It seems hard to believe in the wake of a 7-1 loss to the New York Rangers, but the Chicago Blackhawks were rolling in the first period.
The Hawks accounted for five of the first six shots – in an 8-minute span – before the Rangers answered with the next four.
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Then one little hiccup happened.
In the defensive zone, Jack Johnson tried to pass to Juhar Khaira at the blue line when Rangers defenseman Adam Fox flashed in and intercepted it, and then it went tic-tac-toe for the game’s opening goal.
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Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko added goals within the next 6 minutes – Kakko’s coming with 57 seconds left in the period, and t
he floodgates were open.
By the time Caleb Jones crashed into his own goalie in trying to stop Vitali Kravtsov’s breakaway attempt — after virtually no resistance on the Rangers’ breakout – the Hawks resembled the Keystone Kops.
It should’ve been a happier occasion, with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews celebrating 1,000 regular season games together. But not even that feel-good milestone and promising start to the game could absolve the Hawks of what devolved into an embarrassing 7-1 loss at the United Center. The team’s seventh loss in a row dropped it 7-19-4, the worst record in the league.
Toews used the word “snowballing,” but it’s hard to tell whether he was referring to the game or the season.
“There’s moments where we played good hockey and then we make one mistake and it ends up in the back of our net and right now those moments seem to sting more than they usually do and it feels like we’re putting this weight on our shoulders where when things go wrong, they go really wrong, and it keeps snowballing in the wrong direction for us and we’re mentally having a difficult time recovering as a team,” he said.
“When things go wrong they go really wrong. It keeps snowballing in the wrong direction for us.”
—Jonathan Toews on the Blackhawks’ 7-1 loss to the Rangers pic.twitter.com/2YNCAoxZeb — Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) December 19, 2022
Luke Richardson had no problem describing the game.
“That was ugly, for sure,” he said.
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“I thought we, again, had a really good first period, start to the first period, and then somehow, they find a way to score a goal,” Richardson said. “At the end of the first period we gave up two odd-man rushes, a couple bad decisions and that led to that.
“But we played so hard and we can’t find the back of the net,” he said. “When that happens, we can’t reset and go back to the way we were playing. … we have to find a way to have more fight and more pushback and not feel exhausted, look exhausted, whether it’s mentally or physically.”
“That was ugly, for sure. … We have to find a way to have more fight and more pushback and not feel exhausted, look exhausted, whether it’s mentally or physically.”
—Luke Richardson on the Blackhawks’ 7-1 loss to the Rangers pic.twitter.com/Z6yUYDRNp6 — Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) December 19, 2022
Philipp Kurashev had the lone goal – and that deflected off Rangers defenseman Jacoba Trouba’s stick. But, hey, dirty goals count the same as pretty goals.
Still, it’s the third straight game (and fourth in the last five) the Hawks have scored one goal.
Conversely, they’ve allowed seven goals twice within the last four games.
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“It’s hard to pinpoint one thing when there’s a lot of breakdowns, a lot of odd-man rushes, especially early on, and they’re capitalizing on those chances and then it’s hard to recover from that and you look up at the scoreboard and it’s 3-0, 4-1, 5-1, whatever it is in your own building,” Toews said.
Seth Jones added, “Pretty snakebitten right now offensively. But we have to find a way to keep it together throughout the game and not let it get out of hand.”
Here are five takeaways.
1. The Hawks had a hard time explaining what happened on defense.
The Rangers’ Vincent Trocheck and the Blackhawks’ Caleb Jones battle for control of the puck in the first period on Dec. 18, 2022. (Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)
Filip Chytil’s opening goal was a bang-bang play off a turnover.
Vincent Trocheck’s power play goal to cap the second period was doorstep deflection off a high-slot shot from Adam Fox would be hard for any team to stop.
On the second goal, the Rangers had easy breakout and superior numbers on the rush, so it was a mess in front of Arvid Söderblom when Panarin snapped home Fox’s drop pass.
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“It’s hard to say one thing,” Jones said. “Sometimes we’re not on the same page when it comes to D pinching or forwards reloading. Half the time, I think we’re good at it, and the other half, it’s a grade-A against. It’s hard to play that way. We’re not that consistent.”
The first goal in the third period, it didn’t just look like inconsistency, it looked like half-hearted effort.
