Cold As Ice: Jets 4, Blackhawks 0

It wasn’t a pleasant afternoon for the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, as they fell, embarrassingly, 4-0 to the Winnipeg Jets.

The game was scoreless until midway through the second period, when Josh Morrissey made it 1-0 Jets after his long point blast on the power play went past a heavily screened Arvid Söderblom.

About three minutes later, Adam Lowry doubled the Jets lead with a shorthanded breakaway goal. Taylor Raddysh lost a foot race to a puck and Caleb Jones couldn’t keep the puck in the offensive zone.

Pierre-Luc Dubois added a third goal for the Jets before the first period ended. Kyle Connor set up Dubois for a perfect one-timer from the left circle on the power play.

Unfortunately, the Blackhawks were hit with some bad news at the start of the third period: Söderblom was injured at some point and had to be replaced by Dylan Wells in net.

To welcome the newcomer in Wells, the Blackhawks decided it would be best to go back on the penalty kill less than five minutes into the third period. Nate Schmidt finished off a beautiful cross-ice pass on the rush from Cole Perfetti to make it 4-0.

And that score would hold through the remainder of the third as the Jets defeated the Blackhawks 4-0.

Game Charts

Notes

• The Jets are one of the worst terms in the league in terms of possession, so this was an opportunity for the Blackhawks to practice having decent offensive zone time. It looked like that could be the case in the first period: the Blackhawks had a 51.35 percent share of shot attempts and 52.23 percent share of expected goals at 5-on-5 in the first 20 minutes. But it was downhill after the first intermission. The third period was one of the worst for the Blackhawks this season, with shares of just 31.58 percent of shot attempts and 23.75 percent of expected goals.
• This was an ugly, ugly game when it came to special teams, too, which made it all the more depressing. Considering a major reason the Blackhawks have won any games this season was due to their special teams play, they need to figure how to right that ship and fast.
• When an opposing team is 2-for-2 on the power play so far and a rookie goalie who was recently playing in the ECHL comes in cold, maybe don’t immediately take a dumb penalty?
• Speaking of Wells, he played pretty well in relief, stopping 12 of 13 shots he faced for a .923 save-percentage, and that included five high-danger chances by location. The Blackhawks offered very little help in front of him, so credit to the rookie.
• Söderblom’s injury hopefully doesn’t keep him out long, but there is a good chance the Blackhawks will be getting Petr Mrazek back before the next game thanks to the team having so many days off.

• C. Jones had put together a string of five pretty decent to good games, but this game was the opposite of that. He had several miscues (including on the Lowry goal against), poor coverage throughout, and took an inopportune slashing penalty late in the third when the Blackhawks were on the power play. He wasn’t alone in his issues, but he was the most obvious offender.
• The best line was once against Jonathan Toews, Philipp Kurashev, and Raddysh. They were the only line above water in terms of quantity (53.57 percent SAT) and quality (55.36 percent xGF) all while playing high quality of competition and splitting starts between both the offensive and defensive zones.
• That was pretty much the only positive note from the game, though, at least from a player’s perspective. The rest of the team can be summed up as “meh” for the most part. It’s disappointing because at least in other losses (and wins), there was a sense of pride in how the team played. Not so much in this one. Good thing they’ll have four days to get their shit together.

Three stars

1. Josh Morrissey (WPG) — 1 goal, 1 assist, 24:03 TOI
2. Pierre-Luc Dubois (WPG) — 1 goal, 1 assist
3. Adam Lowry (WPG) — 1 goal

What’s next

The Blackhawks have four days off before heading to LA to face the Kings on Thursday at 9:30 p.m.