And then there was one.
The Chicago Blackhawks are down to a single game remaining in the 2023-24 season after losing 3-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights in Sin City on Tuesday night.
The opening period and much of the second didn’t have much to happen, as both teams resembled squads that were fully aware of the low stakes involved in a game between one team locked into No. 31 in the NHL standings and the other already assured a playoff spot.
Late in the second, though, Vegas took the lead when Brayden McNabb pounced on a rebound and flipped it into the goal after a little spin to corral the puck:
Vegas’ lead was doubled at the 7:13 mark of the third thanks to this solo effort from Michael Amadio:
Jason Dickinson ended the Vegas shutout bid with 3:58 remaining in the game, briefly raising the possibility of a Chicago comeback:
An empty-net goal by Nicolas Roy two minutes later put those comeback thoughts to bed, though.
Notes
- Certainly not the most scintillating hockey game that’s ever been played, was it?
- While some players may have found it difficult to locate an extra gear in this mostly meaningless meeting, Frank Nazar was an exception, as the 2022 first-rounder was quite noticeable in the second game of his NHL career:
- Of course, Nazar had his down moments, most noticeably on the goal scored Amadio, when Nazar could’ve prevented the goal by either ensuring his point shot wasn’t blocked or by taking better care of the puck near mid-ice before Amadio picked his pocket. Neither mistake is worth dwelling on beyond this sentence, though.
- With the extra pep in Nazar’s step, it should be no surprise that his line with Landon Slaggert and Joey Anderson posted the best expected goal share on the team at 66.70 percent in 10:13 of 5-on-5 ice time together.
- It’d be really, really convenient for the Blackhawks if Petr Mrazek played like this again next season when Chicago hopefully adds some more NHL-level talent to the roster and rewards his efforts with some more Ws than it has this season.
- Might seem like Bedard’s been running on fumes a bit lately with the sudden dearth of points (just two in the last five games), but he can still pull tricks out of his bag like that slick pass to Dickinson for a goal when the team needed something. He’s going to be just fine.
- A quick SCH housekeeping note: some of you who signed up for year-long subscriptions to the site last April are coming due for an auto-renewal in the next few days if you hadn’t already. More are coming in June and we don’t want anyone to be caught off-guard by this. But we’d sincerely appreciate your continued support and we can assure you that this site isn’t going anywhere (more on that next week). You think we’d quit now after all the shit we’ve had to deal with the last few years?!
- One game left, then we’re hopefully moving on to a much, much different chapter starting with next season. See you in the game thread on Thursday night for the 9:30 puck drop. Let’s get weird.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Logan Thompson (VGK) — 22 saves on 23 shots
- Michael Amadio (VGK) — GWG
- Petr Mrazek (CHI) 34 saves on 36 shots
What’s Next
The Blackhawks wrap up the 2023-24 season in SoCal against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at 9:30 p.m.