x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

Fell On Black Days: Kraken 6, Blackhawks 2

Another 6-2 loss for the Hawks, with this one coming at home and after the team led 2-0.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Talia Sprague-Imagn Images

For the second game in a row, the Chicago Blackhawks lost a game 6-2, this time to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night at the United Center. This was also their fifth straight loss.

The Blackhawks went up 1-0 just under four minutes into the first period while on the power play. Connor Bedard was tripped after entering the zone and lost the puck backwards, but Artyom Levshunov kept the puck in well before getting the puck back to Bedard, whose wrist shot from a sharp angle went off Adam Larsson’s skate and in.

Tyler Bertuzzi made it 2-0 with 2:47 left in the first period. Lukas Reichel won the offensive zone faceoff cleanly, then Alex Vlasic threw the puck on net from the far left corner, which Bertuzzi tipped past Joey Daccord.

The Kraken got on the board with 1:16 left in the opening frame. From the goal line, Matty Beniers set up Larsson for a one-timer in the right circle that beat Spencer Knight over his shoulder, bringing the Kraken within one.

Jordan Eberle tied the game 2-2 about six minutes into the second period when Chandler Stephenson sent a beautiful saucer pass from behind the net to Eberle in the slot, who scored while falling to one knee.

Jared McCann gave the Kraken their first lead of the game 26 seconds later. Connor Bedard’s pass was picked off by Andre Burakovsky in the offensive zone, and he got the puck to Jared McCann, who skated the puck in and scored from the left circle to make it 3-2 Kraken.

The Kraken doubled their lead to 4-2 at 12:53 in the second thanks to a slick cross-ice pass from Larsson that teed up a one-timer from Beniers from the right circle.

Shane Wright extended the Kraken’s lead to 5-2 with 4:37 left in the middle frame. Knight made two excellent saves on Michael Eyssimont from in close, but Wright backhanded the third puck in.

Wright got his second of the game about seven minutes into the third period after finishing a cross-slot pass from Larsson and putting the Kraken up 6-2. This was, thankfully, where the bleeding ended.

Notes

I’m not going to give this game as much attention as usual because, frankly, it was irksome and I was too irked to take as many notes as usual.

The first period was a good one from the Blackhawks, not something you can say often this season. They dictated pace, had clean and crisp passes, played well defensively … everything you’d want from the team, outside of producing a lot of quality scoring chances. The Blackhawks had the quantity part down — they owned 59.46 percent of the shot attempts and 59.09 percent of the shots on goal at 5-on-5 — but on the wrong side of expected goals with 42.59 percent. To be fair, though, that was still close for how low-event the chances were in general: scoring chances were tied at nine while the Kraken had a 3-2 edge in high danger ones.

Everything good about the first went out the window in the second with the bad breakouts, missed passes, coverage issues, turnovers, poor puck decisions … the list goes on. Interestingly, it didn’t really result in a lot of shots against to start the period, but that had more to do with the Kraken lacking cohesion themselves more than anything the Blackhawks were doing. But once the Kraken started to figure it out, it was kind of over. Yes, Spencer Knight wasn’t great in this period, especially with those two quick back-to-back goals, but the defensive breaks in front didn’t help. You’d hope Knight could bail them out on one or both those, but it wasn’t his night — and the goalies are allowed an off night here or there. The issue is still more at a team level than in net for this game, in my opinion. Blackhawks had just 39.47 percent of the shot attempts, 31.58 percent of the shots on goal, and 40.06 percent of the expected goals.

As for the third, the Blackhawks finished with the better expected goal share (67.89 percent), but that’s basically because the Kraken didn’t do anything except play keep away. Actual scoring chances were the lowest of the game: 6-4 scoring chances and 3-2 high danger in favor of the Blackhawks but, again, not really all that much happening. The Blackhawks were still out-attempted 14-9 and outshot 8-6. That’s all I’m going to say about that period because the less spoken about it, the better.

I’m going to put some observations from the beat writers and post-game quotes below but otherwise my brain wants to wash this game from it’s existence.

I do not understand fighting immediately after the opening faceoff — like nothing has happened yet to warrant fisticuffs.

Some thoughts on the two quick goals in the second period:

Jason Dickinson was (correctly) tough on himself postgame:

He also broke down the Blackhawks defensive issues throughout the game well:

And did not care to give any credit to the power play for scoring because they still played so poorly defensively that they lost 6-2:

Vlasic spoke about the frustrations in the locker room right now:

Bedard scoring was nice, at least — made a little history too:

Seeing Levshunov and Bedard combine for a goal, especially after a nice little keep-in play by Levshunov, was also nice.

Seriously, that was the high of the game and it basically went downhill after that, so I’m just going to live in this moment instead of thinking about the rest of the game.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Adam Larsson (SEA) — 1 goal, 2 assists
  2. Shane Wright (SEA) — 2 goals
  3. Matty Beniers (SEA) — 1 goal, 1 assist

What’s Next

The Blackhawks host the Los Angeles Kings at the United Center on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points