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Roll Up: Penguins 7, Blackhawks 3

Chicago’s struggles on the tail end of a back-to-back continued.

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images

The Blackhawks were blown out at the United Center on Sunday night, losing 7-3 to the Penguins.

Pittsburgh had this game wrapped up by the end of the first period thanks to four goals in the opening 20 minutes. Anthony Mantha was first, scoring during the game’s second minute:

Bryan Rust followed at the 7:19 mark of the first:

Justin Brazeau scored one minute later to kick off a memorable evening for him:

Rust scored his second of the period and Pittsburgh’s fourth of the game later in the first, offering the strongest sign yet that it wasn’t going to be Spencer Knight’s evening:

That goal sent Knight to the bench in favor of Arvid Soderblom. Down 4-0 to start the second, Chicago scored its first goal when Nick Foligno picked up his first goal of the season in his first game since returning from injury:

The good feelings didn’t last long, though. Just 90 seconds after Foligno’s goal, Brazeau had his second:

Less than a minute later, Brazeau had his third:

Wyatt Kaiser scored 13 seconds later to make it a 6-2 game:

But Noel Acciari restored the Penguins’ five-goal lead before the second period ended:

Bertuzzi added what might be the most garbage-time goal in the history of the NHL by scoring this goal with one second left on the clock.

OK, that’s enough of that. Let’s get to some notes.

Notes

The Penguins outscored the Steelers on Sunday. So that’s fun.

Feels like the power play has been pretty awful of late, doesn’t it? It also feels like this is something that predates the injuries to Bedard and Nazar. Prior to the Nov. 21 game against Buffalo, the Hawks were ninth in the league at 24.1 percent. Entering this game, it was 15th at 20.0 percent. While it may not have made much of a difference given how woeful the Hawks’ goaltending was in this game, scoring during either one of those first-period power plays would’ve been a good way to turn the tide that was building against the home team in the first period.

Back when this game still had elements of hope in it (which didn’t last long!) The Lardis-Greene-Moore line combined for this neat little play which ended with Greene ringing one of the post. Just as referenced in the note above, a goal here would’ve been great, but also may not have mattered too much in the long run.

At least Blashill read the room down the stretch and let that kid line take some extra shifts in the third period, resulting in all three of them eclipsing 15 minutes of ice time in this game: Lardis was at 16:03, Greene at 15:56 and Moore at 15:05.

Going to highlight a comment from bogiedoc in the Game Thread, as it correctly points out that the Blackhawks haven’t just been bad on the second day of a back-to-back, they’ve been complete disasters:

Not sure what to make of all that. Is it a sign the coaches aren’t getting them ready to play? Are the players doing something wrong in their preparations? Is this the product of a youthful roster still learning what it takes to play at the professional level? All theories seem plausible at this point. Feels more like a statistical oddity than anything else but it’s something we can monitor for the rest of the season.

Beyond that, what else is there to say? The defense wasn’t exactly good on those four goals in the first period, especially the second and third one, but those are all saves that Knight has made rather consistently this season. He’s been primarily responsible for so many of the Hawks wins this season that there’s minimal reason to spend too much time assigning blame here. Knight was off, Soderblom wasn’t much better in relief, and let’s move on. As long as Knight rebounds in his next start, we won’t have to devote any extra thought to this one. The final 40 minutes aren’t worth wasting time on when the scoreboard reads 4-0.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Justin Brazeau (PIT) — Hat trick
  2. Bryan Rust (PIT) — 2 goals
  3. Anthony Mantha (PIT) — 1 goal, 1 assist

What’s Next

The Blackhawks are back at the United Center on Tuesday night to host the New York Islanders for a 7:30 p.m. start.

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