After beating two teams they, quite frankly, should beat nine out of ten times, the Blackhawks were home at the United Center facing another team they should beat most nights, the Florida Panthers. Corey Crawford made his second consecutive start since returning from his stint on IR. He did not miss a beat in his first game back, and was really good in this one, as well.
Also in the lineup for the second consecutive game was the enigma known as Jordan Oesterle, who exhibited no signs of rust after spending enough time in the various arena press boxes to qualify for real estate tax assessments. He earned an assist on the Blackhawks first goal Sunday and logged over 20 minutes of ice time in his first game back in the line up.
In other news, not on the ice for this game was the ice cold Richard Panik, who had not scored a goal in twenty plus games. Ryan Hartman was back in the lineup after taking the night off against the Arizona Coyotes for equally as cold play. It should be no surprise to anyone that these two took turns doing the healthy scratch shuffle.
These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Brandon Saad – Jonathan Toews – Alex DeBrincat
Nick Schmaltz – Artem Anisimov – Patrick Kane
Patrick Sharp – Vince Hinostroza – Ryan Hartman
Lance Bouma – Tommy Wingels – John Hayden
Duncan Keith – Jordan Oesterle
Gustav Forsling – Jan Rutta
Connor Murphy – Brent Seabrook
Play was pretty even for the opening minutes of the game, with each team throwing three shots on net. The major fireworks were around the head of Denis Malgin, when Connor Murphy absolutely laid him out and sent Malgin to the quiet room. Malgin would not return.
Half way through the opening period, the Blackhawks drew the first penalty of the game. Even though their pressure looked better than usual, the Hawks still tried pulling their typical “way too many passes, way too slowly” charade, and were not able to manage much more than a couple of shots on net before the power play expired.
At regular strength, all four lines seemed to be skating well for most of first period, but it was the first line that took the first lead of the game. Brandon Saad took a pass by Alex Debrincat from behind the net and beat James Reimer on a bang-bang play to open scoring. The #ElGato top six experiment certainly seems to be working pretty well based on the recent results.
The second period literally opened with the Panthers very nearly tying the game on the power play when Vincent Trochek turned Gustav Forsling inside out, and lasered a shot off the Blackhawks crossbar just seconds after the opening face-off.
The Panthers were not done there, though, as they continued to pepper Corey Crawford with shots and rebounds to the tune of seven straight shots to open the period before the Blackhawks managed their first shot.
After Corey Crawford saved several excellent chances, including a partial breakaway, Nick Bjugstad finally solved the Blackhawks goaltender and tied the game. Goose Forsling got caught watching the puck too much and let the Panthers forward in behind for a long breakaway. Bjugstad faked Crawford out pretty convincingly and made no mistake depositing the puck into the back of the cage.
Late power plays each way resulted in no further damage for either team, and the second period ended tied at 1-1 even though the Blackhawks had been out shot heavily 17-5.
Four minutes into the third period the Blackhawks failed to get the puck out of their own end which ended up leading to a Vincent Trochek and Jamie McGinn 2-on-1. McGinn was able to corral a pass in his skates and surprise Corey Crawford by roofing a quick shot over Crawford’s right shoulder.
The third period went back and forth until six minutes remaining in regulation, when Brandon Saad once again imposed his will on the Florida team. Saad got in behind the defense and Alex Debrincat quickly hit him with a pass. The big winger headed to the net, but saw Jonathan Toews out of the corner of his eye. Saad flipped a backhand pass to Toews, who was able to hit the wide open net on the back door and tie the game back up.
Despite some hot tempers, including Cats goalie James Reimer throwing multiple blocker shots into the back of the head of Tommy Wingels, neither team was able to get that elusive regulation game winning goal. As a result, the game headed into over time. Once again, the Blackhawks were caught playing down to the competition.
James Reimer gives a few good blocker shots to Wingels after #57 gave the Panthers netminder an extra whack before the whistle. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/WjDhKt53QI
— Cristiano Simonetta (@CMS_74_) December 13, 2017
In the over time period, the Panthers’ Aaron Ekblad had the Blackhawks and their goaltender dead to rights but rang the potential game winning shot off the post. Just moments later, Patrick Kane took a pass from Artem Anisimov, who had stolen the puck in the neutral zone, and went in on a partial breakaway. Kane easily picked Reimer apart and won the game to give the Blackhawks the extra point.
Pluses
- Brandon Saad and Jonathan making appearances on the scoresheet were very welcome sights.
- I have been hard on Patrick Sharp, but this might have been one of his better games. He out raced several Cats players throughout the night. That is about all you’re getting out of me, because he still provides zero offensive help.
- Jordan Oesterle looked pretty good for the second game in a row. He made a really nice back checking play using his speed in the third period that could have turned into the Panthers third goal of the night.
Minuses
- Save for a few decent shots in the first period, the Blackhawks power play was wretched; again. “Everything is going to be okay” they said. Sure, everything certainly looks just fine.
- Jan Rutta took a hit in the second period and got up very wobbly. He was escorted off the ice and went right to the locker room for some concussion protocol testing and was not heard from again.
- The Blackhawks gave up several full or partial breakaway chances in this game which is totally unacceptable if you expect to win against actual good teams.
- Lets not all start planning the Stanley Cup parade. The Blackhawks just barely beat three pretty below average-to-bad teams. Just wait until we see how they perform against the Jets, Wild and Stars.