The Chicago Blackhawks took the short trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to face the red-hot Minnesota Wild on Friday night. As has become the new normal, Chicago laid a pretty large Dodo Bird egg. They were taken to school by Wild center Mats Zuccarello with four points (three goals, one assist), and former Blackhawks goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 of 30 Chicago shots en route to an easy 4–1 win.
🙈 If you just look at the stats, Petr Mrazek looks like he played a bad game, but he kept the Blackhawks in the game far longer than they should have been. Saving 18 of 21 is not going to get you much favor, but he really made some huge stops early on.
🙈 Jonathan Toews scored his 10th of the season on a puck that deflected off Wild defenseman Jon Merril and snuck between Fleury’s pads.
🙈 Kirill Kaprizov had a fairly quiet three-point night. It seemed like the Blackhawks were determined to make Sam Steel look like an all-star, though. He was involved in several big plays.
🙈 If you want to look for a positive, the Blackhawks won 61% of their face-offs in this game. The only Blackhawks center that lost more than he won was Max Domi (38%), which is unusual.
The Blackhawks will host Jacob Trouba and the New York Rangers on Sunday in what is sure to be a physical tilt. Puck drop is 6:30 p.m. CST.