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In the End: Canadiens 3, Blackhawks 2

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks came up short at home, falling 3-2 to the Montreal Canadiens after the latter scored with just 15 seconds left in the third period on Saturday.

After a scoreless first period, the Canadiens got on the board 2:45 into the second. Cole Caufield finished Zack Bolduc’s feed by batting the puck into the net for a power-play goal, putting the Habs up 1–0.

The Blackhawks evened the score at 1-1 less than two minutes later when Sam Rinzel skated into the circle and ripped a stellar wrist shot past the goalie. Frank Nazar started the play by winning the offensive-zone faceoff, and Teuvo Teravainen picked up the primary assist with the pass to Rinzel.

Zack Bolduc responded for the Habs just over a minute later while on the power play, shoveling in Caufield’s rebound through traffic for a power-play goal and restoring the Habs 1-goal lead.

Connor Bedard tied the game 2-2 with a power-play goal of his own just shy of the midway point of the second. Teravainen set up Nazar in the slot, and Nazar’s shot deflected off Bedard and in for the goal.

It looked like the game was headed to overtime, but the Habs broke the tie with just 15 seconds left in regulation. After a scramble in front of Spencer Knight, a point shot from Kaiden Guhle deflects off something (Rinzel? Juraj Slafkovsky? Knight’s pad?) and goes in, giving the Habs a 3-2 win over the Blackhawks.

Notes

This was a competitive, back-and-forth game, just as the scoring indicated. It might have ended differently if the Blackhawks had been a bit more disciplined and the game had been played more at 5-on-5. Now, I’m not saying the refereeing didn’t leave a lot to be desired and the Habs were selling some of the softer call, but there were definitely times when Blackhawks players put themselves in bad situations unnecessarily. The Habs having over 16 minutes of power-play time isn’t just bad reffing — it is undisciplined, sloppy play by the Blackhawks.

Coach Jeff Blashill did touch on the “attention-grabbing” nature of the Habs reactions post-game:

To the numbers at 5-on-5… The first period was the Blackhawks’ weakest: they owned just 36.84 percent of the shot attempts and 38.35 percent of the expected goals, though shots on net were closer at exactly 50 percent (four apiece). Those stats feel pretty accurate — the Habs had the puck more but didn’t do much with it, while the Blackhawks were chasing too much but still managed a few chances of their own. The Blackhawks team defense was scrambly this period too but not ineffective.

The second period was better for the Blackhawks at 5-on-5, owning 60 percent of the shot attempts and nearly evening things out with 49.84 percent of the expected goals, though shots on goal again stayed perfectly even at 50 percent (only three each this time). We can’t say definitively those numbers would have held over a larger sample, but we know spending so much time killing penalties isn’t ideal. The penalty kill — and Spencer Knight — deserve credit for holding the Habs to just two goals on nearly eight minutes of power-play time. It could have been much worse.

The third period was the most even across the board and featured the most 5-on-5 play. The Blackhawks had 51.52 percent of the shot attempts (a difference of one), 55.56 percent of the shots on goal (a difference of two), and 49.52 percent of the expected goals (a difference of just 0.01). This was also the only period in which the Blackhawks had more power-play time than the Habs by about a minute, but things stayed fairly even there as well.

Ultimately, the Blackhawks played decently well but need to figure out how to stay out of the penalty box. The penalty kill was better this game than in the first two and even generated a few chances of its own, but it’s not great to test fate like that. And while 5-on-5 possession ended up being basically even (34–33 CF, slight edge to the Habs), the Blackhawks didn’t create many high-danger chances– just three compared to Montreal’s 11 — which goes a long way in explaining why they couldn’t capitalize even when they had the puck more. Still, the Blackhawks were in it the whole game and that’s basically all you can ask for at this stage. Certainly been more fun to watch these last three games than most of last year, eh?

Knight had another good game, especially considering all the time on the penalty kill. Bummer for him that his made scramble at the end didn’t get them all the way to ovetime, he really deserved it. I think Rinzel’s stick might have gotten caught in his pads on the game-winning goal and the puck was deflected somehow, so no holding that against him.

It was great to see Rinzel get his first NHL goal, and his overall game was strong tonight. He built on a solid performance against the Bruins and finally got rewarded. His skating and playmaking were especially on point, and defensively, he was more locked in than in the previous two games — which the Blackhawks needed with so much time spent on the penalty kill. Vlasic (11:04) and Murphy (8:20) were the heavy hitters on the PK, but Rinzel (4:52) and Kaiser (5:18) saw time as well, and the latter two picked up more minutes at 5-on-5 as a result of the top two logging so much PK time. Rinzel finished the night with 25:58 of ice time, which is impressive for a rookie defenseman.

