The Chicago Blackhawks came into Monday’s action having dropped both games of a home-and-home series with the Minnesota Wild and three in a row overall. They lost a very winnable game in Minnesota the other night, but still managed to walk away with a point in that effort. Kevin Lankinen was placed on injured reserve on Sunday with a hand injury, paving the way to put Marc-Andre Fleury back between the pipes for the Blackhawks.
First period
After some chances on either end, the Blackhawks got their first great opportunity when Sam Lafferty passed the puck up quickly to Jonathan Toews, who got it in front to a streaking Calvin de Haan, who could not beat the Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz. This would be the best chance for either team in the frame, as there was a lot of back and forth for the rest of the frame.
The Avalanche would get a chance just a couple minutes later, when a broken stick from Philipp Kurashev led to a 2-on-1 chance. Fleury was able to make the stop, however, keeping the game knotted up at 0–0.
Just a minute later, the Avs would get another good chance, with Samuel Girard getting wide open in between the circles and getting ahold of a slap shot that Fleury was quick to get a piece of.
The Blackhawks had their first powerplay of the game, but could not do anything with it. The period would end the same way that it started, 0–0.
Second period
The Avalanche started off the period on the power play, but could not convert on it despite a few decent chances. Throughout most of the period, the Avs just kept increasing the amount of chances they were getting, and keeping a lot of pressure on the Blackhawks.
The Avalanche finally got a great chance at the 6:35 mark of the frame, when Fleury got knocked down by his own teammate, Henrik Borgstrom, but managed to get back into position as the Avs got the puck back out to the point to try to get a shot into the back of the net. Fleury somehow kept that out, and did not allow any rebound.
Then, at the 8:36 mark of the frame, Nazem Kadri put a wrister on net from just above the left circle, and Fleury could not quite hold the puck out, and neither could de Haan, who tried to get the puck before it crossed the line. With that power play tally, the Avalanche took a 1–0 lead. The second period would end with that 1–0 lead for the Avalanche.
Third period
After more back and forth to start the period, the Avalanche would pick up another goal. At the 6:41 mark of the frame, the puck got passed to Mikko Rantanen in front of the net. He out-waited Fleury with a tremendous amount of patience, and then put a backhand shot over top of him to make it 2–0 Avalanche.
The Avalanche got a few more shots on Fleury, but the Blackhawks were not able to get anything past the Avalanche. The game would end with a score of 2–0 Avalanche over the Blackhawks.
Analysis
The Blackhawks did not play poorly against one of the league’s best. Sure, they could have gotten more chances on net, but overall, they played well on defense and got opportunities on the offensive end, but could not put anything past the goaltender.
This game at least showed that the Blackhawks have not completely dropped into not caring about how they play. The Blackhawks need to figure out how to get more shots on net, as well as tightening down defensively. While they may have played decent defense in this game, their last couple of games are ones that they allowed an opponent to overrun them.
Their last game being very winnable, and the same being said for this one, it all comes down to the fundamentals for this team. They need to figure out who fits best where, which seems to be something that Derek King is still playing around with at the moment.
This team is perhaps better than they are playing as of late, but a playoff team? Far from it. Too many young players on defense mixed with declining veterans is not normally a recipe for success.
We will see if the Blackhawks can get back on track against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night. Gametime is a 6:30 p.m. CST on TNT.