x

Already member? Login first!

Comments / New

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Canucks 3, Blackhawks 2 (SO)

The Blackhawks squandered a two-goal lead but still earned a point in the shootout.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks squandered a 2-0 lead after the first period and fell 3-2 in the shootout to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night at the United Center.

The Blackhawks opened the scoring 12:41 into the second period. A wide-open Ryan Donato parked at the side of the net and buried Andre Burakovsky’s centering pass for a power-play goal and putting the Blackhawks up 1-0.

Tyler Bertuzzi doubled the Blackhawks’ lead with 46 seconds left in the opening frame. A long shot from Rinzel bounced off Kevin Lankinen’s pad and right to Bertuzzi, who whacked the bouncing puck out of the air and into the net, making it 2-0.

The Canucks cut the deficit to 2-1 at 6:49 of the second period. Connor Garland sent a centering pass from the goal line to Jake DeBrusk camped out on the doorstep and the latter buried his own rebound for the goal.

Max Sasson tied the game 2-2 with 6:18 left in the second period, driving to the front of the net and putting home Filip Hronek’s centering feed to finish off a tic-tac-toe passing play.

Bertuzzi looked to have scored his second of the game and given the Blackhawks a 3-2 led with 5:12 remaining in regulation, but the goals is waived off for goaltender interference. It was determined Bertuzzi “pushed Lankinene’s pad into the net along with the puck.”

Regulation and overtime produced no goals, and in the shootout, Brock Boeser won it for the Canucks in the fourth round.

Notes

The Blackhawks had maybe their best period from start to finish in the first. I know that may seem odd to say after the three-goal second against the St. Louis Blues the other night, but everything was clicking to start for Chicago. The Blackhawks did well at 5-on-5, owning 54.84 percent of the shot attempts, 52.38 percent of the shots on goal, and 54.88 percent of the expected goals, and the power play connected for a goal. The team was solid on the cycle (something they’ve not been great at for years) and continues to be dangerous in transition. Defensively, the Blackhawks played tight and disruptive, and the penalty kill was absolutely superb, not allowing a single shot attempt against in four minutes.

The second period did not go quite as well, unfortunately. It started out pretty even, but the Canucks found momentum after scoring on the power play and pushed hard until they got their second goal. The Blackhawks responded well and ended up dictating the rest of the period, but some miscues and allowing the Canucks to get back into the game — for however short a time it was — proved costly. Statistically, the Blackhawks had good numbers again at 5-on-5: they finished with the better share of shot attempts (53.57 percent), shots on goal (80 percent), and expected goals (66.11 percent).

The Blackhawks came out a little flat in the first few minutes of the third, but 5-on-5 play was basically a dictatorship after the Canucks’ first penalty of the period. In terms of shot stats, this was the most dominant stretch for the Blackhawks: they out-attempted Vancouver 13-8, outshot them 7-3, and once again held the majority share of expected goals (62.56 percent). The bad news is that the Blackhawks had to kill off three penalties in this period. While they didn’t allow a goal, the Canucks managed a whopping 16 attempts, 9 shots on goal, and 10 scoring chances — all of which were high danger. Looking at the all-situations shot chart, it’s basically a nosedive into Vancouver’s section. The Blackhawks were both unlucky and lucky in this period: unlucky because of the bad calls and their inability to capitalize on their 5-on-5 dominance, but lucky that the Canucks didn’t cash in on one of their many dangerous power-play chances.

Overtime wasn’t great for the Blackhawks, either. They managed just two attempts and one shot on goal with no scoring chances, while the Canucks had six attempts, three shots, and one scoring chance. The shootout was also lackluster from the Blackhawks skaters, but credit to Lankinen for playing all the shooters well. Still, the overall game was generally fun and the Blackhawks were competitive the whole time, and I’ll take that.

I always hate complaining about refereeing, but — what the actual fuck? The Bertuzzi second goal should have absolutely counted; that was a bizarre call for goalie interference. The fact that fans of other teams (well, outside of Vancouver) were also confused about why this was GI is just really telling.

