The Chicago Blackhawks were unable to hold onto their lead going into the third period, falling 3-2 to the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night at the United Center and dropping their third straight game.
The Blackhawks got on the board first with 2:57 left in the first period. A beautiful cross-ice pass from Connor Bedard found Jason Dickinson in the right circle, who one-timed it over John Gibson.
Pavel Mintyukov tied the game with 55 seconds left in the first, taking a goalline pass from Brett Leason and snapping the puck past Arvid Soderblom.
Dickinson’s second goal of the night gave the Blackhawks back their lead 3:54 into the second period. Dickinson received a no-look pass from Bedard and beat Gibson with another one-timer to make it 2-1 Blackhawks.
Credit Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen with their puck battle wins down low to keep the play alive ahead of the goal.
Alex Killorn tied the game again — this time 2-2 — just over five minutes into the third period. Trevor Zegras hit Killorn with a nice pass from behind the net, and the latter scored with a backhander that slid under Arvid Soderblom.
The Ducks took a 3-2 lead midway through the third thanks to a tipped goal from Leo Carlsson. Killorn entered the zone, waited, and then sent a shot-pass to Carlsson by the left post, who tapped it in easily.
Unfortunately, that would be the final score of the game, with the Blackhawks losing 3-2 to the Ducks.
Notes
Like in the last game, the Blackhawks started the game pretty well: they not only scored first, they owned 56.67 percent of the shot attempts and 72.81 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5 in the first period. It’s one of the few times this season when the Blackhawks hit double digits in shots on goal in an opening period this season, too. There weren’t too many dangerous plays from the lines outside of the top line, but the others were holding their own.
The first half of the second was pretty even, but then a little over midway through the period, the Ducks just took over. There’s no other way to describe it: the Blackhawks were overpowered by a tired, equally bad team from Anaheim. I mean, look at the Game Flow chart below — it’s one of the sharpest turns of the season and it wasn’t in the Blackhawks’ favor. Chicago ended up being out attempted 22-9 and out-chanced 12-6, though they at least kept the Ducks to just eight shots on goal, all at 5-on-5. The Ducks seemed to really build some momentum after their power play — which was also not great for the Blackhawks as they allowed five attempts, three shots, and three chances against in those two minutes.
The third period wasn’t quite so lopsided but the Blackhawks never really took the reins. They were trending up slightly right before their penalty, and then the Ducks once again seemed to feed off their power play, scoring a goal immediately after and then another a few minutes later.
There was good news, though: Bedard had two points in this game, both really nice assists, and looked energized the whole game. He was taking some risks offensively and cheating high a lot of the game — but that’s fine as long as it gets and keeps him going. As I said in the preview, the most important thing to the team/franchise currently is Bedard playing well offensively. Dickinson is a good compliment for Bedard because he knows how to get himself into good, open areas to score, and he’s defensively sound.
The only issue with the the line tonight was their third linemate, Joey Anderson. He’s a useful, high-effort player, and with the right usage and linemates, he can contribute 20 points a season or be excellent on a checking line. But Anderson has limited impact offensively in general, so while he didn’t impede Dickinson or Bedard tonight, he also didn’t really contribute to their success. Anderson did not factor into that line’s first goal (he was in front but not screening or disrupting the goalie) and he wasn’t on the ice for the second (Teravainen was, and he helped win a puck battle then got the puck to Bedard). Anderson obviously benefitted individually from being with Bedard: he had six shot attempts and four shots on goal, with a majority being setup by Bedard. But the reverse wasn’t as true, and Bedard had one shot attempt (not on net) after a pass from Anderson. Anderson just doesn’t have the hands to finish those chances consistently, so it’s a bit of a waste to have him on that line. Dickinson and Anderson also haven’t had much offensive chemistry in the past either — just seven points combined in about 525 minutes last season together — so it’s better if Dickinson and Bedard are paired with another player who can both score and feed them (especially Bedard) the puck.
Both Teravainen — who assisted on the second Dickinson goal — and Philipp Kurashev fit that mold better. They’re also solid defensively, so there wouldn’t be any real drop off in that quality to the line either. This isn’t a knock on Anderson as a player by the way, just that it does him and his linemates a disservice to play him above where he should be. It’d be better to put Anderson in the role he’s better suited for — either checking or energy forward. I honestly would love to see him with Craig Smith and Lukas Reichel. He’s a faster version of the current Pat Maroon, though obviously less physical, so he might compliment and be able to keep up with them a bit better.
In any case, Richardson needs to pick linemates for Bedard based on who objectively makes the most sense and then stick with it for several games. That latter part is key. Bedard can build on how good he looked tonight if given enough consistency to do so.
The other good news is that Alex Vlasic had a decent game, at least offensively, and played over 26 minutes. With Seth Jones out, the Blackhawks desperately need someone on the back end willing to jump into plays, and Vlasic did so tonight. He did have a few defensive miscues — though I don’t really blame him for not being able to corral that pop-up puck near his blue line that ultimately led to the Carlsson goal.
Connor Murphy was also individually strong in terms of defense tonight, which is all you can ask of a player like him.
Brodie wasn’t great but he also wasn’t terrible. Allan and Kaiser were both non-factors, but considering both only played around 16 minutes, that’s fine. Honestly, they should be getting more playing time considering this is a good season for young player evaluation, but the fact that they’re not making any major mistakes is nice.
Soderblom’s save percentage doesn’t reflect it (.900), but he was good in net again. Not perfect, but none of the goals against were really on him. Hopefully the Blackhawks can get some wins for him because Drew Commesso is having a rough sophomore season in Rockford, and the Blackhawks really need one of those two to work out in the near future since Adam Gajan is still quite a ways away from professional hockey.
Now, the bad news is the rest of the lineup was either so-so or bad. Taylor Hall, Ryan Donato, and Ilya Mikheyev controlled play when on the ice together to the tune of 57.89 percent of shot attempts, but can you remember many dangerous moments from them? I can’t either. The deployment of Nick Foligno, Teravainen, and Kurashev was also suspect: they ended up with zero offensive zone starts because Richardson was giving more of those to Bedard and the fourth line, but it also neuters two of the only playmakers on the team. The fourth line with Smith and Reichel existed but I can’t say I remember them much at all — far cry when they were the only duo going for a bit there.
Ultimately, this game boiled down to the Blackhawks still being unable to play a full 60-minute game consistently, unable to score more than two goals, and unable to build chemistry between linemates — which is affected by the lack of cohesion in the lineup. The more losses like this there are, the more concerned — and angry — fans will be with Richardson, because what he’s doing isn’t working. Blame also needs to be give to Kyle Davidson, who did bring in more NHL-quality players compared to what was trotted out last year, but the roster still isn’t balanced and has some major holes (the lack of legit centers, for one). Arguably, it shouldn’t be this bad — Kurashev, Teravainen, and Bertuzzi were impactful last year but aren’t right now — so there’s some disconnect happening in how the Blackhawks are being run. But it’s kind of a chicken-and-egg situation: the roster isn’t great but it’s also not being utilized well.
Oh well, enough with the ranting, it’s getting late and I’m sure most people’s eyes glazed over just looking at this wall of text.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Alex Killorn (ANA) — 1 goal, 2 assists
- Connor Bedard (CHI) — 2 assists
- Jason Dickinson (CHI) — 2 goals
What’s Next
The Blackhawks host the Florida Panthers at the United Center on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.