The Chicago Blackhawks’ gauntlet of a schedule to start the season continued on Tuesday night at the United Center when they faced their third consecutive undefeated team, the Boston Bruins. This was be the second matchup this season between the two teams, with Boston winning the first game 3–1 at TD Garden on Oct. 11. Petr Mrazek started in goal for the Blackhawks against the Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman. The Hawks welcomed back Philipp Kurashev into the lineup for his regular season debut. He replaced Taylor Hall, who went on the injured list earlier in the day, retroactive to Oct. 21, with a left shoulder injury, which he sustained in Boston.
In the first period, the Blackhawks thought they grabbed a 1–0 lead on a Connor Bedard one-timer off a turnover on the power play. However, the Bruins challenged the play for offside. A lengthy video review led to the Bruins winning the challenge and Bedard’s third career goal was wiped away. The period would end 0–0.
Connor Bedard’s goal that was overturned after an offside challenge.
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(🎥: @BR_OpenIce) pic.twitter.com/02MUJONqmD— JayOnSC (@JayOnSC) October 25, 2023
The Bruins opened the scoring at the 3:49 mark of the second frame when a wide-open Pavel Zacha tipped a point shot from Kevin Shattenkirk past Mrazek. For Zacha, the goal was his first of the season, and for Shattenkirk, he picked up his first point in a Bruins sweater. The Bruins would take the 1–0 lead into the second intermission, as the Blackhawks’ offense continued to struggle.
In the third period, the Hawks came out of the locker room with some energy but had nothing to show for it. At the 4:06 mark, rookie Matthew Poitras took advantage of a Corey Perry turnover and won a footrace against the former Hart Trophy winner and scored his third of the season on a breakaway to give the Bruins a 2–0 lead.
Just 56 seconds later, Trent Frederic scored his second of the season to give Boston a 3–0 lead. Charlie Coyle skated in on the rush and shot it from the left circle that Mrazek stopped but left a rebound. Multiple Bruins crashed the net and Frederic tapped in the loose puck to extend the Boston lead. The score would stay the same through the final buzzer as the Blackhawks could not generate much offensively. Swayman stopped all 23 shots he faced while the Bruins pelted Mrazek with 43 shots.
Analysis
For those of you who thought the Blackhawks would compete for a playoff spot this season (and we know there are a few of you eternal optimists out there in Twitterland), you should pop in the tape of this game to see how far away they are from contention. The Hawks were once again thoroughly outclassed in yet another game where it looked like men against boys on the ice. The same issues that have plagued the team in previous games happened again tonight: The offense, aside from when Bedard is on the ice, generates few, if any, quality scoring chances, too many turnovers up and down the lineup and the defense is caught out of position too often, which is mostly attributed to its youth and inexperience, and they are giving up way too many scoring chances. While the penalty kill has been solid, the power play has been nothing short of a disaster, largely due to losing face-offs and poor zone entries. In fact, you could make a fairly compelling case the Hawks have given up more shorthanded chances then they have generated quality scoring chances of their own. On the positive side, Mrazek continues to play well and keep the Hawks in games, but this is a boat that can only hold so much water.
The Hawks return to action on Friday in Las Vegas against the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. Puck drop is at 5 p.m. CDT on NBCSCH and on 720 WGN.