As fans trickled into the United Center for Thursday night’s game, all they were hoping for was a good game between two rivals with nothing to play for as both teams will not make the playoffs. When the final horn sounded, the St. Louis Blues secured a 5–3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks, and the Columbus Blue Jackets managed to scratch out a point against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins. This is what true Hawks fans would call a win-win situation.
- Chicago scored two of its three times with the man advantage. Andreas Athanasiou potted his 15th goal of the season to tie the game at 1–1 midway through the second period and Tyler Johnson made it to double digits in goals this season when scoring early in the third period. Boris Katchouk scored the Blackhawks’ third and final goal of the game for Chicago, his fifth this season.
- Brandon Saad scored an empty-net goal for his 19th goal of the season. Saad played a nice game, doing a lot of the little things that do not show up on the scoresheet, but as an evaluator, one would like his game. Jordan Kyrou also played an excellent game. Kyrou scored his 34th goal of the season, but spends a lot of his time starting in the offensive zone and not making too many plays in his own end.
- Back to Johnson, he was the best Blackhawk on the ice, and when healthy, he is a fireplug that tries hard and makes plays with and without the puck. It is a little shocking that, outside of injury, he was not used as trade bait for some team looking for some secondary scoring punch, even with the extra year left on his contract.
- With the loss, Chicago falls into a tie with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the least points in the league. This team is set up to lose and right now that is something that needs to continue.
Chicago is back in action at home on against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday for a 7 p.m. CDT puck drop.
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