The Blackhawks headed way west, Thursday night, to face the Vancouver Canucks for “one of those great nine o’clock starts.” Before facing the Stars in a week, the Blackhawks play three very winnable games against the Canucks and a home-and-home against the Flames. If they planed to make up some divisional ground, they need to not only win virtually all of those divisional games, but win those conference games perceived as winnable. That said, they also need to take each game in the moment and as if each is a playoff elimination game.
The Canucks were led by talented youngsters Bo Horvat and Brock Boeser, but had a veteran cast of supporting characters. The last time the Hawks faced this team the line of Tomas Vanek, Brock Boeser and Sam Gagner just absolutely ate them alive.
Joel Quenneville started Anton Forsberg in net, once again, after possibly his best game as a Blackhawk, while sitting Lance Bouma, Patrick Sharp and Jan Rutta in the Shrimp Cocktail Suite again.
These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Alex DeBrincat – Jonathan Toews – Anthony Duclair
Brandon Saad – Nick Schmaltz – Patrick Kane
Ryan Hartman – Artem Anisimov – Tommy Wingels
Vince Hinostroza – David Kampf – Tomas Jurco
Duncan Keith – Jordan Oesterle
Michal Kempny – Connor Murphy
Erik Gustafsson – Brent Seabrook
The game opened with the Blackhawks struggling to even get a shot on net for the entire first half of the first period. Vancouver, on the other hand, came out and imposed some physical play by dropping both Anthony Duclair and Tomas Jurco with big checks.
In the bottom half of the first period each team stepped up to the plate and took a turn on the power play, however, they both mailed in a generally weak efforts. It was even strength, though, where the Blackhawks eventually took a 1-0 lead.
Brandon Saad led the rush towards the Vancouver end with just under five minutes remaining in the period, while Nick Schmaltz snuck in behind the Canucks defenders. Once Schmaltz cleared both the defender and the blue line, Saad hit him with a pass and Schmaltz was in all alone. He cut across the crease, got the goalie to open up and tucked the puck into the net. This is how the first period ended, with the Blackhawks also leading 11-8 in shots on net.
In the second period, the Blackhawks looked like they were set up for a prime opportunity with a powerplay but, as is the norm, they completely squandered the chance; again.
As a result, the Canucks came right back following the failed powerplay and tied the game. Alex Debrincat failed to dump the puck so the Blackhawks could get a change and ge the right personnel on the ice and Brendan Gaunce turned the play around the other way. Gaunce skated up the right-wing and beat Forsberg pretty easily, five-hole. The Blackhawks never again held the lead.
Four minutes after the Canucks tied the game, Erik Gustafsson tried to “help” his goaltender by screening Forsberg to attempt to block a long Troy Stecher shot. This left Bo Horvat plenty of time and space to tip the puck past Forsberg for a 2-1 Canucks lead. The second period finished with the score still 2-1 and the shots on net tied at seven a piece.
Three minutes into the third period, another Vancouver forward was left all alone in front of Anton Forsberg. This time Daniel Sedin was the lucky lottery winner, as Jordan Oesterle chased a loose puck. Sedin redirected a long Jake Virtanen shot, that was originally going wide of then net, past the Hawks goaltender. All this while Duncan Keith stood roughly three feet away, just observing.
Just as the game reached the halfway point of the third period, Alex Debrincat cut the Canucks lead down to one goal. Jonathan Toews set the table for Debrincat and the rookie snapped a shot past Jacob Markstrom. This was the tenth straight Blackhawks goal scored by a player under 23 years of age.
The Canucks mercifully put the Blackhawks out of their misery with just under three minutes left to play. Brendan Gaunce snuck in behind Brent Seabrook while Loui Eriksson set up a pass from the corner. Gaunce then out muscled the Hawks defenseman for the insurance goal, and sending the Hawks away pointless.
Pluses
- Jonathan Toews had a bit of a jump in his step drawing both of the first two power play chances. The following power plays were another story altogether.
- The Hawks were good at the faceoff dots, once again, winning 56% of their draws.
Minuses
- Hey, great, the kids are playing pretty well. This does no good, though, when the rest of vets are dragging their sorry behinds night after night.
- Speaking of sorry behinds, Patrick Kane can no longer be taking nights off. He was a -3 and completely invisible.
- The power play, the power play, the power play, the power play. For those keeping score at home, that is 0-4. This team is absolutely dying by their own refusal to fix the power play. This is not a matter of scheme, setup or coaching philosophy, either. They need to do two simple things, move their feet and move the puck, yet they simply refuse. At this point its stubborn arrogance.
- The Canucks had only 21 shots on net and won the game with four goals. This is not a playoff quality result. I keep saying it, but this team is not worthy of being in the playoffs. People need to wake up and smell what is in front of them.
- Not much infuriates me more than when the announcing team gives blatant misinformation or just blatantly omits important information. In the first period, alone, Pat and Steve first completely ignored Tomas Jurco getting rag dolled in the neutral zone while they rambled on about some innocuous anecdote. Then they fawned over an Anton Forsberg “save” that wasn’t a save at all. Forsberg fell down and Sedin shot the puck right into him. Konroyd even said, “That’s great scrambling by Anton Forsberg.” What?? Get your heads out of your rear ends, guys!
- Speaking of heads in your rear ends, We all know that Henrik and Daniel look to pass to each other. Pat Foley and his stupid “Where is Henrik? Where is Daniel?” needs to end. It is not cute; it is not funny; it is, though, maddening. Can someone in the organization please give him a proper smack in the side of the head and tell him to knock it off?
- What is going on with Ryan Hartman? If he has reverted back to Rockford Ice Hog Ryan Hartman, it might soon be time to see if you can use his “potential” to gather some assets. Skating eight empty minutes is getting wasteful and old.
- This “When is Corey Crawford Coming Back” narrative also needs to end. If he came back tomorrow (he clearly isn’t), it would still be too late. Even IF he was able to carry them limping into the playoffs, they would get stomped. The team needs to seriously consider just shelving him and taking a mulligan.