Last night, the Blackhawks moseyed into Dallas for one of their last two games before Christmas. To say they came out flat would be an understatement, as the Stars put the Hawks five-game winning streak to bed convincingly. Corey Crawford was in net once again for the Blackhawks. Ironically, Pat Foley mentioned before the opening faceoff that the last time Crawford faced the Stars was the last time he gave up four goals.
Deja Vu?
The end result was Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock’s 800th career win. One for each pound on the scale.
These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Alex DeBrincat
Nick Schmaltz – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Ryan Hartman – Vince Hinostroza – Richard Panik
Lance Bouma – Tommy Wingels – John Hayden
Duncan Keith – Jordan Oesterle
Gustav Forsling – Connor Murphy
Michal Kempny – Brent Seabrook
Even though the Blackhawks outshot the Stars 11-7, the only scoring in the first period was courtesy of the Stars’ Jamie Benn. With just over three minutes remaining in the period, immediately following an unsuccessful Stars power play, Benn found a soft spot to the left of Corey Crawford and buried a Remi Elie back door pass into the open side of the Blackhawks net.
The Blackhawks did get their chances against a seemingly shaky Ben Bishop, but were not able to solve the Dallas goaltender, which would become the theme for the entire game on both accounts.
In the second period, the game just fell apart for the Blackhawks. They only faced nine shots the entire period, but gave up three goals, two of which were at the hands of Tyler Seguin.
Noted knucklehead Antoine Roussel was the first, though, to get on the second period score sheet. Just a minute into the period, as he was passing in front of Corey Crawford, Roussel redirected a long Dan Hamhuis shot past the startled Hawks goalie to give Dallas a 2-0 lead.
The Blackhawks actually turned right around at the other end, about a minute later, hitting the goal post, but the puck luck was not on the Blackhawks side whatsoever.
That luck got even worse six minutes into the period when the Hawks first took a bad offensive zone penalty, and surrendered their third goal of the game. Tyler Seguin found a long partially blocked Jason Spezza shot on his tape after Crawford had committed to the initial shot. Seguin was able to change direction and pretty easily flip the puck into the back of the net. This being the third goal that Corey Crawford had little-to-no chance on.
Despite the score, the Blackhawks were not really playing a bad game. A couple of unfortunate bounces ended up in their own net, but the game was actually closer than it seemed. Shots were basically even but the difference was that the Stars capitalized on just about every solid opportunity they had.
With just under four minutes remaining in the second period, Tyler Seguin struck again, sticking a fork in this game with an entire period still to play. Stars forward Devin Shore did most of the heavy lifting, as he lugged the puck into the crease but was not able to finish the play. Seguin, though, was able to finish and the Stars had themselves a four goal lead.
The third period was basically a formality, as the Blackhawks had mentally checked out and they ended up leaving the “Big D” with an embarrassing 4-0 shutout loss. They certainly need to have a better showing in tropical New Jersey, on Saturday night.
Pluses
- The Hawks only allowed 22 shots on net which, in theory, should be enough to keep them in the game.
- On second though, I will always be a huge fan of the “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott and Vinnie Paul composed goal song that the Stars use. Much respect from the bottom of my black heavy metal heart.
- If you only look at the Blackhawks possession numbers, the score is probably perplexing. In fact, the only two players on the Hawks that were under water were Nick Schmaltz and Gustav Forsling. Duncan Keith, Michal Kempny and Brent Seabrook were plus 15-14-13 in Corsi, respectively.
Minuses
- Just as John and I mention the night before on the Rinkcast, this team can fall off the cliff at any point, and this was a great example. They were physically on the ice, but mentally in another area code.
- Winning only 38% of your face-offs as a team is just brutal. Jonathan Toews won over 60% but the rest of the team was all under 40%.
- The Richard Panik return to the lineup was highly uneventful, but Patrick Sharp would not have helped this team look like they cared.
- Certainly looks like the great savior, aka Alex “El Gato” Debrincat, has cooled off a bit.