Another offensively inept performance sent the Blackhawks to their fourth loss in five games as Chicago lost 4-1 on the road against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.
The Blackhawks used up their entire goal quota for the game in the first period, grabbing an early lead when Nick Foligno carried this puck towards the net, drawing so much attention from the Vancouver defense that no one picked up Ilya Mikheyev, who was free to pounce on a rebound for his second goal of the season:
That lead lasted about 18 minutes, as Vancouver tied the game when a pass from Elias Pettersson hit off the skate of Connor Murphy and ended up in the Chicago net … an unfortunately common occurrence in this game:
Early in the third, another puck went into the Blackhawks net off of a Murphy skate, with Erik Brannstrom picking up the goal this time:
That goal proved to be the game-winner, with the Canucks adding a couple of late empty-net goals just to make this one feel a little bit worse than it already did.
Notes
This late at night, not sure what else there is to say about Bedard’s slump except that it’ll be great when it’s over.
To be fair to the Hawks, this wasn’t all that awful of a performance. At 5-on-5 play, Chicago had advantages of 22-21 in scoring chances, while it was only slightly behind in shots (27-26) and high-danger chances (9-8). All of that added up to the Blackhawks actually owning the advantage in expected goals at 53.5 percent. There was quality in those chances, as the heatmap below shows that Chicago was able to get the puck into the most dangerous parts of the ice for a change — Foligno’s drive to the net for Mikheyev’s tap-in goal a prime example of it. Still, it’s wildly disappointing to only score only once against a goalie who could generously be called a sieve so far this season. And all the possession and chances in the world won’t mean much if the Blackhawks can’t get pucks past goalies like Silovs.
Oh, and Arvid Soderblom was good again. That’s probably about the end of the positive thoughts to offer from this game.
Jesus, one shot on goal for Bedard again in this game? One?! And he started in the offensive zone almost 70 PERCENT of the time?! Not entirely sure what fixes the slump he and the team are in, but I’d wager heavy sums that it starts with Bedard getting more than one fucking shot on goal per game.
This is probably the worst 4-game stretch of Connor Bedard's young NHL career. He's had zero goals, one assist, 12 shot attempts & four shots on net over the 4 games. In 5v5, opponents have had a 78-33 advantage in attempts, 33-16 in SOG, 34-11 in scoring chances & 4-1 in goals with him on the ice.
— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) November 16, 2024 at 11:46 PM
Think the majority of those in the know were fully aware that this Blackhawks team wasn’t going to be very good and somehow it feels like they’re still a little bit worse than that, doesn’t it?
At some point, if things continue trending in this direction, if none of the players acquired in the offseason who were supposed to make this team a little bit better than it was last season don’t actually make this team better … you can probably finish that yourself, right?
After 18 games, the Blackhawks are 6-11-1. They're 31st in the the league with a .361 points percentage. They were 6-12-0 with a .333 points percentage at this mark last season.
— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) November 16, 2024 at 11:37 PM
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Elias Pettersson (VAN) — 1 goal
- Arturs Silovs (VAN) 28 saves on 29 shots
- Arvid Soderblom (CHI) — 29 saves on 31 shots
What’s Next?
The Blackhawks return home for a couple of games this week, starting off on Tuesday night against the Anaheim Ducks at 7:30 p.m.