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Everybody Hurts: Blues 3, Blackhawks 2

The Hawks lost to the Blues and that wasn’t the worst part.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks couldn’t complete the comeback Friday night, falling 3–2 to the St. Louis Blues in a loss that was made worse by Connor Bedard suffering an injury in the final seconds of the game.

The Blues struck first just 3:41 into the game, cashing in on a delayed penalty. Logan Mailloux picked off a pass at the point, drifted into the circle, and snapped a far-side shot to put the Blues up 1-0.

Matt Luff — the very definition of a veteran AHL depth forward — then doubled the lead at the 11:48 mark of the first after slipping into the slot and beating Knight glove side off a feed from Robby Fabbri.

The Blackhawks answered late in the period to give themselves some life. With 4:10 left in the first, Wyatt Kaiser jumped into the play, took a centering pass from Andre Burakovsky, and wired it stick side past Joel Hofer to cut the deficit to 2–1 heading into the intermission.

Justin Faulk restored the Blues’ two-goal cushion midway through the second period after Tyler Tucker found him at the bottom of the right circle. Faulk stepped in and tucked a shot under Spencer Knight’s arm to make it 3–1.

Chicago made one last push late in the third. With just over five minutes remaining, Bedard forced Colton Parayko to turn the puck over near the left side of the net and knocked it across the crease towards Burakovsky at the opposite side, who finished with a backhand to pull the Blackhawks within one.

But that was as close as it got, as the comeback stalled out and the Blackhawks dropped a 3–2 decision to the Blues.

Notes

After the last game, there was some hope the Blackhawks might be able to string together a few solid, sustainable wins. Unfortunately, that optimism didn’t last very long on Friday night against the Blues.

The first period wasn’t completely lopsided, but the Blues clearly had more push early, and it showed on the scoreboard. A quick opening goal was followed by another shortly after the halfway mark, putting the Blackhawks on their heels. Chicago did have a brief response of its own, getting one back in the final handful of minutes, but they then let St. Louis dictate play for the remainder of the period. Momentum was fleeting at best, and the quality of chances simply wasn’t there. The five-on-five shot metrics tell a similar story: the Blackhawks were out-attempted 16–11 and outshot 8–6, and while those numbers are relatively close, the Blackhawks controlled just 28.4 percent of the expected goals — a much clearer indication of how the period actually played out.

The Blackhawks typically struggle in the second period, and while this one ended up looking fairly even on paper– with a slight edge to the Blackhawks — the Blues still made the more meaningful impact. The Blackhawks opened the period with the puck, controlling play for the first five minutes or so, and they finished well too, thanks in part to score effects. The problem was the middle stretch, when they took their foot off the gas just long enough for it to cost them another goal. Overall, the numbers favored Chicago (20–17 in attempts, 12–9 in shots, 10–9 in chances), but it didn’t feel particularly impactful with the team still chasing the game. Even when things were close, the Blackhawks looked slow and disjointed through the first two periods.

The Blackhawks’ best work came in the third, but it felt like too little, too late. They didn’t really ramp things up until the midpoint of the period, and even then the Blues did a good job steering the Blackhawks to lower-danger areas. Chicago finished the period with 19 attempts and 10 shots on goal, but just four scoring chances — only two of which were high danger and hit the net. One of those did go in, briefly making it feel like a comeback might be possible, but a late penalty put the Blackhawks’ best player in the box with about five minutes left. From there, the Blues actually controlled more of the possession, putting a damper on any real push. It was a flat ending to an otherwise lackluster night.

Coach Jeff Blashill told reporters postgame that some Blackhawks players weren’t focused or competitive enough:

“They played way harder than us, early [on] especially. They came out super ready, and we came out to just play hockey. Too many guys weren’t as competitive as you need to be. It was physical early, and we needed to come out with way more mental focus. Not every guy, but too many guys. It’s just part of the learning process.”

To add insult to injury — or I guess vice versa in this case — Connor Bedard was injured on the final faceoff of the game, falling awkwardly and clutching his shoulder as the clock expired.

The team didn’t disclose the nature of the injury, although Blashill did confirm that Bedard will not play Saturday against Detroit, and an update likely won’t come until Monday.

If the injury turns out to be serious and Bedard misses extended time, the Blackhawks would be wise to consider calling up Nick Lardis. He’s been on a tear offensively in Rockford, which we covered in more detail in our latest AHL Prospect Update.