And was Connor Bedard holding Tyler Myers? Maybe a little, but he was mostly reaching for the puck, and it was one of the least egregious “holds” of the game. That same type of hold is done many times in a game and is not call — one of the game photographers even caught Elias Petterson, the defensemen, doing exactly the same thing to Bedard in the second with no call. There were worse penalties missed on both sides, so choosing to call that — and so late in a tied game — is certainly a choice. And don’t even get me started on the “slashings”…

Bedard holding vs. Petterson:

Bertuzzi and Connor Murphy were a lot more diplomatic about the no-goal in their postgame comments than I would’ve been:

Speaking of Bertuzzi, he led the team in shot attempts (9), shots on goal (6), scoring chances (5), and high-danger chances (4). He also got rotated up with Bedard and Burakovsky for his effort, and that line was one of the Blackhawks’ best, holding the edge in attempts (10-2), shots (5-1), and expected goals (77.87 percent). Bertuzzi and Bedard played together for over 360 minutes last season but didn’t fare all that well; however, this is a different team this year, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try them together for longer. Personally, I’m still hoping for a Bedard–Teravainen reunion, even if Teuvo has chemistry with Frank Nazar.

This was one of Bedard’s best shooting games so far: seven attempts, five shots, and two high danger scoring chance opportunities. Last year and in the first few games this season, Bedard has been more of a playmaker — possibly due to the lack of linemates with strong passing ability, hence the desire for Teravainen with him — so it’s good to see him getting his shot totals up this game. Obviously, he got plenty of chances last season, but higher shot volume just increases the probability of goals for a player with such an elite shot. Bedard also played a team-high 25:01. Here are some of his best plays from this game:

Nazar had a quiet game with zero shot attempts, though he did create a few nice setups for teammates and made some strong transition plays. There was a particularly slick chance he set up for Teravainen in the second period.

I’ll wrap up the forward review by noting that the Jason Dickinson line with Donato and Ilya Mikheyev was also very impressive. In nearly 10 minutes together (the most of any line), they out-attempted opponents 15-4, outshot them 10-1, and owned 83.10 percent of the expected goals. Dickinson’s line held their own against top competition — the Garland, Elias Pettersson, and Evander Kane line — but absolutely dominated every other matchup they faced.

Of note, Dickinson did leave for the locker room briefly but returned shortly thereafter.

As for the defensemen, this was Sam Rinzel’s best game of the season, and he was rewarded with increased ice time as a result: 14:57 at 5-on-5 (behind only Alex Vlasic and Wyatt Kaiser) and 20:55 overall (behind only Vlasic). He played with poise, displayed excellent work through the neutral zone, and his passing was sharp. Like Artom Levshunov, though, he needs to work on his shot selection a bit more — a natural issue for both of them given their relative inexperience at the professional level.

Vlasic and Kaiser continue to be the backbone of the young Blackhawks’ defense. Not mistake free obviously, but it also feels like there’s little to worry about when either is on the ice and they’re the main ones defending.

After Vlasic picked up a couple of assists last game, Kaiser decided to showcase his skating and offensive instincts more prominently tonight, even if he didn’t get a point for his efforts:

Louis Crevier also got in on the offensive action, nearly scoring on a breakaway — a sentence you don’t read very often:

Lastly, I’d be remiss not to mention the excellent game Spencer Knight had in net. He’s been so consistent to start the season, and he was again tonight, finishing with a .938 save percentage on 32 shots. As noted above, while the Blackhawks were stronger at 5-on-5, the Canucks held the edge in overall scoring chances, especially the high-danger opportunities on the power play. Knight had to be at the top of his game at times to keep the Blackhawks in it.

In other news, the Rockford IceHogs won their game tonight in overtime, improving their record to 3-0-0. It’s still early, but Drew Commesso is off to a strong start, posting a .955 save percentage after facing nearly 70 shots in two games. Oliver Moore leads the team with four goals — including two tonight, one of which was the overtime winner — and five points total in those three games. If he keeps playing like this, he could force the Blackhawks’ hand and get called up sooner than expected.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Brock Boeser (VAN) — game-winning shootout goal
  2. Tyler Bertuzzi (CHI) — 2 goals 1 goal
  3. Lankinen (VAN) / Knight (CHI) — .939 and .939 save-percentages respectively, couldn’t decide

What’s Next

The Blackhawks welcome the Anaheim Ducks to the United Center on Sunday at 6 p.m.

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points