The other three mentioned above — Vlasic, Murphy, and Kaiser — all had good overall games as well. Vlasic is so steady, Murphy makes a bit more noise (more on that in a bit), and Kaiser is somewhere in between. The way Kaiser approaches plays defensively is so interesting to me, an edge of aggression without being careless.

Shoutout to Mikheyev for his play on the penalty kill — he was really strong on the forecheck, dogged on pucks — and for Greene for his overall play which was also defensively strong. The Blackhawks need these guys to steps up to help fill in the loss of Jason Dickinson, and they were pretty great.

Another nod to Ryan Donato, who didn’t show up on the scorecard, but he led the team in shot attempts (8), shots on goal (6), and expected goals (0.85) at 5-on-5 by a wide margin (the next closest were 3, 2, and 0.20, respectively). He logged the fourth-most 5-on-5 minutes (11:52), behind only the top-line players, which is impressive given that he spent all his time in the bottom six. His two lines were the only ones with positive expected-goals shares, too: with Ryan Greene and Ilya Mikheyev, they finished with 76.05 percent of expected goals, and his line with Lukas Reichel and Sam Lafferty finished with 100 percent — though neither line was together for long (about four and two minutes, respectively).

The only other line that was somewhat positive was Nazar’s line with Teravainen and Bertuzzi: they owned 63.64 percent of shot attempts, which is solid, but just 33.13 percent of expected goals. Nazar and Teravainen have some really nice chemistry going but I didn’t notice Bertuzzi much in this game. Nazar is still the primary offensive force for the Blackhawks at 5-on-5 and on the power play, though more of that showed up in his playmaking and transition game than shooting (he had two shots on goal and three attempts).

Bedard’s line was basically buried, with 33.33 percent of shot attempts and 10.40 percent of expected goals. Of course, only about 37 minutes of the game were played at 5-on-5, so these numbers are somewhat skewed, but it’s still not ideal. Colton Dach was still physical and this was Andre Burkavosky’s best game which is obvs good to see. Bedard didn’t generate as many shot attempts this game, but his passes were excellent. Here’s just one of many throughout the game:

Bedard’s feisty side has definitely been showing in these early games. Patrick Kane once talked about how, in his first few years, he’d put his stick up in opponents’ faces to make them back off a bit — and I think this is a similar vibe. Obviously, Bedard doesn’t stand much of a chance against 6-foot-5, 226-pound Josh Anderson (as seen in the third and fourth clips), but he’s standing on business nonetheless.

Not to be outdone, the rest of the Blackhawks brought some feistiness of their own. In a game that featured so many penalties, it’s no surprise there was yet another scrum in the middle of it all. Love the idea of standing up for teammates, but as a whole, there has to be a balance between that and taking so many penalties.

The Murphy penalty sparked some debate in the game thread, and I’ll reiterate my stance on it: the Habs’ hit was absolutely late, but Murphy could’ve responded with a clean, hard play instead. Unfortunately, the refs seemed to zero in on the Blackhawks after that, even if it’s understandable why Murphy reacted the way he did. I’m all for making the other team pay, but doing it smartly is key — and Murphy is usually pretty good at that.

On to a player who didn’t actually play: Artyom Levshunov was a healthy scratch, which I did not like. I touched on this a bit in the game thread, but I think it’s worth repeating. I’m on record as believing Levshunov should have started this season in Rockford, but the Blackhawks decided to have him start with Chicago and scratching him already is just dumb. Has he been great? No, but I did think he looked better against Boston, so it’s weird they sat him after showing improvement, however minor. There’s absolutely no way for Levshunov to gain any kind of flow sitting out. Blashill tried to say post-game that it’s okay and normal for young players to sit occasionally, but after just two games? For the home opener?? Stop it, Jeff.

Additionally, Levshunov hasn’t played any differently in those first two regular season games than he did during the preseason, so why act like you knew it was going to be rough? It really feels like they’re punishing Levshunov for a poor organizational decision — rushing him when he’s not necessarily NHL ready. We’ve had a few years now of veterans getting absurdly long leashes for poor play, so seeing Levshunov being punished so quickly and for a really big moment is annoying. And I’m sure Matt Grzelcyk is a nice guy, but I actually don’t want to see him regularly over kids when they’re up. I may wish Levshunov was in Rockford right now — they won their game, btw — but he’s not, and since I’m a full proponent of “play the kids, always” when they’re up in Chicago, I argue they need to play Levshunov over some random UFA they brought in — at least wait a bit more before a “learn a lesson” press box scratch happens.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Cole Caufield (MTL) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  2. Frank Nazar (CHI) — 2 assists
  3. Kadien Guhle (MTL) — 1 goal

What’s Next

The Blackhawks host the Utah Mammoths at the United Center Monday at 7:30 p.m.

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