As the NHL season winds down, Luke Richardson and his Chicago Blackhawks travelled northwest to face the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night. The only thing the Blackhawks had to fight for was regulation losses, which they accomplished, in getting shut out by Canucks starting goaltender Thatcher Demko 3–0. With the 2023 death march nearly complete, Chicago will need some help from Columbus and Anaheim to get the best odds in the upcoming NHL lottery for Connor Bedard.
🏒 In a game that was probably undesirable to watch by any Blackhawks fan not in the Pacific time zone, the Canucks got goals from Andrei Kuzmenko (38th), Vitali Kravtsov (fourth) and a late empty-net, bank-shot goal from J.T. Miller (30th). Canucks rookie Akito Hirose got his first two NHL points, assisting on the first two Vancouver goals.
🏒 Blackhawks starter Alex Stalock played “fine,” but needed more help. Kuzmenko’s goal was a long wrist shot that went through multiple screens, but he had no chance on Kravtsov’s goal, which went off Seth Jones’ stick. Stalock did make an acrobatic, highlight-reel save just prior to Kravtsov’s goal in the second period.
Oh baby, what a save by Alex Stalock. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/SKyPXlUKdA
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) April 7, 2023
🏒 Chicago certainly had solid chances to beat the Vancouver netminder, but Demko was dialed in. Boris Katchouk had a solid power play chance on the doorstep in the first period, another in the second period and a nice spin-o-rama in the third, but was denied all three times. MacKenzie Entwistle also had an open high-danger chance in the first that Demko was all over. Lukas Reichel split the defense in the second period, but rushed his shot and was stopped easily by Demko.
🏒 The Blackhawks went 0–3 on the power play, which now has them at 29th in the NHL. Just one conversion has them back in the game.
🏒 Tyler Johnson led the Blackhawks with four shots on goal, but also was a -2.
🏒 One area where the Blackhawks dominated was the face-off dot. The led 55%–46%, with Jonathan Toews and Jason Dickinson as the big winners at 71% and 58%, respectively. On the other hand, Elias Pettersson only won three of 14 draws.
For those watching the “tank index,” Chicago is currently ranked 30th overall with a .359 points percentage (17 regulation wins, four games remain) ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets (.359, 15 regulation wins, four games remain) and Anaheim Ducks (.359, 13 regulation wins, four games remain). Chicago is third worst in the tie breaker because they have most regulation wins. The Blackhawks are off Friday, but travel just slightly south to Washington state to face the Seattle Kraken on Saturday. Puck drop is 9 p.m. CDT.