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Future Me Hates Me: Blackhawks 4, Wild 3

The Bowen Byram Show filmed its first episode in Chicago on Monday night.

Posted on by Dave Melton
(Photo by Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire)

The Blackhawks first home preseason game ended with an overtime winner, as Bowen Byram’s hat trick propelled Chicago to a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on Monday night at the United Center.

It was an inauspicious start, with Minnesota scoring 15 seconds in on this Bobby Brink redirect of a point shot:

Chicago tied the game later in the first when Nick Lardis emerged from the penalty box, forced a turnover and then cashed in on the ensuing breakaway:

Early in the second, Chicago jumped ahead 2-1 when offseason acquisition Bowen Byram was given acres of space to pick a corner — so he did:

In the first minute of the third period, Byram added his second of the night when his attempted centering pass to Roman Kantserov hit a Minnesota stick and ended up in the goal:

That 3-1 Hawks’ lead didn’t last, though. About four minutes after Byram’s second, Max Shabanov scored:

Later in the third, Brink scored his second of the night by successfully going on 1-on-2 against the Hawks’ defense before beating Knight:

In overtime, Byram completed his hat trick to seal the Hawks win:

Notes

The obvious caveat of Minnesota’s AHL-heavy lineup applies but Bowen Byram was certainly as advertised. Along with the trio of goals he scored above, Byram also rang one off the post from a rush chance he created during the second period:

He was active in the neutral zone and offensive zone all game, constantly moving himself into areas where he could be an offensive threat. The combination of puck movement and self movement was impressive, and it’s clear to see what’s made Byram so tantalizing to other teams when he’s flying around the ice like that. It’ll be curious to see what he’s like when the regular season gets here and some of that time and space he was afforded in this game is much harder to locate.

Two other Hawks blue-liners who looked awfully aggressive in the offensive zone from this perspective were Sam Rinzel and Artyom Levshunov. Rinzel helped create the sequence that led to Byram’s first goal with his carrying of the puck from the point to behind the net, a route he took with the puck several times in this game. Levshunov had a few similar ventures and another chance play in the first when he stepped up from the blue line, deftly split a few defenders and set up a prime scoring chance (can’t find a clip, dammit!). No major defensive gaffes to note from those two, either. So we’ll take it.

A decent outing for Roman Kansterov’s first (unofficial) appearance in a Blackhawks sweater on the offensive side of things, as he notched an assist and led the team in individual expected goals created (0.31), individual shot attempts (6) and individual scoring chances (3) — tied with Sam Rinzel in the latter two categories, more on him in a bit. The reports of not being shy of physicality despite his smaller stature were also confirmed when he trucked his old KHL teammate:

The goal that Knight surrendered to Shabanov is probably one he’ll want back, given the angle of it. He did redeem himself with a timely save on this breakaway later in the third. That last Minnesota goal? Probably more on the defenders in front of Knight than on him, although it would’ve been nice to get a save there. We can pause on any concerns regarding Knight until the regular season, though.

It’s a different story on defense, though. Bobby Brink is a decent NHLer but he simply cannot be allowed to go 1-on-2 against two of the guys who should be skating 20-plus minutes a night this season in Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser. Speaking of defense …

There were certainly positive signs in this game. Byram’s the obvious one, along with positive moments from guys like Lardis and Rinzel and Levshunov and Kantserov. Ryan Greene had an excellent pass to set up that first Byram goal. Those individual standouts were nice to see. The collective part, though? Less positive. For the game, Minnesota owned every 5-on-5 possession category: 46-44 in shot attempts, 20-18 in shots on goal, 27-18 in scoring chances and 9-4 in high-danger chances, all for a 56.3 percent share of the expected goals. The third period was especially bad, with the Wild up, 20-14, 10-7, 10-7 and 3-1, respectively, part of the Wild’s 61.2 percent share of the expected goals in the final period. Again, this Wild team did not have players like Hughes and Kaprizov and Faber and Boldy and more playing for it.

Having those quality individual performances is a good thing, and that’ll be a necessary constant throughout this season to make it a success. But, collectively, this team blew a 3-1 lead to an AHL-heavy roster that tilted the ice for much of the final 20 minutes (just look at the flow chart below to see how much Minnesota took over). That type of game has become all-too-familiar this decade, even if Chicago ended up as the winners this time. The process matters here, arguably still more than the results do.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Bowen Byram (CHI) — Hat trick
  2. Bobby Brink (MIN) — 2 goals
  3. Nick Lardis (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist

What’s Next

The Blackhawks are on the road for the final time this preseason when they face the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

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