The Chicago Blackhawks were thoroughly outplayed by the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night in Denver in a 4-0 defeat.
The first period started off well enough for the Blackhawks as they were gifted a fantastic scoring opportunity when a broken play led to a mini-breakaway for Nick Foligno.
A minute into the power play, Josh Manson squeezed Ryan Donato off the puck, won the battle against the wall, then chipped the puck past Connor Bedard to an already streaking Logan O’Connor, who was off to the races for a shorthanded breakaway. O’Connor didn’t miss, lifting the puck perfectly over Petr Mrazek’s glove.
Immediately after Mrazek made a huge save on Mikko Rantanen a series of Avalanche passes gave Ryan Johansen the puck right in front of the crease, where he was able to take multiple whacks at it before chopping it over Mrazek to make it 2-0 Colorado.
Unfortunately the second period picked up where the first left off, as the Avs came out humming and maintained complete control, holding the Blackhawks without a shot for a 17 minute stretch (split between periods).
Halfway through the second, Jonathan Drouin entered the Blackhawks’ zone, turnstiled Kevin Korchinski, then found Miles Wood with a beautiful pass as Wood drove the far post for a chip in goal. Luckily for the Hawks, Drouin was (barely) offside, and the goal was quickly overturned.
But just three minutes later, a failed Lukas Reichel clear led to a scramble in the Blackhawks’ zone and when Mrazek lost sight of the puck thanks to a Ross Colton screen Val Nichushkin was able to find a wide open Devon Toews for a tap-in goal and Colorado regained their three goal lead.
The Avalanche did not stop coming in the third. The Hawks were given two early power plays but failed to generate any type of offense.
Nine minutes in Colorado had extended zone time and in the midst of a vicious cycle Tomas Tatar found a driving Nathan MacKinnon and Mrazek didn’t stand a chance.
Notes
- I know that Halloween is still a few weeks away, but it was nice that everybody who isn’t Petr Mrazek, Andreas Athanasiou or Nick Foligno decided to bust out their ghost costumes early.
- Much had been made about the possibility of the Hawks returning home with a winning record on the trip, and even though they absolutely had it handed to them tonight, there’s simply just going to be games like this season. And probably more than we’d like. I think we still have to consider the road trip a success overall though.
- The reality is the Blackhawks don’t have enough talent to match up with teams like Colorado right now (who, by the way, have three of maybe the top ten players in the entire NHL) and they also don’t have enough talent to suppress them either. So when they get moments like the Foligno breakaway early in the first period, they absolutely have to take advantage of them.
- The power play is terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, disgusting right now and the sooner Kevin Korchinski gets elevated to the top unit, the better it will be for us all. They need to figure out a way to create some space for Connor Bedard somehow, and I have yet to see Seth Jones do anything offensively creative. Teams are giving them zero respect, which is why it was essentially a three-on-one charge at Bedard immediately before Logan O’Connor was sprung for his short-handed goal that changed the complexion of the game.
- You’re going to hear a lot about how Bedard didn’t have a single shot attempt. It’s not going to be as big of a deal as some people might make it out to be, but it’s definitely still a deal. The pressure on him is enormous, and the sooner he can get into the normal rhythm of the season the better. So hopefully it will all let up a bit after the home opener.
- As bad as this looked and felt, just imagine how much worse it could have been if Mrazek was not absolutely on his game. Mikko Rantanen should have had a hat trick (and hit two posts on top of it).
- The 5-0 Vegas Golden Knights are up next and they are rolling. I know it’s early but the kind of response we see (both on the ice and hopefully with the lineup) should give us a better idea of what this team is about. The season is about progress, however incremental, so not coming out and being overwhelmed for a second straight game by a clearly superior team feels like a much bigger deal all the sudden.
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Alexander Georgiev – Shutout
- Logan O’Conor – GWG
- Petr Mrazek – 37 saves
What’s Next
The Blackhawks finally head back to Chicago to take on the reigning champion Vegas Golden Knights for the home opener at the United Center on Saturday night at 7 p.m.