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Come on Heartache: Flyers 3, Blackhawks 2

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

A two-goal, third-period lead was not enough to yield two points for the Blackhawks on Saturday afternoon, who gave up a trio of late goals in a 3-2 loss on the road to the Philadelphia Flyers.

While the host Flyers controlled much of the action early, it was Chicago that got on the board first, when this rush ended with a perfect Pat Maroon pass that set up the young Jedi for a one-timer and a goal at the 11:29 mark of the opening period:

In the middle of the second, that same line connected for a second goal when Maroon attempted a centering pass to Reichel and ended up with a goal himself:

That two-goal lead was nice, wasn’t it? Let’s take a moment to savor it.

Because it didn’t last! The Flyers scored at the 7:27 mark of the third off of this neat passing sequence following a faceoff win in the offensive zone that picked apart the Blackhawks in-zone coverage:

Faceoffs do matter sometimes. The Flyers have won 29 of the 44 today. This one led to a goal.

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— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 2:12 PM

About two-and-a-half minutes later, Noah Cates tied the game with this shot from the slot that Petr Mrazek probably never saw thanks to a screen:

Mrazek damn near singlehandedly forced this game into overtime with some third-period heroics but even those ran out in overtime, as Matvei Michkov found open ice during a 4-on-3 power play and ended the afternoon’s festivities:

Notes

While he’s far form the first player to struggle to keep up with the game’s pace while approaching the age of 40, Pat Maroon very clearly still has the hands to set up teammates for prime scoring chances. He also sprung Reichel for a breakaway with similarly nifty pass that resulted in Reichel’s goal. It remains bizarre how exactly Reichel seems to have found his NHL footing, but it’s hard to argue with the results.

Everyone wanted the Blackhawks to put their first-round pick with some established veterans to get him going offensively this season and we all definitely thought that was in reference to Lukas Reichel on the fourth line with Pat Maroon and Craig Smith

— Second City Hockey (@secondcityhockey.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 12:34 PM

Speaking of Connor Bedard: a lineup shuffle resulted in Bedard skating 8:49 of 5-on-5 ice time with Taylor Hall and Teuvo Teravainen and that trio fared pretty well: 12-8 edge in shot attempts, 6-5 edge in scoring chances, 2-1 edge in high-danger chances and an even 4-4 in shots on goal. That made for a pretty solid expected goal share of 74.54 percent. They didn’t score, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to see this trio together more often.

No coincidence that Bedard’s outing was better when he had some ice time with players who compliment his abilities:

Connor Bedard goes a second consecutive game without a shot on net. He was more aggressive and had six shot attempts. His goalless streak reaches 12 games. He has six shots on net over the last seven games.

— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 2:42 PM

Keeping that trio together gets closer to what feels like the Blackhawks best possible lineup right now. Keep the Smith-Reichel-Maroon line together along with Hall-Bedard-Teuvo. Let Dickinson have Joey Anderson and, maybe, Ilya Mikheyev or Nick Foligno for a checking line and put the remaining pieces together in Kurashev, Donato and Bertuzzi. If we’re going to play armchair coach, that seems like it gives the team its best chance to win, right?

Another tip of the cap to Petr Mrazek for dragging this game to overtime when the Blackhawks likely didn’t deserve it based on how outplayed they were by a team that is famously not a defending Stanley Cup champion. Easy to get up for those games, but it’s the subpar performances against teams closer to Chicago in the standings that are especially frustrating.

Not that the Blackhawks’ power play has been setting the world on fire, but another symptom of having such little possession is that opponents aren’t often forced into situations that result in penalties against them and power plays for Chicago:

Blackhawks have had just one power play opportunity in five straight games. That's a franchise record and the longest such streak by any team since 2019.

— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) November 23, 2024 at 3:26 PM

Chicago entered this game tied with Vegas for 28th in the league at just 50 power plays for the season. Consider that when looking at this stat from Thursday night, which now has another overtime loss on it:

Hawks are 4-2 when they score a PPG and 2-10-1 when they don't. So there's that.

— Second City Hockey (@secondcityhockey.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 7:45 PM

Hey, maybe more power-play time is what it takes to get Bedard going? Who knows at this point.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Matvei Michkov (PHI) — GWG
  2. Petr Mrazek (CHI) — 34 saves on 37 shots
  3. Lukas Reichel (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist

What’s Next

The Blackhawks have several days off before returning to the ice at the United Center to host the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m.

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