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Like a Record Player: Blue Jackets 4, Blackhawks 2

Two more games ’til the Olympic break!

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Better still wasn’t good enough for the Blackhawks on Friday night at the United Center, as they suffered their fifth straight defeat in a 4-2 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The first 19 minutes of the opening period did not have a goal, then the final minute had two of them. First, Charlie Coyle scored to give CBJ a brief 1-0 lead:

With just three seconds left in the first period, Bedard pounced on this rebound to tie the game at one:

Early in the second, Coyle scored his second of the game thanks to an unintentional primary assist from Andre Burakovsky:

Coyle made it a three-point game for himself a handful of minutes later when he set up Mathieu Olivier in the low slot for this one-timer:

The Hawks pulled back within one when Frank Nazar scored this beauty of a goal:

Despite some golden opportunities over the final 30 minutes of the game — including a flurry of chances during a third-period power play — the Hawks never found the tying goal and Coyle finished off his hat trick with empty-netter for the final goal of the night.

Notes

Oof.

Sometimes the goals just don’t go in, ya know?

That Bedard chance came during the aforementioned power play late in the game when the Hawks did everything but score. Perhaps that group was guilty of over-passing at times but it did ultimately find a few instances where the puck is going to end up in the net more often than not. This game just happened to have the former.

Speaking of sequences with a flurry of chances but no goal, this may have been the Hawks best 5-on-5 shift of the entire evening. We can lament the lack of a goal at the end of it all, sure, but take a minute to watch 20-year-old Bedard, 21-year old Rinzel, 22-year-old Nazar and 23-year-old Kaiser put on a show in the CBJ zone:

Now, the Columbus Blue Jackets aren’t exactly the 1980s Edmonton Oilers. But watching those four guys put all of their hockey skills on display are the moments that send your imagination soaring with regards to what this group could be capable of in the future.

Speaking of Rinzel, the rookie blue-liner looked significantly better in this game than he did in the handful of outings prior to his assignment to Rockford back in December. He slotted into Levshunov’s former spot opposite Wyatt Kaiser and displayed the traits that had us extremely excited (probably over-excited, if we’re being honest) at the end of last season, such as his smooth skating and savvy passing, which certainly helped the power play look as it good as it has in weeks. The 5-on-5 possession numbers weren’t kind to that duo but it’s hard to think of any instances where Rinzel did something egregious to help CBJ.

Don’t imagine there’s anyone who watched the last few Hawks’ games that would’ve been surprised with the decision to make Levshunov a healthy scratch for this game and perhaps another one or two in the days ahead, because nothing was really working for him of late. The first step is acknowledging those problems. Now let’s see what can be done to fix them.

Wouldn’t mind it if Burakovsky was sitting next to Levshunov in the press box at some point soon, too. That turnover for the second Coyle goal was just the latest in a string of standout moments from the veteran forward but for all of the wrong reasons.

It’s hard to call this a “good” performance from the Hawks overall, and saying that they were better than they were against Pittsburgh is a painfully low bar to clear. This was always going to be a tough game, with it being the tail end of a back-to-back and Chicago’s sixth game in nine nights (nice). Add in the Hawks’ current slump and the Blue Jackets’ current surge, and the task becomes even more difficult. There were enough good moments from the players who matter that some moral victories can be claimed here, especially with the team responding after falling behind 3-1 when it could’ve packed it in for the night. Bedard scored a goal that wasn’t in garbage time while Nazar scored his first goal in what felt like forever — two very positive developments, because both are still searching for returns to forms that they had earlier in the season. It’s still a loss and that still sucks, but the entire evening wasn’t a lost cause.

Ooh, one more thought:

Good. He should be pissed. Losing sucks and he should never be OK with it. Refusing to accept these defeats despite how often they’ve occurred in his Hawks career is going to be key in getting things turned around here at some point.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Charlie Coyle (CBJ) — Hat trick, assist
  2. Connor Bedard (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
  3. Mathieu Olivier (CBJ) — 1 goal, 1 assist

What’s Next

The Blackhawks get the rest of the weekend off before returning to game action on Monday night at the United Center against the San Jose Sharks for a 7:30 p.m. puck drop.

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