The Chicago Blackhawks were riding a high from beating the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday and then taking the high-flying Winnipeg Jets to overtime on Friday. Sunday night they hosted the San Jose Sharks and things got ugly.
This was your Blackhawks starting lineup:
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Dominik Kahun
Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Strome – Patrick Kane
Dylan Sikura – David Kampf – Brendan Perlini
John Hayden – Marcus Kruger – Andreas Martinsen
Duncan Keith – Henri Jokiharju
Erik Gustafsson – Brent Seabrook
Carl Dahlstrom – Connor Murphy
Chris Kunitz and Brandon Manning spent a quiet night watching from the Jeremy Colliton Chicken Finger and Popcorn Buffet in the press box, probably deservedly so.
The first period was a total shootout from the drop of the puck. Just two and a half minutes into play, Alex DeBrincat gave the Blackhawks a very rare 1-0 lead. He took a neutral zone pass from Erik Gustafsson, skated over the Shark’s blue line, took a half step to the middle of the ice and snapped a wrist shot that squirted through Martin Jones and dribbled into the net.
Less than a minute after the DeBrincat goal, Dylan Strome gave the Blackhawks an even more rare 2-0 lead. A Connor Murphy shot from the high slot deflected off a Sharks stick, and then Strome redirected it past a surprised Martin Jones.
The Blackhawks held that 2-0 lead for just over seven minutes, until they blew their lead. The Sharks fought back to get goals from Melker Karlsson and Marcus Sorensen in a matter of 42 seconds.
The good news was that the Blackhawks actually responded and took that lead back. Dylan Sikura showed some nice power up the middle of the ice and managed a shot that Jones made a toe save on. Brendan Perlini followed up the original shot and chipped it past Jones. Out went Jones and in came Aaron Dell.
Sikura powers through the defense and Perlini finishes off his effort! #Teammates #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/WMJEYKEK0d
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 17, 2018
Thirteen minutes into the game and five goals were on the board already. Five more were scored the rest of the way, and none were from the Blackhawks.
With 1:30 left in the opening period, while chasing down Logan Couture, Dylan Strome was pushed into his own goaltender by Evander Kane and Corey Crawford went down hard. In fact, Crawford’s head bounced off the goal post and he stayed on the ice. He eventually made it off the ice under his own power but that was the end of the night for the Blackhawks goaltender.
More concerning for the Blackhawks was that arguably their most important player was laid out with a hit to the head which kept him out for nine months. It was confirmed later that Crawford has a concussion.
Corey Crawford leaves the game after this nasty collision. pic.twitter.com/WCKD7Mgczh
— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) December 17, 2018
The first period ended with the Blackhawks up 3-2 but the Sharks leading in shots 8-5. Now without their veteran goalie, the real Blackhawks showed up…
The start to the second period was filled with sloppy infractions. The Blackhawks started the period on the power play, but were then assessed a terrible penalty when David Kampf’s stick broke and he was given a penalty. Eventually, the Sharks tied the game back up on the resulting power play, with Evander Kane found a loose puck in the slot area and hitting a gaping net.
Three minutes after the Sharks tied the game, they took their first lead of the night. Barclay Goodrow redirected a long Justin Braun shot past Cam Ward making it seem a lot like the Blackhawks could not catch a break.
The Sharks expanded their lead to 5-3 at the 17:17 mark of the second period. Logan Couture posted up in the front of Cam Ward and redirected a long, knuckling Brenden Dillon shot past the helpless Hawks netminder. The concerning part of the play was that the Blackhawks were not able to get the puck out of the zone, more than once, preceding the goal.
This is how the second period ended, as the Blackhawks had only 13 shots in 40 minutes while the Sharks had 22 shots on net.
In the third period, the play slowed down considerably, especially for the Blackhawks. With seven minutes remaining in regulation the Sharks added a cushion goal on the power play, which was a result of David Kampf taking a chance and trying to intercept a pass for a shorthanded break-a-way. Kampf missed the pass and the Sharks ended up with a 3-on-2. Kevin Lebanc snapped a pretty impressive shot over Ward’s glove and put the game far out of the Blackhawks’ reach.
San Jose added a seventh insurance goal, but that was just a formality. When the final horn sounded the Blackhawks had given up five straight goals to finish the game and lost 7-3. They finished with a mere 20 shots on net.
Pluses
- Jumping out to a 2-0 lead is a really welcomed sight. The problem was giving up 2 in less than a minute to blow said lead.
- Finally, Brendan Perlini got his name on the scoresheet in the goal column.
Minuses
- It doesn’t go much further than the Corey Crawford play that led to him leaving the game. The last thing this organization wanted to see was Corey Crawford absorb another hit to the head. This is extremely concerning because they can’t even use him as a trade piece with another concussion. Colliton confirmed after the game that Crawford does, indeed, have another concussion. This could get even more ugly, fast, if Crawford is out for an extended period of time.
- Edzo and Pat correctly pointed out a terrible penalty call on David Kampf then proceeded to be absolutely befuddled by the referees not calling a penalty on Marcus Kruger when his follow through caught Kevin Lebanc high under the shield.
- Speaking of power plays, the Sharks were 2/2 and the Blackhawks were 0/4.
- When you are out-chanced in the high danger category 14-7, you’re not winning many hockey games.
- The Blackhawks overall possession numbers were absolutely brutal. Their Corsi and Fenwick were 37.1% and 30.6% respectively.