The Chicago Blackhawks snapped a three-game losing skid with a 3-1 win over the reigning Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers on Thursday night at the United Center.
Ya know: just like we all expected!
Chicago grabbed an early lead a few minutes into the game when Teuvo Teravainen pounced on a loose puck and fired into into the Florida net for a power-play goal:
Teuvo Teravainen scores on the power play for his first home goal of the season. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/tCgJ3LEFVe
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) November 22, 2024
That lead was double near the midpoint of the second when Craig Smith deftly moved to his backhand on this breakaway and scored his fifth of the season:
a smoooooooth move from Smitty😮💨 pic.twitter.com/cRy3Q6gAzj
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 22, 2024
That two-goal lead lasted all of 34 seconds, though, as the Panthers cut it in half after winning a draw in the offensive zone and working the puck to Sam Reinhart, who fired a shot through traffic and into the Chicago goal:
Florida goal!
— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) November 22, 2024
Scored by Sam Reinhart with 09:19 remaining in the 2nd period.
Assisted by Aaron Ekblad and Gustav Forsling.
Chicago: 2
Florida: 1#FLAvsCHI #Blackhawks #TimeToHunt pic.twitter.com/BCnosBMcsA
Despite a flurry of Florida chance in the final period, though, the Panthers never found the game-tying goal and Nick Foligno added the hockey equivalent of a Midwestern “Ope” goal with this poke check into an empty-net for the final tally of the night.
Nick Foligno – Chicago Blackhawks (6)
— NHL Goal Videos (@NHLGoalVideos) November 22, 2024
Empty Net Goal pic.twitter.com/18EETkkSJt
And that was that.
Notes
There is no finer example of “hockey gonna hockey” than this game. Worst team in the league facing the defending Cup champions at home? Yeah, sure, easy 3-1 win.
Came here to compliment the excellent pass Pat Maroon made on his first shift of the game, which could — and maybe even should — have been a goal. But then he went and took a needless neutral zone penalty that zapped the early momentum Chicago had after its power-play goal early in the first. And then he sprung Smith for that second-period goal. Guess we can call that a plus-1?
One of the most primary indicators of whether or not the Blackhawks are going to win a game remains whether or not they score a power-play goal. They are 5-2 this season when they get one and 2-10-1 when they do not.
Combine a power-play goal with a goalie standing on his head to varying levels, and that seems to be the most consistent path to a Blackhawks victory this season. Not something that’s going to rack up a ton of points as Chicago’s current record indicates, though.
Speaking of that, Petr Mrazek was very good in this game and continues to make it an interesting thought for what’ll happen down the road with him, because there always seems to be a playoff team in need of a goalie in the back half of the season and Chicago would seemingly be happy to answer the phone if a team rang up the offices at 1901 W. Madison with an offer. Probably need to see what Laurent Brossoit is going to be this season before we can go too far down that road.
Let’s just take a moment here and bask in the joy of this win before we get to some of the other thoughts from this one that may not lean towards the positive as much.
This was detailed a bit over at The Athletic, but one of the biggest issues with putting Connor Bedard on a line with Jason Dickinson is that it creates an identity crisis for that line. Does Bedard’s presence make it the team’s top scoring line or does Dickinson’s presence make it the team’s top checking line? Richardson seemed to use it as a checking line in this game, as it went up against Florida’s top line that is centered by Sasha Barkov, who’s probably the best center in the entire league. Barkov’s line won decisively, with Bedard finishing well below water in every possession metric against Barkov and the top Florida D pairing of Gustav Forsling and Aaron Ekblad. For the night, Bedard’s line with Dickinson and Anderson skated 12:57 together at 5-on-5 and trailed in pretty much every category: shot attempts (16-2), shots on goal (8-0), scoring chances (8-1) and high-danger chances (4-0). That all added up to an expected goal share of 1.18 percent. That’s right: 1.18, which is a figure out of 100. Woof.
Richardson was asked postgame about his strategy for using a line with a defensive-minded player like Dickinson and an offensive-oriented player like Bedard, and his response is below:
“I thought they were excellent defensively. They didn’t get the bounce for a chance offensively but that might not happen when you’re playing against the top lines on the other team. But I think I really liked the attitude that they had as a line, that the defense came first tonight and it wasn’t about … who cares who has a scoring chance or shot on net. That was the mentality the team had and it was all the way up and down the bench and in the dressing room after the game, you could see it.”
For an apt illustration of what the lack of linemates for Bedard does to him, consider this series of screenshots from about the 3:10 mark of the second period. A neat pass up the wall from Alex Vlasic sets up this rush, which initially looks like it could be an interesting 3-on-2 for the Hawks:

Initially, this looks like a decent scoring chance. Foligno’s on the side opposite Bedard and Smith is the skater just behind Bedard, who has the puck. But Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov is the one to watch here, because he correctly identifies that Bedard is the top (only?) threat and immediately moves to ensure that the puck comes off of Bedard’s stick, even at the risk of leaving his D partner out to dry a bit.

Bedard drops the puck to Smith, who does have a decent look at the net here because Kulikov overcommitted a bit to ensure Bedard gave up the puck. And while Smith had a nifty move to score a goal earlier in the game, his odds at scoring from this spot are pretty low.

Smith’s shot went wide of the net and this potential 3-on-2 ended up without a shot on goal. With more offensively capable linemates, perhaps the opposing D won’t be so quick to close out Bedard and he has another option available on this play. Or maybe the Bedard drop pass leads to a better scoring chance than a wrister shot from 20-25 feet out that misses the net. Just imagine if that drop pass was going to someone like, oh … Frank Nazar.
OK, that’s enough of that. The Blackhawks just knocked off the Cup champs. Might as well drink it in a little bit, right?
Game Charts


Three Stars
- Craig Smith (CHI) — 1 goal
- Petr Mrazek (CHI) — 32 saves on 33 shots
- Nick Foligno (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist
What’s Next
The Blackhawks hit the road for a Saturday afternoon game against the Philadelphia Flyers at Noon.