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But I Think I’ll Miss This One This Year: Flyers 3, Blackhawks 1

Six in a row and not in a good way.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks added another lump of coal to the stocking on Tuesday night, losing their sixth straight game in a 4–1 defeat to the Philadelphia Flyers on Christmas Eve Eve.

The Flyers opened the scoring midway through the first period. Travis Konecny was set up in the left faceoff circle by a slick feed from Trevor Zegras and snapped it home from in close to make it 1–0.

Noah Cates doubled the Flyers lead at 11:13 of the second on the power play. Konecny collected a pass from defenseman Jamie Drysdale near the crease, then slipped a backhand feed to Cates, who finished from the top of the blue paint.

The Blackhawks finally broke through late in the second, scoring with 1:30 remaining in the period during 4-on-4 play. Matt Grzelcyk sent a cross-ice pass to Ryan Donato, who stepped in from the right point and scored with a nifty wrist shot.

Unfortunately, any hopes of a comeback fizzled in the third, and Carl Grundstrom sealed it with an empty-net goal with just over a minute remaining, closing out a 3–1 Flyers win.

Notes

This wasn’t the worst game from the Blackhawks this season, but it was one of the most boring — so much so we honestly all deserve our time back from watching it.

The first period was easily the Blackhawks’ best. Although the Flyers initially came out with a bit of pep in their step, the Blackhawks pushed back in terms of possession after Philadelphia’s opening goal. The problem was that the possession felt largely meaningless: Chicago did a poor job getting shots through, either running into layers of Flyers blockers or flubbing plays before anything could materialize. At 5-on-5, the Blackhawks controlled 60.87 percent of the shot attempts and 57.53 percent of the expected goals in the period, but managed just 37.5 percent of the shots on goal. They had the puck, but little to show for it.

The second period was more even, with the two teams trading stretches of control. The Flyers generated some pressure, drew a penalty, and scored on the ensuing power play, but the Blackhawks responded well by tying the game during 4-on-4 play. Despite being the closest period and one in which Chicago actually scored, it was also one of the most boring periods of the season. There was a lot of time between meaningful plays, slow regroups, and very little energy from either side. It was disappointing that the Blackhawks couldn’t take advantage of a few lackadaisical Flyers sequences. Final 5-on-5 numbers were close: shot attempts (14–13) and shots on goal (6–5) slightly favored Chicago, while quality skewed more heavily to the Hawks with 75.96 percent of the expected goals.

The disappointment continued in the third, as the Blackhawks more or less stopped doing anything worth talking about. Credit to the Flyers for being solid defensively, but it was frustrating to see the Blackhawks look like the more tired or disengaged team despite Philadelphia playing the night before. There weren’t many glaring mistakes or anything catastrophically bad — the Blackhawks simply couldn’t generate sustained zone time, and even when they did get into the offensive zone, nothing of substance followed. The Flyers controlling the shot attempts (57.14 percent), shots on goal (55.56 percent), and expected goals (81.71 percent) when the Blackhawks were only down one and supposedly the fresher team is fairly depressing.

These types of sequences were a bit too common in the third period:

The holiday break couldn’t come at a better time for the spiraling Blackhawks, and many players are hoping the team can get out of their funk once they get some quality family time.

Pulling the goalie hasn’t worked out much for the Blackhawks this season, and it didn’t work out tonight either. Bench management in general has been poor this season.

Coach Jeff Blashill at least acknowledged postgame that he misjudged the Blackhawks ability to get possession in this instances and pulled Spencer Knight too quickly:

The ice-time management for some of the younger Blackhawks was also a bit confusing. I understand every coach’s instinct to lean on veterans, but that approach hasn’t worked much lately and this is still a rebuilding team, so it would be nice to see more of the younger players get elevated minutes. Five of the top six Blackhawks in ice time were 29 or older. The lone exception was Artyom Levshunov, who actually led the team at 24:04. Mostly, though, I’d rather see players like Oliver Moore (7:25 at 5-on-5), Colton Dach (7:52), and especially Nick Lardis (7:03) get more time during regular play. Yes, the veterans generated more shot attempts, and this young trio didn’t register much of anything in their limited minutes but, outside of Ryan Donato, none of the veterans looked particularly dangerous either. Honestly, I barely remember most of their shifts. If things aren’t working for more than half the game, maybe just let the kids run a bit. It can’t hurt — and it might at least be more interesting than whatever else was happening out there tonight.

To be fair, Blashill has no issue keeping Connor Murphy’s minutes in check, so it’s not as if he’s an unreasonable veteran loyalist like some coaches can be. This is more of a personal wish from me when watching games like this one, especially considering that when the Blackhawks did show any energy tonight, it almost always came from the younger players.

As usual, lower-effort games get lower-effort recaps, so I’ll wrap things up there. Hope everyone reading this has a happy holiday, and we’ll see you on the other side.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Travis Konecny (PHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  2. Noah Cates (PHI) — 1 goal
  3. Ryan Donato (CHI) — 1 goal

What’s Next

The Blackhawks will have a few days to regroup during the holiday break before suiting up to take on the Stars in Dallas Saturday at 7 p.m.

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