The Chicago Blackhawks made the short trip from Arizona over to California to take on the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday after Chicago’s 4–3 overtime victory over the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night. The Kings needed a victory to keep pace on their playoff hopes, while the Blackhawks were looking to play spoiler against a former rival (hard to be a rival when Chicago is bad).
We were able to get another look at defensemen Alec Regula and Alex Vlasic, who both look very promising early on in their careers. Regula plays a simple game defensively and looks comfortable with the speed at the NHL level while Vlasic has noticeably improved his skating since his draft year and can really use his size and stick in the defensive end.
Blackhawks lines in warmups vs. Kings:
DeBrincat-Strome-Kane
Kubalik-Toews-TJohnson
Kurashev-Lafferty-Raddysh
Katchouk-RJohnson-BorgstromVlasic-SJones
McCabe-Regula
Stillman-de HaanDelia
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) April 22, 2022
Midway through the first period, the Kings buried the first goal of the game when former Blackhawk Phillip Danault buried a backhand behind staring goaltender Collin Delia while fighting off a penalty by underwhelming defenseman Seth Jones for a 1–0 Los Angeles lead. The goal gave Danault five straight games with a goal.
Outside of a shorthanded breakaway by Sam Lafferty, the visitors did not generate much offensively and spent most of the period chasing the Kings as their puck possession was outstanding.
Future Hall of Fame forward Anze Kopitar scored at the 9:16 mark of the second period to give the Kings a 2–0 lead. As Kopitar buried his 19th goal of the season, Chicago had yet to have a shot on goal in the period and had been outshot 24–6 in the game.
Twine. 🚨@AnzeKopitar with the deflection! pic.twitter.com/fw0t8M0tEq
— LA Kings (@LAKings) April 22, 2022
Chicago finally beat Jonathan Quick when Patrick Kane scored on the power play at the 4:47 mark of the second period to trim the margin to 2–1. Kings bench boss Todd McLellan challenged the goal, as it appeared Kane never touched up before Alex DeBrincat entered the zone. After review, the goal stood and Chicago was back to the power play for delay of game on the Kings.
Very close, but the Patrick Kane goal stands. Officials rule this onside. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/858GqIqPAS
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) April 22, 2022
Chicago looked to show a little life after being dead in the water for much of the period and only trailed the Kings 2–1 after two period of play and being outshot 28–11 in the game.
#Blackhawks trail Kings 2-1 at the end of Period 2.
Shot attempts: 59-23 LA
Shots on goal: 28-11 LA
5-on-5 scoring chances: 19-7 LA
5-on-5 high danger chances: 9-3 LA pic.twitter.com/8yuUAWE2wE— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) April 22, 2022
Los Angeles scored back-to-back goals within 15 seconds of each other to extend their lead to 4–1. Forwards Andreas Athanasiou and Trevor Moore both beat Delia, who left the ice with an injury after the second goal. It was hard to believe the Blackhawks were only down 2–1 with just under 10 minutes left to play in the game, however, it was not hard to fathom being down 4–1 shortly thereafter with how poorly they played.
Los Angeles did what they needed to do and extinguished a Blackhawks team playing out the season.
Chicago heads to Northern California to take on the San Jose Sharks on Saturday at 7 p.m. CDT.