Coming off their first road win since early November, the Chicago Blackhawks dropped a 4-1 outing against the Washington Capitals on Saturday night to put the kibosh on a possible road win streak.
The Capitals opened the scoring 7:01 into the first period when Hendrix Lapierre redirected John Carlson’s wrister from near the blue line.
Michael Sgarbossa doubled the Capitals lead less than two minutes later after he backhanded a rebound opportunity created by a Trevor van Riemsdyk point shot.
Tom Wilson scored a power-play goal to make it 3-0 Capitals at the 13:36 mark of the second. Dylan Strome set up the goal with a quick pass from behind the net to Wilson, who’d just camped out in the low slot.
It looked like the Capitals would go up 4-0 about a minute later thanks to a Aliaksei Protas goal, but it was ruled offsides after a challenge by the Blackhawks.
Instead, the Capitals fourth goal happened with 2:36 left in the period, and Protas would get the primary assist instead of the goal as he fed Sonny Milano for a one-timer while on a 2-on-1.
Tyler Johnson prevented a shutout by tipping in a Jarred Tinordi shot, making it 4-1 about 10 minutes into the third period.
And that was that.
Notes
- Despite the score, the first period was pretty even in terms of shot metrics at 5-on-5: the Blackhawks out-attempted the Capitals 13-11 and outshot them 7-6, but the Capitals had the edge in scoring chances 6-2 and high-danger chances 3-1. Not sure Chicago really deserved to have four goals scored on them — three that counted — but they also didn’t really do a whole lot to prevent it and/or score themselves.
- The second and third periods were decently strong shot metrics for the Blackhawks: they owned over 62 percent of the shot attempts and 64 percent of the expected goals. So Chicago didn’t play as poorly as the score suggests, but they also don’t have the type of quality players to make use of good possession when they have it.
- There were some breakdowns that ended up hurting the team in terms of goals against, like the major puck-watching that led to Reese Johnson not being anywhere near his man (TVR) or the very rough line change that led to the 2-on-1 for the Milano goal. There was also the lackluster way Philipp Kurashev lost coverage of his man on the Protras no-goal, but at least that didn’t count.
- The Capitals first two goals were scored by the Hershey Bears’ top two starting centers at the start of the year. Lapierre is at least considered a prospect, but allowing Sgarbossa to score on them is like other teams allowing an older Brett Seney score on them.
- The Capitals’ first three goals followed the same principle, too: camp out in front of the net. The Blackhawks have a lot of supposedly high-effort, gritty players so I’m not sure why there aren’t more crash-the-net type of goals from them as a bulk.
- Instead, it’s mostly Connor Bedard out there fighting for his life offensively with little to no support, trying desperately to score. He had 16 shot attempts — 9 on the power play — which is about 22 percent of the Blackhawks total shot attempts. His line also out attempts the Capitals 16-8 when on the ice at 5-on-5.
- I hope for the sake of Bedard’s hand that there’s padding in the bench area because they can’t afford for him to break something punching wood in frustration.
- Outside of his assist, Tinordi had a rough game comparatively: minus-23.31 percent of shot attempts and minus-22.96 percent of expected goals relative to his teammates. He’s not the only terrible player on this team and I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but it’s getting so, so tiring watching him be used a turn-stile practically every game.
- The Blackhawks had a quiet trade deadline, including keeping Tyler Johnson, who spoke post-game about how it’s relief that the deadline is over.
- Andreas Athanasiou was hopeful to play tonight, but it was reported that he wasn’t quite ready as of Saturday morning skate. It’s possible he still plays on Sunday when the team returns home, but they may keep him out until Tuesday just to give him a bit more time.
- In the race to the lottery, the San Jose Sharks beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1 tonight, keeping the Blackhawks in sole possession of the 32nd position in the standings with 37 points.
- In Blackhawks prospect news, Landon Staggert’s NCAA season ended tonight with Notre Dame second loss to Michigan in the best-of-three Big Ten quarterfinal, so we could see him in a Blackhawks jersey by next week. He had two goals and a primary assist in the final two games of his season.
Game Threads
Three Stars
- Charlie Lindgren (WSH) — .969 save-percentage on 32 shots
- John Carlson (WSH) — 2 assists
- Aliaksei Protas (WSH) — 2 assists
What’s Next
The Blackhawks return to the United Center on Sunday night night to face the Arizona Coyotes at 5 p.m. for the second time in a week.