The Blackhawks have done exactly what they have needed to do to give themselves chances to win games without star rookie Connor Bedard.

They’ve tightened their defensive coverage, simplified their breakouts, passing and zone entries and made games into low-event slogfests. They probably should’ve been doing those things even with Bedard, but the absence of their most relied-upon offensive weapon has prompted them to be finally embraced.

They just haven’t been able to translate it into actual wins.

“I don’t think we’ve sat down and said, ‘Hey, now that Connor’s out, we’ve got to do this,’” forward MacKenzie Entwistle said. “But...everyone knows what he brings to the team, and everyone has to step up a little bit more, bring their game up. And I think we have. We’ve done a good job. Obviously, we haven’t gotten any points the [last three games], but we definitely deserve some.”

In the last five games dating back to Jan. 5 — when Bedard fractured his jaw — the Hawks are 1-4-0. That belies how solidly they’ve played, though.

In addition to a victory over the Flames, their four losses were all one-goal margins (excluding empty-netters) against upper-tier teams in the Devils, Oilers, Jets and Stars. They were tied or ahead in the third period of three of those four defeats, and they held the Oilers to a season-low 15 shots on goal in the other.

Through Jan. 4, the Hawks averaged 24.0 scoring chances created and 33.1 scoring chances allowed per 60 minutes of five-on-five play. Since then, they’ve averaged 21.0 chances created and 25.5 chances allowed. In other words, generating offense has become even more difficult, but their defensive play has improved tremendously.

Bedard’s absence might be a small direct factor — he isn’t exactly a defensive stalwart yet as an 18-year-old — but the team’s adjustments are the main factor.

“We’re just playing a more simple, north-south, chipping-pucks-in [style],” Entwistle said. “It’s a boring style of hockey, but it’s been working for us. It’s keeping us in games.”

This recent stretch has more closely resembled last year’s Hawks, who seemed to bring a gritty, tenacious, never-fold attitude on a more consistent basis than this year’s team despite management’s overall tanking objective.

Joey Anderson’s return from injury has helped, rounding out the Hawks’ reliable second line with Jason Dickinson (who has been stellar all season) and Colin Blackwell (who has been stellar since his December return). All three of them boast scoring-chance ratios above 60% during this stretch while stifling the likes of Connor McDavid and Jason Robertson.

“The last handful of games have been really impressive,” general manager Kyle Davidson said Saturday. “Not just the effort, but the ability to keep chances low on the other side and play a team game [has] been great. Obviously, you want to win a few more. You want that...positive reinforcement of what they’re doing.”

A dire lack of goal-scoring is making that positive reinforcement so elusive. The Hawks have tallied more than one goal only twice in their last eight games.

That’s hardly surprising when one looks at the depth chart and sees Philipp Kurashev, Taylor Raddysh and Rem Pitlick comprising the first line.

Pitlick has actually enjoyed 11 scoring chances in his first three games as a Hawk, leading the team, and Kurashev has smartly shifted roles to be more of a heavy shooter and play-driver than a complementary playmaker. But they haven’t been able to convert on those opportunities, and Lukas Reichel hasn’t been able to contribute anything from the third line, either.

“It’s hard to fill up what we miss with [Bedard] because he’s such a good player,” Kurashev said. “We’ll just try to get pucks on the net and go from there.”