The Blackhawks possibly set an NHL record for the largest one-goal deficit in the history of hockey on Tuesday night in Salt Lake City, with possession of the puck mostly being a dream of theirs during a 2-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club.
Chicago was so, so, so, so awful at 5-on-5 hockey in this game (more on that in a bit), but it did manage an early power-play goal that put them ahead. Seth Jones took advantage of open space created by Connor Bedard moving across the ice and sniped a shot from the top of the left faceoff dot for a 1-0 Blackhawks lead:
Seth Jones with a snipe on the powerplay for his 7th goal of the season pic.twitter.com/X4T3f5Jai5
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) February 26, 2025
Utah controlled all other aspects of the game but didn’t register its first goal until the final minute of the second period:
Utah goal! Scored by Clayton Keller with 00:44 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Michael Kesselring and Logan Cooley. Utah: 1 Chicago: 1 #CHIvsUTA #UtahHC #Blackhawks
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) February 25, 2025 at 9:49 PM
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Lawson Crouse added the winner in the third:
Utah goal! Scored by Lawson Crouse with 07:48 remaining in the 3rd period. Assisted by Josh Doan and Olli Määttä. Utah: 2 Chicago: 1 #CHIvsUTA #UtahHC #Blackhawks
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) February 25, 2025 at 10:30 PM
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Chicago had one decent look in the waning minutes but absolutely did not deserve a tying goal and the hockey gods agreed, ending this one at 2-1.
Notes
The only good thing to say about this game is Arvid Soderblom.
As for the rest …
We’ll start with the incredibly? comically? epically? massively? pornographically? Not sure which adverb works best here to describe just how lopsided the possession numbers were in this game. There were 43 minutes and 17 seconds of 5-on-5 ice time in this game. During that time, Utah owned advantages of: a nice 69-19 in shot attempts, a cool 26-12 in shots on goal, an unpleasant 11-2 in high-danger chances and a … wait for it … FORTY TO FIVE in scoring chances. That’s an expected goal share of 82.85 for Utah and 17.15 for the Hawks, which is a new season-low for the Hawks and somehow only the fourth worst expected goal share in a game this season, per Natural Stat Trick. It was the worst 5-on-5 expected goal share for the Hawks since a 16.18 against the Dallas Stars on May 10, 2021.
When the game is that one-sided, I don’t even know what there is to be gleaned from it. There was a thought about trying to point to another Connor Bedard mini-slump developing, as he is without a point in three consecutive games now, which happened in late October and mid-November and was part of the reason why the former coach was fired in early December. We probably don’t need to talk too much about the interim coach being considered too much for the full-time role here, do we?
In the first 57 games of the season, Connor Bedard has had 36 different line combinations. This is a HUGE problem that must be fixed this summer.
— Greg Boysen (@gregboysen.bsky.social) February 25, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Bedard wasn’t awarded a point on that Jones PPG but it was so obvious how much attention the Utah PK was devoting to him with the wide open ice that suddenly became available for Jones once Bedard started moving across the zone. Just a shame the Blackhawks were never on offense again so that a similar play could unfold — maybe even during 5-on-5!
We can add the above to the list of grievances about both bench bosses Chicago has had this season. There’s probably a halfway decent solution on the roster right now but the current coaching staff seems hellbent on playing him in a checking role with Ilya Mikheyev for some reason.
Speaking of Mikheyev, here’s a decent way to summarize everything that he is:
Ilya Mikheyev uses his elite speed to create a breakaway chance but his backhand shot is stuffed pic.twitter.com/RcVYSdbhp3
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) February 26, 2025
During the first period, Darren Pang referenced the “torpedo” system that Anders Sorensen brought over from Sweden and was using it as some sort of inspiration for whatever breakout he was implementing with the Blackhawks, and it was just perfect to have that referenced during a game where the Blackhawks’ breakout was basically nonexistent.
Let’s dive a little deeper into the statistical misery this game by looking at the numbers by line. Natural Stat Trick had five of them listed, with the Bedard-Donato-Nazar one only skating together for 1:49, which is a small enough sample that we can ignore it. Of the other four lines, three of them were not credited with generating a single scoring chance in this game. One of them (Slaggert-Donato-Dach) failed to generate a single shot on goal. How is this helping anyone’s development? Isn’t that what’s supposed to be happening here?
goodnight pic.twitter.com/CYDKRKmXw9
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) February 26, 2025
Would be happy for Seth Jones’ postgame interviews to continually become more and more unhinged if things continue trending in this direction.
“We’re the exact same team right now as we were game 1. It’s pretty evident out there. We haven’t made any strides to be a better, more simple hockey team, and it shows.”
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) February 26, 2025
Seth Jones shows his frustration after the Blackhawks loss to Utah tonight. pic.twitter.com/jsIXae3yxh
Not hard to see why Jones wants to get the hell out of town, is it?
Here’s a Michigan from 2024 third-rounder Jack Pridham to end this on a different note:
THAT'S JUST SILLY 🫢#RTown | #BattleBuilt | #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/MSV5XFjSGy
— Kitchener Rangers (@OHLRangers) February 26, 2025
Maybe Thursday won’t be so miserable.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Lawson Crouse (UTA) — 1 goal
- Clayton Keller (UTA) — 1 goal
- Arvid Soderblom (CHI) — 34 saves on 36 shots
What’s Next
The Blackhawks will try to avoid being a civic embarrassment this time when they head over to Vegas to face the Golden Knights on Thursday night at 9 p.m.