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You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid: Jets 4, Blackhawks 2

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images

The first game of the Anders Sorensen era felt a lot like the Luke Richardson era, with the Blackhawks being soundly outplayed in a 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday afternoon at the United Center.

Chicago had an early 1-0 lead, though, when a power play near the middle of the opening period led to an Alex Vlasic one-timer goal from the high slot set up by a perfect drop pass from Teuvo Teravainen:

Alex Vlasic scores his second of the season to put the Blackhawks ahead 1-0 on the Jets.

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— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) December 7, 2024 at 3:27 PM

Later in the first, after Blackhawks starter Petr Mrazek left the game with an apparent groin injury, Winnipeg tied the game on this excellent redirect of a point shot by Gabriel Vilardi:

Not much Söderblom could do on the redirect

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— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) December 7, 2024 at 3:38 PM

The Blackhawks went into the first-intermission locker room with a 2-1 lead, though, thanks to this pass from Ilya Mikheyev that found a late-charging Alec Martinez, who fired a wrister past Connor Hellebuyck to put Chicago back in front:

Alec Martinez gets involved in the Blackhawks' rush and gets rewarded.

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— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) December 7, 2024 at 3:50 PM

That lead was gone for good at the 13:10 mark of the second when Nino Niederretier had acres of space to walk in and flip a backhander over Soderblom to tie the game:

TJ Brodie tries to play the puck behind the net and leaves a lane open for the Jets to score.

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— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) December 7, 2024 at 4:32 PM

Winnipeg went ahead for good when Mark Scheifele was left all alone in the Chicago end, giving him ample space to hop on this loose puck and fire home the GWG:

Mason Appleton added an empty-netter and it’s now a five-game losing streak for the Hawks.

Notes

The first game of the Sorensen era produced one of the worst 5-on-5 performances this team has had lately. Its 5-on-5 expected goal share of 19.87 percent was the worst mark of the season and was the fourth-worst mark from the last three seasons. The Blackhawks, for the game, had FOURTEEN shots on goal. That’s it. At 5-on-5 play, Winnipeg owned every category: 55-31 in shot attempts, 28-12 in shots on goal, 26-12 in scoring chances and 12-2 in high-danger chances. Complete domination by Winnipeg and it’s kinda surprising this was a one-goal game in the final minutes.

Not much point in running down any sort of line-based performance evaluations because they all got their teeth kicked in. Wasn’t expecting Sorensen to fix this team overnight — or this season, really — but this game probably gives him a harsh look at the Everest-esque climb ahead of him.

Another game without a shot on goal for Bedard but we’ll need to give Sorensen a little more time to figure out what his best plan is for unlocking Bedard’s offensive game more than Richardson had this season. In a slightly different vein, though: one thing that came up with Bedard at times last season was turning the puck over in the offensive zone in areas where a quick counter the other way is a very real threat. He’s still a teenager, so we can still forgive these, but it remains a part of his game with room for improvement:

Bedard had a few bad turnovers in the first period. He was lucky this one didn't result in a goal.

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— Scott Powers (@scottpowers.bsky.social) December 7, 2024 at 3:57 PM

Once again, though, there’s just not a ton of help for Bedard and this play from late in the game summarizes it so well. Bedard so deftly walks around a few opponents on this rush to gain zone entry with possession in search of a tying goal. He fires the puck over to Bertuzzi, who rims it around behind the net and the puck ultimately heads back to the point where no one is covering and Winnipeg ends up getting the empty-netter that officially put this game to bed. Bedard does the work and gets a goal against as his reward.

Let’s throw a little injury onto the insult, shall we?

Mrazek will be out for “a little bit”, Sorensen said. Martinez will also miss some time.

— Ben Pope (@benpopecst.bsky.social) December 7, 2024 at 6:04 PM

Guess we’ll be getting an extended look at Soderblom over that next “little bit.” Chicago does have a back-to-back upcoming next weekend, though, so whomever gets the call from Rockford is likely going to be in net for the Hawks rather soon.

Maybe a game on Monday against a team that just punted its captain to the OC will make for a better outing? Who knows at this point.

Game Charts

Three Stars

  1. Kyle Connor (WPG) — 2 assists
  2. Mark Scheifele (WPG) — GWG
  3. Alex Vlasic (CHI) — PPG

What’s Next

The Blackhawks hit the road to play on Monday night against the New York Rangers at 6 p.m.

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