Hi, I’m the Problem, It’s Me: Kings 5, Blackhawks 0

Notes

• Was the first period the worst of the season for the Blackhawks? The sheer number of defensive breakdowns, missed coverage, poor puck handling… It wouldn’t have been surprising if the Kings could have scored a touchdown and gotten the extra point.
• The second was less irksomely terrible in terms of the Blackhawks’ defensive play, as they played with more structure, but they were pretty much steamrolled in terms of puck possession and allowing scoring chances against. The Kings owned 71.88 percent of the shot attempts, 81.25 percent of the shots on goal, and 85.72 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5 in that period.
• There was more push back from the Blackhawks in the third in terms of having the puck more — they had 14 attempts compared to the Kings’ 9 at 5-on-5 — but the Kings suppressed the quality and the Hawks only had one high-danger chance in the final 20 at even strength.
• Speaking of the power play, it was basically the only time the Blackhawks looked competent on offense. They had 16 attempts, 11 shots on goal, 7 scoring chances, and 4 high-danger chances in 8 minutes of power-play time. That’s solid generation quantity and quality, but alas, it did not end up in a goal. The power play was bound to regress after going 10-for-22 in their last four games.
• This is the 10th time the Blackhawks have been shut out this season. They also have 18 single-goal games and 15 in which they scored two goals. That means Chicago has scored two goals or less in 64 percent of their games this season.
• Poor Soderblom. Kid hasn’t been good this season obviously, but he’d had a handful of decent games coming into this one, so of course the team in front decides to shit the bed in the first. The first goal was a weird bounce — though Soderblom would still like that one back, I’m sure — and the second was a tip. The other two were some of the worst puck watching and coverage issues I’ve seen from the Blackhawks in front of their goalies this season.
• Like, on the third goal, as Ben Pope of the Sun-Times said: Soderblom has to face the shooter because, if he cheats at all, Byfield scores. The issue is that, not only did Byfield just walk in uncontested easily (Kurashev missed coverage), there are also two completely uncovered Kings players on the other side as everyone watches the puck. Korchinski, whose man is Kopitar, has his back completely to him and is partially in the crease for some of that sequence. Megna is really the only Chicago player on the ice not fucking up because even Bedard should have been a bit closer to his man and not puck watching quite so much, but he at least could have attempted a pass-block.

• Korchinski isn’t the only one who allowed Kopitar free range: Seth Jones did it on the very next goal as he was way out of formation. He was likely trying to compensate for Tyler Johnson going down, except that he was on Vlasic’s side and left Kopitar open. Jones did kind of make it back over to be near Kopitar, but only just in time to watch the Byfield pass cruise by and Kopitar score.

• Hell, it could have been worse as there were plenty of other breakdowns that didn’t end up in the back of the net.

• The goal Mrazek let in was less troublesome but the coverage was pretty poor on it as well. I’m guessing the skaters thought it was safer to allow Spence to shoot from that hard angle with Mrazek sealing the post and that’s why they don’t cover him as much, but it just shows how important puck battles and coverage are — and there’s still a little too much puck watching for comfort.

• The line blender really came out after the fifth goal, which wasn’t unexpected. Coach Luke Richardson typically stays pretty true to his lines in-game with only minor tweaks, but he’s went full whirrrrrrrrr for much of the second. There were seven line combinations that played for roughly three minutes or more in this game as everyone shuffled around.
• Poor Slaggert, too. This definitely wasn’t the first NHL game he’d always imagined while growing up, and it’s too bad that, reportedly, like 40 of his friends and family were at the United Center for this crap show, though they stayed after to give him a standing ovation regardless, which was nice to see. He honestly looked pretty solid in his 10:32 of ice time but that’s a really small sample to base any opinion on.

• Lukas Reichel was officially recalled after the game, and the Blackhawks also assigned Zach Sanford to the Rockford IceHogs. Reichel put up seven points (1 G, 6 A) in the nine games he spent with Rockford since his demotion. People still shouldn’t expect him to suddenly pop off offensively necessarily, especially in terms of goal scoring: not only is this Blackhawks team still devoid of many quality support players for assists, Reichel is not a shoot-first type of guy, as his single goal with the IceHogs showed. That latter part only comes from experience and becoming more comfortable with his shot, so it’s still good for him to be back up even if the lack of production continues.

• In the Race to the Lottery, the Blackhawks remain two points up from the San Jose Sharks with two games in hand. The two bottom-dwellers face each other Sunday in a game that could have major ramifications for the future of both organizations.
• Poor me for third. Of the last 10 games I’ve recapped, the Blackhawks have lost nine, and been outscored 37-14 in those games, including being shut out three times. Call me Tankmaster LBR.

Game Charts

What’s Next

The Blackhawks end their five-game homestead on Sunday as they face the San Jose Sharks at 5 p.m.