The Chicago Blackhawks came into Wednesday night’s action looking to break their current skid. They had dropped their prior three games against opponents who are on a roll: the NHL-best Minnesota Wild, the streaking Columbus Blue Jackets (winning five of their last seven), and the Toronto Maple Leafs with their potent offense. The Hawks would look to turn their luck around against the Bruins, who themselves had won three of their last four coming into the night’s action. Only one lineup change of note for the Blackhawks in this game, as Petr Mrazek would come back in for Arvid Soderblom in net.
First period
Things looked good for the Blackhawks early on in this game, with their first goal coming in under a minute and a half into the game. Alex Vlasic took a beautiful feed from Nick Foligno and wristed his first of the year past Jeremy Swayman, 1–0 Blackhawks early.
pickles pair perfectly with goals 🥒 pic.twitter.com/4itbyi3twF
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 5, 2024
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Eleven minutes later, Morgan Geekie would come back for the Bruins as he followed up his own shot to put home the rebound, knotting things up into the first intermission, 1–1.
Second period
Just three minutes into the second, the Blackhawks would be back in a familiar position. Brad Marchand took a pass from David Pastrnak circle to circle and put it past Mrazek, 2–1 Boston. Just over two minutes later, it was Pastrnak to Marchand again to make it 3–1 Bruins. Pastrnak took the puck from former Blackhawk defenseman Jordan Oesterle on a failed clearing attempt by Ilya Mikheyev, and before anyone could react, it was in the net. Mikheyev would get some redemption before the period was out, though. He got the puck along the boards and fed Jason Dickinson in the left circle, who wristed one to the back of the net, sending things to the intermission at 3–2 Bruins.
what a shot from Dickinson 🔥 pic.twitter.com/4gbGg14rAk
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 5, 2024
Third period
Five minutes into the period, the Blackhawks had the puck in the offensive zone. Lukas Reichel was unable to get a shot through to the net on a backhand attempt. With no Blackhawk but Reichel in the vicinity, Justin Brazeau got the puck up quickly to Geekie again. He went in on the breakaway and put the puck in the back of the net, 4–2 Boston. That would do it for this one, as that took all of the wind out of the Blackhawks’ sails, netting them their fourth loss in a row.
Analysis
Once again, I believe that this loss comes down to fundamentals. If you do not take penalties, you do not have to spend energy and time killing them off, and maybe you have more of both to be able to work at getting back into the game. Being disciplined is key to winning, as winning teams do not tend to take dumb, lazy penalties like delay of game and tripping. The Blackhawks had so many pucks given to them by the Bruins that they were not able to do anything with either, as the Bruins racked up 20 giveaways somehow, but won two-thirds of the faceoffs in the game. The Blackhawks need to get back to the basics, as it is showing that even working hard to overcome your own mistakes is not enough in this game if you cannot first do everything else you are supposed to do to win games.
The Blackhawks will look to break their losing streak on Saturday afternoon, hosting the Winnipeg Jets. That game will be at 3 p.m. CST on good old CHSN, or wherever you are able to stream from.