Neva Play: Blackhawks 4, Sharks 2

The Chicago Blackhawks showed out for their home opener on Thursday night, putting up one of the better performances in years and beating the San Jose Sharks 4-2.

The Blackhawks went up 1-0 about five minutes into the first period after a TJ Brodie pass sprung Taylor Hall on a breakaway and the former Bruin went five-hole for his first goal of the season.

Tyler Bertuzzi doubled the Blackhawks lead with 49 seconds left in the first after tipping a quick pass from Teuvo Teravainen while on the power play.

The Blackhawks made it 3-0 with another tipped power-play goal just 43 seconds into the middle frame. It was a tic-tac-toe goal where Connor Bedard started the sequence with a no-look pass across the ice to Teravainen and then Nick Foligno deflected Tereavainen’s ensuing pass for the goal.

After a late second-period surge, the Sharks finally got on the board thanks to their own deflection from Tyler Toffoli with 1:43 left in the second.

Jason Dickinson put the Blackhawks up 4-1 about two minutes into the third period. Joey Anderson won a puck battle behind the net and got to the puck to Dickinson, who made a great toe-drag move to tuck the puck into the side of the net.

The Sharks responded just 33 seconds later to make it a two-goal game again, though, with yet another deflection. Fabian Zetterlund tipped Mikael Granlund’s shot pass while on a delayed penalty to make it 4-2 with over 17 minutes left in the game.

And with a solid defensive effort to close out the game, that would be the final score as the Blackhawks won 4-2.

Notes

The Sharks were a perfect matchup for the Blackhawks’ home opener because, if there is any team that will be definitively worse this season, it’s the Sharks. But just because their opponent is terrible doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate this game: after all, last season’s Blackhawks often didn’t beat the other bottom-dwellers. In this game, they crushed it. We’ll have to see if it holds throughout the season, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

The first period was the most dominant of the game: the Blackhawks owned a 24-7 shot attempt edge and 69.63 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. They also looked pretty in control when on the power play. Honestly, it was one of the best possession periods in terms of shot metrics that the Blackhawks have had in years. Now, the second period metrics at 5-on-5 were more even — 16-14 shot attempts and 6-5 scoring chances in favor of the Sharks — but it wasn’t until the final five minutes that the Sharks really started to push back. And while the Sharks objectively had the puck more in the third (17-7 shot attempts), the Blackhawks still controlled the game a lot and limited scoring chances against to just two. Basically, the Blackhawks turtled, but in a highly effective way — another thing they failed to do consistently last season when they had a lead, even against lower quality opponents.

The best line of the night offensively was obviously the Bedard line. They didn’t actually score at 5-on-5, but they absolutely dictated play when on the ice together. Bedard, in particular, seemed to be almost playing with his food tonight. He has seven points (1 G, 6 A) in five games so far, but it feels like he should have had even more by this point, and it won’t be surprising if he just breaks out for a wild point streak sooner rather than later.

Teravainen also has seven points (3 G, 4 A) and, as expected, has been a wonderful compliment to Bedard, especially on the power play. His on-ice vision and ability to actually pull of the necessary passing plays to keep up with Bedard on a high level has been great to watch so far. Both he and Bedard could finish top-20 at this pace.

That Dickinson goal was pretty neat, right? I’m not sure he’ll score 20 goals again this season, but he’s such a smart player with how he puts himself into good positions and he does have enough skill to pull off some ridiculous moves on occasion, like tonight.

I didn’t mind the Alec Martinez signing this offseason, mostly because I thought he’d be paired with and mentor a youngster ala Shea Theodore, but it’s been pretty meh to see him with Seth Jones. Fine, but not exciting. However, with him missing tonight with an injury, the Blackhawks ran what was honestly one of the best defensive lineups they can put together: Jones and Alex Vlasic reunited, Connor Murphy and Nolan Allan are a shutdown dream (especially as Allan has the skating ability to compensate for Murphy’s lost step), and Wyatt Kaiser and TJ Brodie make sense stylistically somehow.

Vlasic, in particular, has been a standout for the team to start the season, as he and Jones just click. I’d personally run with the pairings from tonight for a while just to keep these two together.

Obviously, we’re all tired of talking about the Reichel situation, especially after a solid win, but it’s still very frustrating to see him play so little in a role that just doesn’t really suit him. He actually looked perfectly fine in those limited minutes, but in my opinion, every young player should be given ample leash for these rebuilding seasons just to see if they can grow. For another example, I also don’t want Allan sitting more games than not: I’d rather they rotate the veterans that don’t have potential to play into the long-term plans for Chicago. Either way, hopefully Reichel can move up the lineup in the coming games.

Petr Mrazek had a solid outing tonight, though his workload was pretty light with him only facing 22 shots. Both goals against were deflections, so not really on him. There was some worry that Mrazek might have a down season since he has fluctuated between good and bad historically but, so far, those worries have been sated.

One final note: the Blackhawks weirdly did not sell out tonight. It’s weird simply because it’s the first game of the season at the UC and the team had some hype coming into the season with the new player signings. I wonder if some of this is due to the issues with fans not being able to see the game on TV or stream reliably? It’s impossible to keep a fanbase fully invested when they can’t see the product regularly.

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