The Blackhawks lost 6-1 to the Stars on Tuesday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. It was Patrick Kane’s 1,000th career NHL game but the Blackhawks’ forward had zero points during the milestone night.
The Stars opened the scoring less than two minutes into the game, as Joel Kiviranta scored on the Stars’ first shot of the game just 100 seconds in.
The Blackhawks killed off two early penalties to keep themselves down just one goal in the first period but Jamie Oleksiak put the Stars up 2-0 with 4:50 remaining in the period. Soon after, Reese Johnson fought Nicolas Caamano of the Stars.
Mattias Janmark — a former Star — beat Anton Khudobin from a bad angle to put the Blackhawks on the board 1:43 into the second period.
🚨Mattias Janmark scored against his former team with a one-timer from the right face-off circle 1:43 into the second period.
🍎Lucas Carlsson
🍏Calvin de Haan#GoStars 2, #Blackhawks 1 pic.twitter.com/5n7AfnmCb0— Brandon Cain (@brandonmcain) March 10, 2021
It was his second goal in two games, and Lucas Carlsson got his first point of the season with the primary assist.
John Klingberg put the Stars back up two on Dallas’s third power-play opportunity. Joe Pavelski followed that up with a goal of his own just 2:30 later, scoring off a rebound from his own breakaway. Esa Lindell tacked on another just 90 seconds later, making it a 5-1 game in favor of the Stars by the second intermission.
Roope Hintz added another goal for Dallas 6:46 into the third period.
Notes
- Seeing so many Hawks faces — including Jonathan Toews in the pre-game video and then Marian Hossa in the first intermission — was the best thing that happened Blackhawks-wise today.
- Sometimes goaltenders have bad games. This was one for Subban. He made 31 saves on 37 shots, with 3.48 expected goals against. He made eight saves on 11 high-danger shots and had a .838 save percentage. At the same time, Kevin Lankinen gave up six goals in the game prior.
- Nothing went right for the Blackhawks. They finished the first period with zero high-danger chances at 5-on-5 and it didn’t really improve from there. The Blackhawks had just three high-danger chances in this game and 1.01 expected goals for at 5-on-5. The Stars had more than that in the second period alone. The Blackhawks finished with a 26.5 expected goal percentage (xGF%) at 5-on-5 — their second lowest of the season after posting a 24.95 against Tampa last Friday.
- If you needed a further reminder that the Blackhawks’ defense needs work after Sundays 6-3 loss to the Lightning, look no further. The Blackhawks gave up 2.81 expected goals against at 5-on-5 and then 0.67 more in 5:51 on the penalty kill. The Blackhawks gave up the same number of high-danger chances on the penalty kill (three) as they had all game offensively.
- Looking for bright spots, two of the lines created through Jeremy Colliton’s line blender were okay. Kane, David Kampf and Dominik Kubalik played 6:13 together and had two shots for and zero against. They could be reunited at some point. Reese Johnson, Pius Suter and Matthew Highmore played 3:25 and had a team-leading 83.57 xGF%.
- Kane finished his 1,000th game with 20:34 and one shot on goal. He had 0.09 expected goals and two giveaways. He had a 19.49 xGF% at 5-on-5.
- Let’s hope Toews meant it when he told Kane in that video “see you soon, bud”. The Blackhawks need better 5-on-5 play and that’s something Toews has always been good for. Chicago misses him, badly. Seriously: get well soon, Cap./
Game Charts
Three stars
- Jason Robertson (DAL) — 4 assists, 3 primary
- Roope Hintz (DAL) — 1 goal, 1 primary assist
- Joel Kiviranta (DAL) — 1 goal, 1 secondary assist
What’s next
The Blackhawks face the Stars again on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.