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Until It Sleeps: Blue Jackets 4, Blackhawks 0

A three-week break feels welcome after this showing.

Posted on by L_B_R
Credit: Russell LaBounty-Imagn Images

The Chicago Blackhawks closed out the pre–Olympic break portion of their schedule with a 4-0 loss in Columbus to the Blue Jackets on Wednesday night.

The Blue Jackets made it 1-0 less than five minutes into the first period when Zach Werenski skated the puck in toward the net and his shot from the bottom of the left circle deflected off Louis Crevier’s stick before going in off the skate of Alex Vlasic.

Ivan Provorov scored at 12:50 to make it 2-0 Blue Jackets with a wrist shot from low in the left circle after a cross-ice pass by Adam Fantilli. Ryan Donato took himself out of the play going for a revenge hit, which left space open for the passing play.

Danton Heinen extended the Blue Jackets’ lead to 3-0 about five minutes into the second period. Charlie Coyle intercepted a failed Blackhawks exit pass, skated down the ice, and sent a royal-road pass to Heinen, who scored from a sharp angle on the left side.

With 4:27 left in the third period, Sean Monahan scored an empty-net goal to secure the Blue Jackets’ 4-0 win.

Notes

After the previous game, there was some hope the Blackhawks could carry that momentum into this one and head into the break on a positive note. Instead, a slow start and sloppy play — compounded by injuries — doomed them well before the game reached its midway point.

The opening minutes suggested the Blackhawks might have some pace and control, but that didn’t last. The Blue Jackets steadily tilted the ice and opened the scoring just after the five-minute mark. Yes, it was a fortunate bounce (or set of bounces, really), but the Jackets’ effort leading up to it made a goal against feel inevitable. The rest of the period was more competitive though it still favored the Jackets, who swarmed the net on nearly every possession and moved through the Blackhawks’ defense with relative ease. By the end of the first, the Blackhawks had just 40 percent of the shot attempts, 38.46 percent of the shots on goal, and 33.33 percent of the expected goals — all while trailing 2-0.

The second and third periods were actually quite close at 5-on-5 in terms of overall performance. Shot attempts were dead even (26–26), while shots on goal slightly favored the Jackets (10–7). The Blackhawks, however, controlled a much larger share of the quality chances in the second period, posting 66.67 percent of the expected goals. That momentum didn’t carry over, as they struggled to generate much of a comeback push in the third, managing just 26.12 percent of the expected goals. Both periods were somewhat skewed by time spent on special teams, but that arguably made them more disappointing. The Blackhawks were unable to capitalize on three power plays in the second period or create much of anything during 4-on-4 play in the third.

Injuries to Wyatt Kaiser and Colton Dach clearly shortened the bench and inevitably had an impact, but the overall performance still felt a bit lackadaisical. That was something coach Jeff Blashill acknowledged postgame:

There was some chatter elsewhere about Spencer Knight not being at his best, which may be true, but this game wasn’t a goaltending issue. Knight isn’t stealing games the way he did early on, but most of his performances — including this one, where his goals saved above expected sat at a negligible minus-0.65 — have been essentially average. The bigger problem is that the team in front of him simply isn’t holding up its end of the bargain. He did do some bailing out tonight, too.

Since this wasn’t a particularly fun game, I’m going to forgo going into any other evaluations on the players performances. But there were some negatives that need to be discussed, primarily injuries but also the Ryan Greene benching.

First, Kaiser left the game about 13 minutes into the first period after Sam Rinzel pushed Werenski hard and the latter fell on Kaiser’s left leg awkwardly. Here is the play:

Dach also left the game with an unknown injury with about three minutes left in the second period. It’s not exactly clear what happened, just that Dach was checked hard into the glass and got up somewhat slowly. Here is that clip as well:

Blashill did give a vague update on both players: the injury to Dach is less serious and he’s considered day-to-day while Kaiser needed more evaluation but he may ended up missing time even on the other side of the break. Not great news for the defenseman considering the overall good season he’s been having this year.

The scratching of Ryan Greene did leave a bitter taste in my mouth because, while I agree he hasn’t been as effective in some recent games, there are veterans — cough Andre Burakovsky cough — who have been worse for longer without even a hint of being press-boxed. Sitting any player for poor performance is fine, but the disproportionate application of these types of decisions is never great to see.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Charlie Coyle (CBJ) — 2 assists
  2. Zach Werenski (CBJ) — 1 goals
  3. Jet Greaves (CBJ) — Shutout

What’s Next

The Blackhawks are off for the three-week Olympic break and will return to action on Thursday, Feb. 26, when they take on the Predators in Nashville at 7 p.m.

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