x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

You Owe Me an IOU: Canucks 6, Blackhawks 2

A miserable evening in Vancouver.

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images

The Blackhawks closed out their weeklong road trip with a resounding thud, losing 6-2 to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.

Near the end of an otherwise scoreless first period, Quinn Hughes broke the tie when a poor angle taken by Tyler Bertuzzi left him a wide open path to the net:

Just 35 seconds later, Tyler Myers scored to make it a 2-0 Canucks lead:

Near the middle of the second period, Conor Garland tore through Chicago’s defense to make it a 3-0 Vancouver lead:

Late in the second, Alex Vlasic put the Blackhawks on the scoreboard with this wrister from the point that found its way into the Vancouver net:

But that momentum didn’t last into the third, with Elias Pettersson giving the Canucks a 4-1 lead:

Wyatt Kaiser scored about a minute later to briefly make it a two-goal game again:

But Vancouver then scored a pair of goals in eight seconds to put the game away:

Notes

Aside from his terrible defense on the Hughes goal, Bertuzzi has also been a total bust on the offensive side lately, which is just unacceptable from the highest paid player on the team. He hasn’t scored a goal in almost two months (Jan. 20 was his last) and he has seven assists in his last 19 games. Lately, he’s been down on the fourth line which is pretty indicative of the quality of his play lately. His contract is for three more seasons, so he’s almost certainly not going anywhere, which means that this thing needs to get fixed. Add that to the list of challenges for the next coach of this team.

Also, Bertuzzi is here because the Blackhawks decided they wanted him in free agency. Whatever math they did to land on Bertuzzi last summer can be tossed into Lake Michigan in favor of a fresh start.

I look forward to the day when the Hawks have a lineup full of skaters who can blow by defenders and score goals the way Garland did to Alec Martinez on that third Vancouver goal.

No, this was not Arvid Soderblom’s night. He was also hung out to dry by his team on several occasions. Both things can be true. Given how well Soderblom’s played this season, we can forgive this performance if it there’s a rebound performance arriving soon.

Not entirely sure what the magic recipe is going to be for Bedard to have more consistent success before this season ends but the sight of him flinging equipment down the hallway isn’t one we’ll want to see very often.

Just a weird game overall, because all of the possession metrics have the Blackhawks on the positive side of the ledger. But Vancouver seemed to convert every single scoring opportunity into a goal, aided by either the Chicago defense or the Chicago goaltender — or both. That’s how you end up surrendering six goals in just 15 shots against.

Hilarious to watch the Canucks toughen up late against the Blackhawks kid line. Guess all of those obnoxious Vancouver antics from the prior decade are still part of the organizational philosophy, eh? It’ll be fun to watch them get punted in the first round when the postseason arrives.

Chicago’s ice-time leader in this game was Artyom Levshunov at 22:39. It’s a little strange to have him skating that much in his third career NHL game but that’s certainly playing the kids, isn’t it?

Eh, that’s enough of that. The less said about that game, the better.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Elias Pettersson (VAN) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  2. Pius Suter (VAN) — 1 goal, 1 assists
  3. Nils Hoglander (VAN) — 2 assists

What’s Next

The Blackhawks return home to host the Seattle Kraken at the United Center on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points