The Chicago Blackhawks fell 5-2 on the road to the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday night after allowing four goals on four shots to open the game.
The Blues opened the scoring about two minutes into the game. A Nick Leddy outlet pass sprung Jordan Kyrou on a breakaway, giving St. Louis the early 1-0 lead.
Kyrou scored again 42 seconds later, this time rifling the puck into the net on a 2-on-1 with Brandon Saad to double the Blues lead.
The Blues added their third goal after Torey Krug’s shot from the point found the back of the net thanks in part to a screen created by Nikita Alexandrov as he skated in front. Petr Mrazek was pulled from the game after this goal.
Zack Bolduc got in on the action, finishing off the pretty passing setup from Robert Thomas and Brayden Schenn to make it 4-0 Blues at about the seven-minute mark of the first period.
The Blackhawks didn’t go totally quietly into the night: Philipp Kurashev got them on the board at 8:20 of the second period. During a 4-on-4, Kurashev and Kevin Korchinski got an opportunity on the rush, with Kurashev scoring by picking up Korchinski’s rebound for a wrap-around goal into the empty cage.
The Blues regained their four-goal lead midway through the third period after Robert Thomas cleaned up Schenn’s rebound, making it 5-1 Blues.
The Blackhawks showed a bit more life towards the end, and it resulted in a rookie goal from Landon Slaggert with 3:09 remaining in the game to make it 5-2. A great touch-pass from Ryan Donato found a streaking Slaggert, who beat Joel Hofer on the rush.
Unfortunately, that was all the Blackhawks could muster, and they fell 5-2.
Notes
- One of the worst first periods this season, which is saying something. Obviously four goals on the first four shots is terrible, but the Blues also just dominated in every way by a large margin. The Blackhawks had 17 fewer shot attempts and 10 fewer scoring chances at 5-on-5, not even hitting double digits in either category. Embarrassing, as Jason Dickinson described in post-game:
- The second and third periods were objectively better periods, pretty even but with a slight edge in shot metrics to the Blackhawks. They held a 27-10 edge in shot attempts, 11-8 in scoring chances, and had 55.5 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. Some of that was definitely score effects, but at least Chicago didn’t roll over after going down four goals so quick.
- The Blackhawks have been terrible to start a lot of games this season. They’re second in the league in goals scored against in the first period with 91, which is already not good, but over half of those (50) came in the first 10 minutes and about 40 percent (36) came in the first five.
- You’ve got to feel bad for Mrazek. He’s been having an excellent season, and it wasn’t all on him, but this was a rough game for him making zero saves on the first three shots.
- Social media teams sometimes need to branch out from cliche sayings or else they sound stupid. Exhibit A below:
- In a postgame interview, Kyrou said that the Blues had a “big rivalry with these guys,” which is funny because the Blackhawks don’t have enough tenured players for anyone on the Blues to really have beef with at this point. And if we’re talking historical rivalries, the Blues are not near the top of the list to me.
- Nick Foligno did not travel with the team to St. Louis for personal reasons but the expectation is he’ll be in the lineup on Friday.
- Foligno’s absence allowed Taylor Raddysh to slide back in after being healthy scratched the last two games. He was fine enough, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the odd man out again when Foligno returned. It feels like Raddysh’s time in Chicago is all but over.
- Speaking of returns and as mentioned in the preview, it sounds like they’re going to try to get Connor Murphy (groin) into a game as early as Friday.
- The Blackhawks sent Wyatt Kaiser down to Rockford to get back into the AHL groove ahead of the playoffs and because Murphy is coming back soon, but the issue is that forced the Blackhawks to play Jarred Tinordi and Nikita Zaitsev in the same game which is just gross. Gross!
- The main highlight of this game was that Slaggert scored his first NHL goal. He honestly could have had another in this game earlier, but he hit the post instead. It’ll be interesting to see if he can earn a spot in the bottom-six at the start of next season or if he’ll play big minutes in Rockford.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Jordan Kyrou (STL) — 2 goals
- Rober Thomas (STL) — 1 goals, 1 assist
- Landon Slaggert (CHI) — first NHL goal!
What’s Next
The Blackhawks are back at the United Center on Friday to take on the Nashville Predators at 7:30 p.m.