Jones backpedals instead of checking Panarin when he collects a pass from Ryan Lindgren in the Rangers’ zone, and then Jones can’t disrupt Panarin’s breakaway pass to Kravtsov.
Caleb Jones gives chase but loses his stick trying to hook Kravtsov and crashes into Söderblom, knocking his mask off.
Richardson said, “I wasn’t too happy that he got run over by Caleb at the end and his mask came off. I was worried about that.”
On the play itself, Richardson said, “I found we just mentally were sliding downhill at that point. That’s just a mental lapse where you let someone leave (the zone). There’s no reason for it.”
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2. Confidence has its limits, and what the Hawks are doing to Arvid Söderblom stretches them.
The Rangers’ Vitali Kravtsov scores a goal on goaltender Arvid Soderblom in the third period on Dec. 18, 2022. (Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)
If it wasn’t for injuries to Petr Mrázek and Alex Stalock, Söderblom wouldn’t be seeing this much action, but here we are.
The goalie had his fifth straight loss, but it was the first time this season he allowed seven goals, even if
not all of those goals should be pinned on him.
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Richardson said he didn’t consider pulling Söderblom, and stands by starting him so frequently despite 17 career starts entering the game.
“Sody’s been so solid and good for us,” Richardson said. “I think so has Petr. Petr gave us some big saves in Minny the other night and we just couldn’t get any goal support for him. Goaltending really hasn’t been our problem.
He added about Söderblom, “I don’t worry about him. We got to two veteran guys and we got a young guy … he’s a big, calm guy that has composure and he’s mature. … We just got to support him, not just with goal support, but with better structure and play in front of him.”
3. Jarred Tinordi’s bad luck with face injuries rears its head again.
The Hawks defenseman took a puck to the face on Sammy Blais’ long-range shot 2 minutes into the second period. Tinordi held his glove to his face but was dripping blood as he headed to the locker room.
It was reminiscent of the scene four games ago, when Winnipeg Jets Michael Eyssimont’s skate inadvertently cut him on the chin, requiring multiple layers of stitches and a face mask for protection.
“Hopefully it’s not bad,” Richardson said of Sunday night’s injury. “It’s the first day he took the facemask off and he got hit again. …
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it was a pretty bloody mess. He’s a tough guy, so it’s hard to gauge.”
Here’s where Jarred Tinordi got hit in the mouth. It happened literally seconds into the game and he didn’t play another shift in the first period. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/Qah0bF2fex — Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 10, 2022
Richardson said Tinordi wasn’t injured in the same spot where he was stitched up.
“I think it was more in the teeth, lips, face area, not the chin,” he said.
4. Jacob Trouba plays Chicago’s bogeyman once again.
Trouba gave Hawks fans another reason to despise him Sunday, but this time it wasn’t for a head-hunting hit.
In the second period, hetook a drop pass from Mika Zibanejad and rifled it past Söderblom. As Trouba was greeted by boos from the United Center crowd, he asked Andreas Athanasiou, “You want the puck?”
Trouba blasts one then asks Athanasiou if he wants the puck. 😂 pic.twitter.com/uAQ7Nh9Hn2 — SNBets (@SNBets) December 19, 2022
After Trouba leveled Athanasiou during their previous meeting on Dec. 3 in New York, Athanasiou later told the Chicago Sun-Times that Trouba was an “$8 million man with zero goals, so he has to figure out how to do something when making that much.”
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Last season, Trouba’s questionable hit on Jujhar Khaira knocked him unconscious, causing him to be hospitalized for a night and placed on injured reserve with a concussion.
On Sunday night, Trouba registered two hits – including one on Athanasiou – while Jake McCabe notched a hit on him.
The Hawks won’t get another chance to even the score with Trouba anytime soon, after splitting the season series with the Rangers 1-1.
5. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were a bright spot.
Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane congratulate each other after being honored for playing their 1000th game together as teammates on Dec. 18, 2022 at United Center. (Jamie Sabau / Getty Images)
On Sunday, Kane and Toews joined former teammates Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith (2005-06 to 2019-20) as the only Hawks to log 1,000 games together.
They soaked in the fanfare: a video tribute, a standing ovation.
“That’s a special thing for guys,” Richardson said before the game. “Not a lot of people play in the same organization that long and they’ve had success here, so it’s an even extra special time for them.
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“I know they achieved that milestone individually, but for teammates to do it together and achieve what they’ve achieved, it’s special for sure.”