use your instincts."

Foligno does love to talk — Richardson made another quip about his loquaciousness after practice Tuesday — and the Hawks need someone to talk to them the way he does. That dynamic makes him so entrenched in the "leader" role that sometimes it's easy to forget he's also an important on-ice contributor.

And lately, he has contributed a lot. The first line of Foligno, Connor Bedard and Philipp Kurashev has been excellent since Bedard returned. Much of that success can rightfully be to attributed the star rookie, but Kurashev and Foligno are aptly complementing him.

Even before Bedard returned, Foligno had tallied points in three straight games, even though the Hawks lost all three. With 25 points (13 goals and 12 assists) in 49 appearances so far, he's just one point away from matching his most productive season since 2019-20. If he can get to 36 points by season's end — a doable task — it would mark his best season since 2016-17.

At this point, it's probably fair to include Foligno on the short list of bright spots — alongside Bedard, Alex Vlasic, Jason Dickinson, Petr Mrazek and the penalty kill — standing out amid the bleakness and constant losing this season.

"It's just the full package from him," Richardson said. "[He's] helping cultivate a culture here with the young guys...and he's got a family at home. It's a lot. Like, it's only so many hours in a day to spread yourself around, and he's doing a remarkable job. It's impressive to see he's producing on the ice. It's not like he's exhausted and his mind can't concentrate and play at a high level. I think he's doing a phenomenal job at all of it."

Foligno himself admits he also has a hard time appreciating or devoting thought to his individual successes. He's so focused on evaluating the big picture — and helping the Hawks develop that aforementioned culture over time — that day-to-day things can feel relatively insignificant, even though he would ideally like to stay present in the moment.

"I do have to fight that, because I see where we've got to get to and I want to get there," he said. "I know what it takes and how hard you have to push. It's a process, and I have to remind myself of that. There's little victories for sure, but there's also a standard that we're not at consistently enough."

After that sentence, Foligno — without realizing it — slipped back into another impassioned monologue about battling through adversity and negativity with energy and work ethic.

It was thoughtful and meaningful and accurate, and it did directly apply to the Hawks' situation at large. But it tellingly was not about his own play, which will likely continue to be overshadowed.