After three days off, the Blackhawks looked like a team that might have been on its fourth in a 3-1 road defeat against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
After a scoreless first, Seattle took the lead about four minutes into the second when Matty Beniers finished off this odd-man rush:
Early in the third, Seattle doubled its advantage on this Jaden Schwartz goal:
A brief burst of momentum from the Blackhawks came when Ryan Donato’s largely solo effort resulted in a goal that cut the Kraken lead in half:
But that was as close as Chicago would get to Seattle and Brandon Tanev added an empty-netter later in the third for the final tally of the game.
Notes
Petr Mrazek was excellent in this game and each of the goals scored could’ve been easily prevented by better defensive play. Alec Martinez stepped up in the neutral zone for no good reason just before the first goal, triggering the 2-on-1 that became a goal. On the second, TJ Brodie got beat wide and then Wyatt Kaiser was caught watching the play instead of finding a player to cover, leaving Schwartz with ample space to score the ultimate winning goal.
Sometimes Chicago’s lack of speed and skill pops up in various aspects of the game and, in this one, it seemed mostly evident in Chicago’s consistent ability to gain entry into the offensive zone with possession — specifically that they could not do that. Like, at all. It seemed like any possession through the neutral zone was done by a Chicago skater who was outnumbered by the time he got to the opposing blue line, and the ensuing dump into the zone had no one available for retrieval. Or if there was someone available for said retrieval, they weren’t quite quick enough to get to the puck. There was another dump-in early in the second that seemed retrievable until Daccord went behind the net and picked off the rim around the boards himself. No matter how they tried to gain zone entry, the Blackhawks were consistently unsuccessful, and that was a substantial driver of their complete lack of offense in this game.
Attacking up the middle seemed to work quite well on the Donato goal, obviously, which was aided by a bad Seattle turnover. The question then becomes: why don’t they go there more often? A possible answer: they aren’t good enough to get there consistently? Just look at this close-up view of the heatmap below and notice how barren the activity was from the most dangerous parts of the ice:
This is becoming a trend, though, this total lack of pucks in the middle of the ice when Chicago has possession on offense. Not sure how to buck that trend, though, because it’s not all that difficult to keep this team to the outside.
Luke Richardson on Ryan Donato: "He's the only one shooting the puck with any desperation."
— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 11:55 PM
Reichel’s skating continues to be noticeable. Hopefully whatever switch it is in his mind that’s been flipped on remains that way, because this is a far more useful version of him, even if it ends up as some sort of bottom-six, bum-slaying role. Sure beats Rockford!
Bedard had one shot on goal in this game, giving him a grand total of FOUR in the last three games. Not going to freak out here, but it’s not encouraging. Perhaps heading home for a game on Saturday night in front of the Hockey Night in Canada audience sparks something?
Symptoms of a subpar team, summarized quite well:
The law of this Blackhawks season: If they stink in the first two periods, they will play well in the third. If they play well in the first two periods, they will stink in the third.
— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) November 14, 2024 at 11:07 PM
Not sure what else to say outside of “A bad hockey team played bad hockey.” It’ll probably happen again, more often than any of us want to endure. But we’ll keep tuning in for the off chance of a pleasant surprise because what else are we supposed to do all winter?
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Jaden Schwartz (SEA) — 1 goal
- Matty Beniers (SEA) — 1 goal
- Ryan Donato (CHI) — 1 goal
What’s Next
Chicago jumps across the border for a Saturday night game against the Vancouver Canucks at 9 p.m.