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Preseason Recap: Blackhawks Fall To Senators, 2-1

  
Chicago Blackhawks
Sep 27, 2018; Chicago, IL, USA; Ottawa Senators center Chris Tierney (71) battles for the puck with Chicago Blackhawks center Dominik Kahun (24) and Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews (19) during the first period at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

On Thursday night, the Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Ottawa Senators for their fifth game of the preseason, second home game of the preseason, and second time playing the Senators this preseason. Unlike the first meeting between these two teams, the high-scoring flash wasn’t there and a more grinding, dirty-goal style of play was necessary. In a game that featured both teams at about a 90-percent NHL-quality lineup, the Blackhawks fall to the Senators, 2-1.

Blackhawks Fall To Senators As Growing Pains Show Through

By all means, the game started just as the Chicago Blackhawks would want a game to start. After killing off an early penalty, the Blackhawks found themselves on the man-advantage thanks to a hooking penalty on Zack Smith against Jonathan Toews. Although nothing would come of the powerplay chance, Chicago built momentum in their own zone and it would eventually lead to Toews banging in a goal off a great cross-crease pass from Alex DeBrincat, giving Chicago the early 1-0 lead. Chicago would continue to own the first period, leading in shots on goal after 20 minutes of play, 10-4.

The Second period started the exact opposite way the first had ended. Chicago finished the first period with all the momentum, but the Senators quickly changed the way the game would trend as Matt Duchene made the Blackhawks pay on a poor read from defenseman Henri Jokiharju, and buried a goal from right in front of Anton Forsberg to tie the game at 1-1 just seconds into the middle frame.

There might be a lot of instances this season where Henri Jokiharju is going to show just as much promise as he is growing pains. This was a growing pains moment.

As the puck travels to the boards behind Forsberg, Jokiharju and Ryan Dzingel go to play the puck. Jokiharju makes the decision to play Dzingel, rather than making a play to retrieve the puck first. Dzingel avoids the physical play by Jokiharju and allows a trailing Bobby Ryan to gather then puck behind the net and find a wide open Duchene in the slot.

Ideally, you don’t want to end up with a play having Matt Duchene open in the slot, it usually ends up with your goalie scooping the puck from his net.

The physicality ramped up in the second period as well, with a few scrums after the play, the chipy-ness of the game started to show as scoring chances became limited and if either team was going to pull away, they’d have to work for it.

Or get a fortunate bounce.

Which is exactly what the Senators benefited from early on in the third period.

A seemingly simple chip-and-chase play comes up as the eventual game-winning goal for the Senators. Max McCormick dumps the puck into the corner behind Forsberg with Duncan Keith and Henri Jokiharju giving chase. McCormick and Max Lajoie both out-rush Keith and Jokiharju to the puck and McCormick feeds the puck out to Dylan DeMelo at the blue-line. DeMelo’s slap-shot goes wide of Forsberg’s glove, but bounces off the boards right to the stick of McCormick and he is able to put it behind Forsberg and give the Senators a 2-1 advantage.

The Blackhawks had their chances in this game, albeit too many from perimeter shots, but they didn’t do enough to build off their first period output to get a win over the Senators. Chicago was 0-5 on powerplay chances and their 1-3-1 format still needs work.

Again, on the powerplay, the shots from the perimeter are not going to work if the built-in traffic in front of the net cannot produce a proper screen in front of the goalie. Simply said, Chicago will need to get shots in the high-danger zones.

In net, Anton Forsberg looked as good as he’s looked this preseason. Obviously coming away with a loss isn’t fun, but the two goals he allowed are somewhat forgivable, given the fact that one was a fortunate bounce for the Senators and the other came from Matt Duchene being left open in the slot. Forsberg made 21 saves on 23 shots in total. A breath of fresh air from Cam Ward’s start against the Red Wings.

Duncan Keith led the Blackhawks in ice-time with 24:22 minutes played, while Jonathan Toews led all Blackhawks forwards in ice-time with 20:11 minutes played. Reminder that Patrick Kane was not in the lineup against the Senators on Thursday night.

In a game where most players “on the bubble” of the training camp cut-line are supposed to sink or swim, the Blackhawks got decent showings from players like Andreas Martinsen, John Hayden, and Luke Johnson against the Senators, but the work from Dylan Sikura still leaves room for more development. Playing in 11:28 minutes of ice-time, Sikura was given an opportunity to play in Kane’s position on the powerplay early in the game, but was eventually replaced and even pushed to the fourth-line late in the game in favor of Hayden.

With the Blackhawks still looking to make a handful of cuts before the season begins, Sikura could be the odd-man out after looking like a lock at the beginning of camp.

The Blackhawks close the book on the preseason on Saturday night as they host the Columbus Blue Jackets at the United Center. Puck drop for Saturday’s game is slated for 7:00pm Central Time. Chicago opened their preseason with a 4-1 loss to the Blue Jackets on September 18, but will have a nearly 100-percent different roster on Saturday, compared to the preseason opener.

After that, the Blackhawks regular season begins October 4 against these very same Ottawa Senators, in Ottawa.

It’s almost October, folks.

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