The Blackhawks were in Washington DC Wednesday night to face the eastern conference powerhouse known as the Capitals and league goal scoring leader, Alex Ovechkin. Backup Anton Forsberg took the net for his third straight game, and he faced Caps workhorse Braden Holtby. The big story was the Quenneville Blender generated lines, though.
These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Ryan Hartman – Jonathan Toews – John Hayden
Brandon Saad – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Lance Bouma – Nick Schmaltz – Alex DeBrincat
Patrick Sharp – Tommy Wingels – Richard Panik
Duncan Keith – Cody Franson
Connor Murphy – Brent Seabrook
Gustav Forsling – Jan Rutta
Joel Quenneville’s new lines did little to solve their offensive woes in the first period, or even the entire game, for that matter. While, the shot totals favored the Hawks early on, the Capitals quickly turned around the chances and took the lead. Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom used a nice little three way passing play to take the lead with just over 11 minutes spent in the first period thanks to a little help from a bad Duncan Keith turnover.
Things got worse from there when Tom Wilson scored a terrible goal from the corner on Anton Forsberg, and then Alex Ovechkin scored on a break-a-way rebound just 29 seconds later. This gave the Capitals a 3-0 lead with five minutes remaining in the opening period, before the Blackhawks knew what hit them.
That was the end of the night for Forsberg, as he got the quick hook. Jean-Francois Berube made his Blackhawks regular season debut under some unfortunate circumstances, which actually seemed to give the team a momentary sense of urgency.
New third liner Lance Bouma scored his third goal of the year by simply driving the net as the teams were approaching the final two minutes of the period and jamming a fat rebound past Holtby. The shots on net favored the Blackhawks 16-11 despite the lopsided 3-1 Capitals lead.
The second period opened much like the first period did, as the Blackhawks quickly went up in shots 6-0 before they were given their first power play of the night. as powerplays generally go with this team, it was yet another dismal failure. Surprisingly, though, the shot totals made it to 9-0 in favor of the Hawks by the midpoint of the period and even rose as high as 13-0 before the Capital got their first shot of the middle period.
A Tom Wilson boarding penalty on Gustav Forsling put the Blackhawks back on the power play, but they squandered that chance as well. The Capitals turned right around and showed the Hawks how to score on the power play after both Artem Anisimov and Nick Schmaltz failed miserably to take advantage of open chances to clear the puck out of their own zone. Brett Connolly picked up a fortunate Ovechkin rebound and scored the fourth Caps goal of the night.
The second period ended with each team taking minor penalties which led to a little four-on-four hockey. After all was said and done, the Blackhawks led the second period in shots 16-6 and overall 32-17. These numbers really did not matter much when they were chasing a 4-1 deficit.
If there was a way the Blackhawks could have just boarded the plane after the second period, they would have.Actually, maybe they should have, because they really did not do much more than stink up the joint. Another failed clearing attempt, this time by Brandon Saad, led to the Caps taking a 5-1 lead.
Late matching minor penalties in the final minutes of third period led to more four-on-four hockey, and this time Jonathan Toews picked up an Alex Ovechkin turnover at the Hawks blue line and went in alone on Braden Holtby. Toews opened up the netminder’s five hole and put the puck into the net, but it meant little in the grand scheme.
That was all for the team in white, as the Caps added a shorthanded empty net goal which ran the score up to 6-2 and the Blackhawks to a winless streak of five games.
Pluses
- JF Berube actually had a decent night, and it’s too bad the team in front of him had to take so many chances to try and save some face.
Minuses
- Anton Forsberg has been pretty good in most of his games, but was absolutely brutal in this one. The Capitals had shots but nothing crazy. He was just completely off his game.
- Right after Ryan Hartman took a bad penalty for sticking his knee out on Ovechkin, Caps bonehead Tom Wilson came looking for trouble. He knocked down Hartman with one bear claw swipe, then brushed Tommy Wingels off like a gnat. This was a perfect encapsulation of the Blackhawks night.
- Where does it start and end? The powerplay, the penalty kill, even strength, the starting goaltending, the dumb line combinations. It was all bad. This might be a good time to re-read what I wrote shortly before this game began, because it is becoming ever more true with each passing game. Here is a link, as a reminder:
Are The Blackhawks About To Go Over The Falls?