In the second game of the Jeremy Colliton era, Chicago looked to carry their late game momentum from Thursday night into Philadelphia as they faced the Flyers in a Saturday matinee.
Late in Thursday’s game, Chicago played with much better pace than they did in the opening frame. They played with the pace needed to be competitive against good teams. Going into Saturday’s action, Brandon Saad (arguably one of the best players in their last game) was inactive with an apparent arm injury. The lines were as follows:
DeBrincat – Toews – Kahun
Schmaltz – Anisimov – Kane
Hayden – Kampf – Fortin
Kunitz – Johnson – Martinsen
Keith – Jokiharju
Gustafsson – Seabrook
Manning – Rutta
Crawford
Notable changes to the lineup included John Hayden taking Saad’s place, Luke Johnson taking Marcus Kruger’s place and Brandon Manning being in for Brandon Davidson.
A very cool gesture but the Blackhawks today to wear Ray Emery’s #29 that he wore in Philadelphia on their helmets during the game.
Flyers and #Blackhawks both paying tribute to Ray Emery today. pic.twitter.com/8MfhliM1u6
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 10, 2018
First Period:
The period began in quiet fashion from a scoring perspective. The Blackhawks were able to generate shots early on Brian Elliott, but Elliott was good enough to deny any scoring from the visitors early on.
Blackhawks defensemen were jumping into plays early and often during the first period, which is a noticeable style for Jeremy Colliton coached teams. About mid-way through the period, Brent Seabrook dangled his way into the slot, sending a quality chance on net. Elliott made a great save on the play.
About five minutes later, at the 14:56 mark, Duncan Keith attempted to clear a puck to a teammate from deep in his own zone. Keith made a no look pass to no one wearing an Indian Head sweater. Instead, Flyers captain Claude Giroux picked up the errant pass and scored on a backhand past an out-of-position Corey Crawford, which gave Philadelphia the late 1-0 lead in the first period.
A critical penalty kill late by Chicago, which saw numerous high quality chances from their opponent, saved what could have been a 2-0 deficit and sent teams into the first intermission by the score 1-0, Flyers. Chicago outshot Philadelphia 13-10 in the opening frame.
Second Period:
The middle frame opened with a bit of back and forth action. Crawford made some good saves on odd man chances for Philadelphia to keep the game even.
The Blackhawks went to the power play on a tripping penalty around the eight minute mark giving Chicago some hope to even the game. However, rather than Chicago dominating the time with the extra man, it was the Flyers who were the more inspired team. A near breakaway was prevented when Crawford came out to clear a puck. A moment or two later, Sean Couturier found a puck at his own blueline and went in on a breakaway to score, giving the Flyers a 2-0 lead.
Chris Kunitz was defending Couturier on the play and did not recover well. Kunitz lazily attempted to knock Couturier off the puck but did not succeed. He was bullied and did not help Corey Crawford at all to prevent the 2-0 deficit.
Quickly following the goal, Philadelphia would go to the power play after a penalty by Henri Jokiharju. Philadelphia held possession for 1:40 of the power play before the Blackhawks could finally clear and change. Brent Seabrook made a great play on a pass heading for Nolan Patrick backdoor. He tipped the pass just enough to miss Patrick’s blade, who would have had an easy tap-in otherwise.
Chicago wouldn’t do much to end the period. Notably, after Radko Gudas continued to bully Blackhawks forwards, John Hayden was the only Blackhawks forward to even have words with Gudas, but they did little to change his physical prowess.
The shot totals were 22-21 in favor of Philadelphia after two periods.
Third Period:
The Blackhawks did not look good to open the third period, lacking pace and hustle early on.
At the 4:16 mark of the third, Sean Couturier struck again for the Flyers. Couturier was all alone coming down the left wing boards and threw a shot on Crawford. On the save, the puck bounced off Crawford, off Brandon Manning’s skate, and into the net to giving Philadelphia a 3-0 lead.
The Blackhawks could not accomplish much of anything during the third period. Philadelphia was just sitting back, challenging Chicago to try and enter the zone. However, the Blackhawks could not get any clean entries that led to quality chances.
The Blackhawks pulled Crawford with roughly 2:30 remaining in favor of the extra attacker. In similar fashion to the rest of this game, Chicago could not get any sustained pressure on Elliott late as Philadelphia continued to ice the puck.
At the 18:59 mark, the Flyers gained possession at the blue line and Nolan Patrick skated in and scored on the empty net. The score was 4-0 as Crawford re-entered the net with around one minute remaining.
The Blackhawks went on the power play late, but it did not matter. The shot advantage belonged to Chicago (33-25) but Brian Elliott and the Philadelphia Flyers shutout the Chicago Blackhawks 4-0.
The Good:
- Crawford: Corey Crawford certainly kept the score from being any uglier than it was. Philadelphia could have easily won this game 7-0, but in the end, his strong effort didn’t mean much. Crawford has been solid, but he needs help if this team is going to win games in front of him.
The Not So Good:
- Effort: Blackhawks players do not look like they want to play, especially today. The stars give okay effort. Seabrook made some good plays, Kane has been playing superhuman minutes, but the team is not playing the way they need to. Late in Thursday’s game, Chicago looked good. They were playing with pace and effort but the could not find that today. It’s arguable they missed Saad today.
- Special teams: Chicago continues to struggle on special teams. The power play looks awful, giving up more chances than they create and the penalty kill cannot clear the zone. If not for Crawford and Seabrook, there were two clear chances that could have resulted in goals for the Flyers on the power play.
The Blackhawks looked deflated in this game. They missed Brandon Saad who looked very good against Carolina on Thursday. Radko Gudas was able to push around many of the Blackhawks star players without any kind of retaliation from players such as Hayden, Manning, Martinsen and more. Hayden exchanged a slight shove with Gudas, but that was just about it. This team needs to figure things out quickly, or they may end up with a really high draft lottery position.