After suffering their first regulation loss (in their first actual regulation finish) Thursday night, the Blackhawks traveled to Columbus, Ohio to face the Blue Jackets.
Both teams came into this game with the same amount of points (8), but got those points in (almost) opposite manners. The Blackhawks game results were all decided in overtime games (minus one), while the Blue Jackets games only finished one game in overtime.
Coach Joel Quenneville decided to stick with Corey Crawford in goal, who was making his second start since battling 10 months of post concussion symptom rehabilitation. Elsewhere in the lineup, Andreas Martinsen made his return from injury (replacing John Hayden), and Brandon Davidson finally made his regular season debut (replacing Brandon Manning). Jonathan Toews, and Alex DeBrincat were trying to continue their points streaks, as well.
This was your Blackhawks starting lineup:
Alex DeBrincat- Jonathan Toews – Dominik Kahun
Nick Schmaltz – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Chris Kunitz – David Kampf – Brandon Saad
Alexandre Fortin – Marcus Kruger – Andreas Martinsen
Duncan Keith – Henri Jokiharju
Erik Gustafsson– Brent Seabrook
Brandon Davidson – Jan Rutta
The possibly the biggest change in the opening lineup was Nick Schmaltz being moved to left wing with Patrick Kane, while Artem Anisimov moved up between to the two young phenoms. With Schmaltz winning only 36.9 of his face-offs and coming in with just 4 assist, it was time to try to jump start his production.
After the Blackhawks gave up a couple of grade A chances in their own end, they went down and took a 1-0 lead on their first shot of the game. After a nice feed from Dominik Kahun, Alex Debrincat used a generous screen from Blue Jacket Markus Nutivaara to sneak a softie through the legs of the normally solid Bobrovsky.
DeBrincat extends his point streak to seven games with tonight’s tally! #Purr #CHIvsCBJ #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/kXeTdBvENQ
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 20, 2018
The chances didn’t stop there, though. Some good wheels by Duncan Keith on a good break-a-way chance by Cam Atkinson helped keep the score at 1-0 in favor of the visitors. At the other end of the ice, the Blackhawks were able to eclipse the Columbus shot total, after the Blue Jackets took an early lead.
Just past the halfway point of the period, Blackhawks defenseman Henri Jokuharju got turned around by Artemi Panarin and ended up in the penalty box, while Cam Atkinson took a bad penalty of his own to even play back up at 4-on-4.
Moments into the 4-on-4, Blue Jackets center Zach Werenski danced right up the middle of the Blackhawks zone, uncontested, and used a screen from defenseman Jan Rutta to beat goalie Corey Crawford tying the game. Crawford may have misplayed the shot, but his defense did no favors for him.
At the 3:47 mark, after a very soft penalty call on Andreas Martinsen, the Blue Jackets looked like they may have taken the lead but the goal was waved off by the referee, who maintained that the play was dead before the puck ended up in the net.
With under two minutes left in the period, former Blackhawks Anthony Duclair got behind the Hawks defense but mishandled the puck as he tried to tuck it around Crawford’s right foot. As a result, the teams finished the first period tied at 1-1, with the home team leading 12-10 in shots on net.
Under a minute into the second period, Corey Crawford was forced to bail out his defense, which had turned the puck over and allowed a high danger chance by Pierre-Luc Dubois right in the slot. No doubt Duncan Keith was thanking his goaltender for the assistance.
Each team took penalties, first by Jokiharju and then Wennberg, in the first five minutes of the period but neither power play yielded any goals.
The rest of the second period was fairly tame, until the Blue Jackets hit the gas pedal with under two minutes remaining. Corey Crawford kept the game tied in pretty remarkable fashion. He showed no ill effects from his down time, as the Columbus forwards peppered him and crashed the net.
Shots in the second period were 16-5 favoring Columbus.
The third period began with the Blackhawks back on the powerplay, but they surrendered two egregious chances to Columbus in the first few rushes, while collecting no shots on net themselves. Once gain, Corey Crawford bailed his team out in spectacular fashion. It was honestly a criminal offense how badly the Blackhawks left their goaltender to fend for himself.
With twelve minutes remaining in regulation, a simple play by Alexandre Fortin with the fourth line turned into the Blackhawks second goal of the game. Fortin threw a pretty innocent shot towards Bobrovsky and Marcus Kruger slightly redirected the puck past the surprised Columbus goalie. Fortin didn’t get the goal, but he did collect his first NHL point.
Yahtzee! #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/yUKkFZc46H
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 21, 2018
The Blackhawks took a two-goal lead with just over four minutes remaining when the Blue Jackets turned the puck over to Nick Schmaltz at center ice. Schmaltz pushed the puck to Patrick Kane, who played catch with Brent Seabrook and was left with a gaping net. That is an opportunity Kane will rarely miss.
We love a gorgeous passing play#Blackhawks #CHIvsCBJ pic.twitter.com/NhHHPNsSFz
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 21, 2018
Speaking of not missing chances, Patrick Kane wrapped up the win by getting an easy empty net goal late. Columbus fans were left scratching their heads, as their team rigorously out played the Blackhawks and lost by three goals.
Shots were 38-25 in favor of Columbus. High danger chances also favored the Blue Jackets 11-4.
Pluses
- Many, including myself, have been repeating for months that Corey Crawford wasn’t going to magically return to the ice and be dialed in, but it looks like we were all wrong. He has stepped in and looked like the same guy that left the team in December. It is really amazing that a 33-year-old guy can pull this off. Now this does not mean he can single handedly carry this team for 77 games, but they are a more confident and better team with number 50 in net. What this does do, though, is shut the meatball Crawford haters up. His affect is undeniable. His high danger save percentage was 100%. This is in-sane!
- Patrick Kane had himself a nice third period with three points.
- For a guy that seemed like he was headed to healthy scratch-ville Alex Fortin had a nice night with the fourth line, even though he played only 9:46 (second only to Andreas Martinsen’s 5:52)
- The Blackhawks were generally good at the faceoff dot minus Artem Anisimov, who won just three of thirteen.
Minuses
- The Blackhawks need to thank their lucky stars that Corey Crawford exists. He single handedly stole this win. The were stomped in every major statistical category except goals.
- Every single Blackhawks player was under water in possession numbers. Kane was on the ice for three third period goals and was still under 50%.
- Brandon Davidson had himself quite a first Blackhawks game. His 17.86% corsi and 14.29 % fenwick were, by far, the team worst. They gave up 23 shots while he was on the ice while generating only five.
- The power play continues to look like this team is coached by a bunch of nearsighted deaf mutes. They gave up more shorthanded chances against than they had power play chances. For that, I pull one out of the old treasure chest:
Photoshop creation by Jeff Osborn