Back to the game itself, this wasn’t Knight’s best outing, and he’d probably like one of those goals back, even if this loss really wasn’t on him. His goals saved above expected finished at minus-0.83 (per MoneyPuck), which is only slightly below average and hardly damning given the quality of chances against.

Given the early issues, it wasn’t surprising to see a fair amount of line shuffling. Nine different forward combinations played at least a minute together. The trio of Jason Dickinson, Teuvo Teravainen, and Ilya Mikheyev logged the most ice time together (11:53) and performed well, with the Blackhawks controlling 55.56 percent of shot attempts and 54.25 percent of expected goals when they were on the ice. That said, they weren’t facing top-tier competition. Instead, they matched up mostly against the Blues’ third line of Robby Fabbri, Dalibor Dvorsky, and Pius Suter (you remember him). It makes some sense given St. Louis often deploys that line in the offensive zone and Blashill leaned on Dickinson for defensive zone deployment, but it might have been worth testing that trio against Robert Thomas’ line more often.

The Bedard, Burakovsky, and Greene line saw the most time against Thomas, and results were mixed. Shot attempts were essentially a wash (53.33 percent for Chicago), but expected goals lagged behind at 45.72 percent. Interestingly, away from Thomas, that combination controlled more than 80 percent of the expected goals, suggesting the matchup mattered. Bedard and Burakovsky spent 7:07 together with Greene, then another 7:01 with Tyler Bertuzzi replacing Greene. That second version struggled mightily, posting just 40 percent of shot attempts and an eye-poppingly low 2.53 percent expected goals.

Greene and Bertuzzi are both meant to be the “go fetch” type alongside Bedard, but Greene was far more effective in that role on this night.

The other two most common line combos were Bertuzzi, Frank Nazar, and Oliver Moore and Colton Dach, Ryan Donato, and Sam Lafferty. The Nazar line was outplayed, managing just 33.33 percent of shot attempts and 30.53 percent of expected goals. Nazar has looked good recently without much to show for it, but this was a genuinely rough game, as he generated just 0.03 expected goals. Only Donato and Lafferty were worse among forwards, both finishing with zero — largely because neither registered a single shot on goal.

With Bedard likely sidelined for at least some amount of time, the Blackhawks badly need players like Nazar and Donato to find their scoring touch quickly.

On the back end, Artyom Levshunov and Matt Grzelcyk played the most minutes as a pair, and it didn’t work particularly well. Grzelcyk fired six attempts and put four on goal, but the shots were poorly timed and created no rebound opportunities. Levshunov had just one attempt, which missed the net, making this one of his least impactful offensive games of the season. Defensively, he was mostly solid, though there were a few moments where a strong play was followed immediately by a mistake — including one bad centering pass that was picked off cleanly. Levshunov is improving, but he’s not quite ready for top-pair minutes yet, even if it’s understandable to manage the workload of Alex Vlasic and others.

The larger issue with the Levshunov and Grzelcyk pairing is that both need some sheltering to be effective at this stage, and it leaves the other two pairs overloaded with defense-first players. While players can step up offensively — as Kaiser did — the overall balance just isn’t there.

Speaking of Kaiser, he was the Blackhawks’ best defender offensively by a wide margin. He scored a goal, consistently moved the puck well in transition, and showed real poise as a playmaker. Kaiser finished with four shot attempts, three on goal, and two scoring chances, both of which led to rebound opportunities. His shot selection and timing were exactly what you want from a defenseman. Defensively, he was strong too, highlighted by a late backcheck with Mikheyev to break up a 2-on-0. Paired with Connor Murphy, Kaiser was able to drive play more effectively — Murphy’s steady presence often allows his partner to take those chances, something Kaiser hasn’t always been able to do when paired with Levshunov.

The Vlasic and Louis Crevier pairing was mostly forgettable. They didn’t drive possession and roughly broke even defensively. That duo is usually fine, so this may have just been an off night, but some pair juggling could help restore balance to the blue line overall.

In better news, the IceHogs won tonight! Lardis has a dangly snipe, Sam Rinzel picked up two assist, and Laurent Brossiot scored a goalie goal.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Robert Thomas (STL) — 2 assists
  2. Justin Faulk (STL ) — 1 goal
  3. Connor Bedard (CHI) — 2 assists

What’s Next

The Blackhawks play their second game in as many night, heading back to Chicago to host the Detroit Red Wings Saturday at 7 p.m.

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