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For Reasons Unknown: Golden Knights 4, Blackhawks 0

A real late night thriller from Sin City.

Posted on by Steve Kwiatkowski
Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks gave goaltender Aidin Hill his first shutout of the season with a 4-0 performance against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night.

Pavel Dorofeyev scored his first of two goals 8:33 into the game after Louis Crevier was penalized (his first of two).

The Blackhawks’ defensive zone coverage broke down when four Golden Knights shrunk the zone in the lower right corner, leaving defenseman Rasmus Andersson to score uncontested from the weakside with 8:25 left in the first.

Only 25 seconds after that second goal, Keegan Kolesar tipped in a point shot from Jeremy Lauzon. Ethan Del Mastro probably would have liked to play a little stronger on Kolesar at the net front.

The final goal of the game came with 7:09 remaining in the second period. Dorofeyev collected a loose puck after the Hawks failed to clear and scored his second of the night.

Notes

There’s not a whole lot to say about this one. Sure, there were maybe three times the Hawks could have scored. Ryan Greene had a wide open net but was beaten to the puck, Andrew Mangiapane hit a crossbar on a wide open net, and Artyom Levshunov had his goal taken off the scoreboard after it was challenged for a hand pass.

But that doesn’t excuse how Chicago played on Saturday night. Aidin Hill was ranked 88 out of 92 goalies in goals saved above expected before the game (minus-13 goals saved above expected). Vegas was 4-6-0 before collecting their shutout win over the Hawks. A consistent theme throughout the night was poor passing in every area of the ice and awful breakouts. The Blackhawks have switched their breakouts from using the middle of the ice to using the boards throughout the season. On Saturday, they relied on using the middle of the ice and often made careless passes to the opposition. In the neutral zone and offensive zone, they struggled to connect on passes, period. Yes, the Golden Knights were excellent and relentless on the forecheck. But I observed multiple turnovers and giveaways under minimal pressure that were due to carelessness.

Even if the breakouts had been cleaned up, the Hawks still lacked offensive punch to make a meaningful impact. Chicago had a 43.42 percent shot attempt share and a 32.67 percent expected goals share at 5-on-5. The only line above 50 percent in shot attempt share was Ryan Donato’s line with Ilya Mikheyev and Mangiapane (55 percent). But their role wasn’t to generate offense and they didn’t, with a 46.78 percent expected goal share. Even though Connor Bedard had five shot attempts in all situations, he was limited to two during 5-on-5 play. It’s still easy for the opposition to stifle Bedard when he’s the only real threat.

Look, I don’t want to end the night on a negative-Nancy tangent. So I’ll just end it with this. The Hawks were going to struggle against Vegas regardless. But some of the lineup decisions and tactics (namely, the offensive zone forecheck) have me questioning the coaching staff. The players are who they are, but I do think a lot of this could be cleaned up with different decisions from the coaching staff. Maybe some fresh faces in the lineup will change things up (Sacha Boisvert and Anton Frondell). Maybe I’m grasping at straws for positivity. Maybe I just need an early St. Patty’s Day drink.

Game Charts

#NHL GameScore Impact Card for Chicago Blackhawks on 2026-03-14 #Blackhawks

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— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards.com) March 14, 2026 at 9:50 PM

Three Stars

  1. Aidin Hill (VGK) — 1.000 save percentage
  2. Pavel Dorofeyev (VGK) — 2 goals, 1 assist
  3. Mark Stone (VGK) — 2 assists

What’s Next

The Blackhawks host the Minnesota Wild for St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

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