A Blackhawks season that has mostly sucked continued to suck a little bit more on Monday night, as Chicago lost 5-2 to the Calgary Flames at the United Center.
It didn’t start very well, either, as Jakob Pelletier scored just over a minute in to give the Flames a quick 1-0 lead:
Calgary goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 14, 2025
Scored by Jakob Pelletier with 18:46 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Rory Kerins and Brayden Pachal.
Chicago: 0
Calgary: 1#CGYvsCHI #Blackhawks #Flames pic.twitter.com/Zg1jpxeWrw
That lead didn’t last long, though, as the Blackhawks countered about 90 seconds later when the kid line of Colton Dach, Frank Nazar and Lukas Reichel went to work, resulting in a goal for Louis Crevier:
The Dach-Nazar-Reichel line wasn't on the ice for a single shot attempt last game. They're on for a Blackhawks' goal early tonight. Reichel set up Crevier. pic.twitter.com/sze2OPHyNR
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) January 14, 2025
Pelletier scored his second of the period near the middle of the first, giving Calgary the lead for good:
Calgary goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 14, 2025
Scored by Jakob Pelletier with 08:13 remaining in the 1st period.
Assisted by Kevin Bahl and Rory Kerins.
Chicago: 1
Calgary: 2#CGYvsCHI #Blackhawks #Flames pic.twitter.com/PzIEcR1U1f
The Flames made it 3-1 with this goal initially given to Matt Coronato but later awarded to Mattias Backlund:
Calgary goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 14, 2025
Scored by Matt Coronato with 05:52 remaining in the 1st period.
Chicago: 1
Calgary: 3#CGYvsCHI #Blackhawks #Flames pic.twitter.com/mQTzUvrJ2L
The second period started similar to the first: with a quick Calgary goal. Jake Bean did the honors this time to make it a 4-1 game:
Calgary goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) January 14, 2025
Scored by Jake Bean with 18:05 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Yegor Sharangovich and Jakob Pelletier.
Chicago: 1
Calgary: 4#CGYvsCHI #Blackhawks #Flames pic.twitter.com/w5joaymKAS
The Blackhawks briefly seized momentum near the middle of the second period, which all started with this deserved five-minute major and game misconduct given to Martin Pospisil for this dirty hit on Taylor Hall:
Martin Pospisil was ejected for this hit on Taylor Hall
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 14, 2025
Hall is not on the bench pic.twitter.com/4pnja6pIaq
Hall would return later on and Chicago took advantage of that power play with this goal from Connor Bedard:
Connor Bedard snaps one home on the power play for his 12th goal of the season and 100th career NHL point. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/go8Krz48b2
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 14, 2025
Later during that same power play, though, another awful Seth Jones turnover led to a Calgary goal the other way:
Seth Jones' turnover leads to the Flames' fifth goal, a shorthanded one. pic.twitter.com/N1nVCEXLF8
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) January 14, 2025
The third period was a good sedative for those wanting to get to sleep at a decent hour on Monday night.
Notes
Not sure what else to say about Seth Jones. He’s been awful, he almost certainly knows he’s been awful and the only debate to have is regarding how much of a fuck he actually gives at the moment. That’s not really the point right now, though, because he’s borderline unplayable at the moment when his mistakes are so egregious that they’re routinely leading to a goal against. His gaffe on the fifth Calgary goal was a great way to snuff out the building momentum from the PPG early on in that five-minute advantage. If he’s not fully healthy, put him back on injured reserve. If not … want to set establish some culture, Anders Sorensen? Want to set the standard of what’s acceptable? Want to let the team know that everyone is held to the same level of accountability? Put him in the press box for a game. Hell, go for two! It couldn’t hurt at this point. Having his TOI cut to a season-low 16:19 is a good start, at least.
Seth Jones skated 16:19 tonight. Believe that's his lowest ice time since March 12, 2018, when he skated 14:13. And based on shift charts he left that game early.
— Second City Hockey (@secondcityhockey.bsky.social) January 13, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Anders Sorensen on Seth Jones, who was a minus-4 tonight in just 16:19 of ice time, his lowest as a Hawk:
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 14, 2025
"We all have to do some looking inwards, right? It's not just him. I think it's all of us."
We all know this team wasn’t supposed to be good but it’s incredibly disheartening to have so little to grasp from this season as positive steps forward, when this whole organization needs to take dozens of steps forward just to become a playoff team. Bedard and Vlasic are still good but it’s hard to see steps forward from them. Maybe Arvid Soderblom a bit? Perhaps some small moves ahead from Nolan Allan? Colton Dach and Frank Nazar are up here, which is cool, but they haven’t exactly set the world on fire yet. Every step forward from Wyatt Kaiser seems followed by another one in the opposite direction. Lukas Reichel still doesn’t seem to have done enough to change the doom and gloom swirling over his head. Philipp Kurashev has gone from a 50-point player to likely walking as a free agent in three months. What are we even doing here?
Oh, this is what we’re doing:
Connor Bedard looked defeated.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 14, 2025
"It's really frustrating. We're competitive athletes and we take a lot of pride in our games, our group as a team and our fan base. It's been hard. It's been a lot of games to lose. It weighs on you. Yeah, I mean, just trying to find a way of it,…
Great!
Nick Foligno mentioned Bedard covering for Allan on a backcheck as a rare good play tonight and said the rest of the Blackhawks need to do more of that.
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 14, 2025
"Until we understand that, you're going to keep hearing me saying the same dumb sh*t, and it's going to get old, and I'm going…
The line of Reichel-Nazar-Dach produced the only 5-on-5 goal of the game for the Hawks but was only together for 2:34 because the line blender went into effect for the third period. All of the possession numbers are pretty miserable in the small sample, including a woeful expected goal share of 9.32 percent (yeah, NINE) despite having offensive zone draws 100 percent of the time. Desperately want this line to work because it’d provide a measure of intrigue with this team that simply does not exist in this moment.
The Flames entered this game with the No. 27 offense in the NHL at 2.61 goals per game. They’ve scored 11 goals in two games against these Blackhawks in the last three weeks. That’s fun. Isn’t that fun? We’re having fun.
Up next is a Nashville team that’s 30th in the league. Seems like the Hawks should be able to muster a better effort against the team. But “should” hasn’t meant a single fucking thing this season, has it?
Game Charts


Three Stars
- Jakob Pelletier (CGY) — 2 goals, 1 assist
- Yegor Sharangovich (CGY) — 1 goal, 1 assist
- Rory Kerins (CGY) — 2 assists in his first NHL game
What’s Next
The Blackhawks have a few days off, mercifully, before heading to Nashville on Thursday night to face the Predators at 7 p.m.