And just like that, the Chicago Blackhawks are once again dead last in the NHL standings.
A 3-2 loss in San Jose against the Sharks on Halloween night returned Chicago to the bottom of the NHL’s basement, with the Blackhawks’ seven points in 11 games just a smidge that Nashville’s current seven in 10.
How’d it happen? Well, it all started with Will Smith, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, scored his first career NHL goal with this shot from the left circle:
That goal was the first of three scored in about 1:30 of game time. The next two went to Chicago, though, with the first scored by Ryan Donato:
Fifty seconds after Donato’s goal, Chicago went up 2-1 when Tyler Bertuzzi scored. The play started with a Nick Foligno faceoff win in the offensive zone and then a point shot from Connor Murphy ended up as a rebound — probably because of Bertuzzi’s net-front presence — that Bertuzzi put into the open net.
The second period went very much not in Chicago’s favor, starting with this Alex Wennberg goal just 90 seconds into the period, as Petr Mrazek struggled to corral the puck after a shot on goal and Wennberg poked the loose puck through Mrazek into the goal:
Later in the second, Smith enjoyed his first career NHL goal so much that he decided to score another, this time while on the power play. It proved to be the game-winner:
Despite a lopsided final period in the Blackhawks’ favor in terms of puck possession, it didn’t materialize into a game-tying goal, resulting in Chicago’s fifth loss in the last six games.
Notes
The third period was about as lopsided of a period of hockey as the Blackhawks can muster. Chicago advantages across virtually all possession-based stats: 27-9 in shot attempts, 10-5 in shots on goal, 13-4 in scoring chances and 6-1 in high-danger chances, all adding up to a whopping 85.71 percent expected goal share. Valiant effort, and the Blackhawks were probably a touch unlucky to not tie the game there. But perhaps they could’ve done better in the first 40, considering the Sharks had a 61.1 percent expected goal share in the first two periods?
While we’re on that topic of possession stats, the scrolling across the Natural Stat Trick data for the top line of Kurashev-Bedard-Teravainen is an interesting journey. It starts off well: 18-10 advantage in shot attempts, 11-6 in shots on goal and 10-7 in scoring chances. But that line did not a score goal, was on the ice for one against, and generated just a 31.06 percent expected goal share in its 13:07 of 5-on-5 ice time. Perhaps that group needs to use its collective skill to navigate into more lethal portions of the ice? Wonder if that line was on coach Luke Richardson’s mind when he said this postgame:
Also, Bedard had just three shots on goal in this game. That’s not gonna cut it. Whether he needs to be greedier or his teammates need to do a better job of setting him up, that number has to be higher. That’s especially disappointing considering the low quality of the opponent.
The Hall-Foligno-Bertuzzi line was excellent all game with numbers to show for it and that group will almost certainly warrant another look in Saturday’s game.
Early reports from the locker room are that the Blackhawks seem to be just as frustrated with it as many in the fan base probably are:
Believe it was some point in the second period when Barclay Goodrow tried to get in Alex Vlasic’s face and goad him into a fight because Vlasic had just dropped one of Goodrow’s teammates a few moments prior. Credit to Vlasic for not engaging in the fight since the play was developing in Chicago’s favor at the other end of the ice, and the idea that Vlasic has to answer for a play that seemingly happens a dozen times in every NHL game was just … dumb? annoying? Not sure the what the word is here. It’s late, people.
This is an extremely annoying loss. San Jose is woefully inept on paper compared to the Blackhawks and losing to that bad of a team is going to be extremely deflating. None of the results really matter this season because this team is heading to the draft lottery once again, but it’s also hard to shake the notion that this was a game the Blackhawks simply should not be losing. Probably the first one of these in ’24-’25, so we don’t need to make too much of a deal about it. But if that becomes a trend, the postgame discussions will start changing.
It’d also be a different story if the Blackhawks wildly outplayed the Sharks and the loss was the result of a goalie standing on his head. But San Jose probably had the better of the play in the first 40 minutes before Chicago’s fake rally in the final 20 minutes. That makes this defeat a little tougher to stomach.
One day we’ll be looking for the Blackhawks in the league standings without immediately scrolling to the bottom … right?
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Will Smith (SJ) — 2 goals
- Mackenzie Blackwood (SJ) — 26 saves on 28 shots
- Connor Murphy (CHI) — 2 assists
What’s Next
The Blackhawks remain out on the west coast, facing the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.