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RECAP: Canucks hold on for 4–3 win over Blackhawks

  
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The Chicago Blackhawks celebrate a goal during Sunday's 4–3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks. (Photo courtesy of David Banks / USA TODAY Sports)

The Chicago Blackhawks entered today’s game on a three-game losing streak. In addition to being without Seth Jones, the Hawks also did not have their most effective young defenseman this season, Alex Vlasic.

The lineup was as follows:

First period

The Blackhawks looked like the better team early on. They were outshooting Vancouver 12–1 at one point. Midway through the first period, veteran Nick Foligno got the Hawks on the board.

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The Hawks led until less than two minutes left in the period when Vancouver answered with a power play goal, as Elias Pettersson scored his 12th goal of the season on a 5-on-3 advantage to tie the game following a crippling block hobbled Connor Murphy.

Second period

Early in the second period, the Blackhawks regained the lead with a power play goal from Foligno.

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Foligno potted his second goal of the game and Connor Bedard got his 13th assist of the season. After the second Foligno goal, the game changed in favor of the Canucks. Dakota Joshua scored with just past three minute gone by in the second period. Brock Boesser added a goal less than 40 seconds later.

With the second period nearly over, Ilya Mikheyev netted his 10th goal of season to put the Canucks up 4–2.

Third period

The Hawks tried to rally back from a two-goal deficit, getting a power play goal from Cole Guttman. Guttman was assisted by Bedard and Philipp Kurashev for their second points of the game.

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Petr Mrazek kept the Hawks’ hopes alive with a spectacular diving stick save, one that will surely be a save-of-the-year candidate for the Hawks.

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Sadly, the comeback attempt fell short, as the Blackhawks lost 4–3.

Analysis

The Blackhawks entered this game shorthanded on defense and it showed. Without Jones and Vlasic, the defense relied on youth and inexperience, which contributed to the loss. The recently recalled Wyatt Kaiser finished with a -1 rating and has a welt on his midsection from a blocked shot. Isaak Phillips and Louis Crevier were also in the minus for the game. The Blackhawks were lucky that did not have to play with five defenseman, as Murphy took a shot off his knee in the first period prior to the Peterson tally.

The positives in the game were the third line and the power play. The productive line of Foligno, Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson continued to produce good shifts and was able to score a goal. The team will know on Monday the extent of Anderson’s injury. If Anderson is hurt for an extended period of time, Boris Katchouk would likely be first in line to be recalled from Rockford.

The power play netted two goals today, with Bedard and Kurashev being involved with both goals.

Another encouraging element was the play of Lukas Reichel. After being largely invisible so far this season, Reichel played with some intensity today, and it showed. Hopefully Reichel is able to build off this performance and string together some good games to regain some confidence entering 2024.

As a reminder, this is still the ground floor of the rebuild. This team is very short on talent and has to play a perfect game to have a chance of winning most nights. Despite being outmatched, the team plays hard most nights for head coach Luke Richardson.

The Blackhawks’ next game is Tuesday against the Colorado Avalanche at home with a 7:30 p.m. CST puck drop.

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