Corey Crawford gets pulled in the first period and the Blackhawks drop their second straight on the road, 4-1 to the resurgent New Jersey Devils.
I should’ve known better than to volunteer to give Gatekeeper a night off from recaps. So where to start?
Well, how about a first period that was basically disastrous.
Not 3 minutes into the game, Brian Boyle blasted a puck past Corey Crawford, after not one, but two egregious pizza deliveries. The first, by Gustav Forsling, and the second by Richard Panik—right onto Boyle’s blade.
About 7 minutes later, and for the second straight game, the Hawks cleanly lost a defensive zone draw on the penalty kill, without Jonathan Toews on the ice—leading to an opponent goal—this one by New Jersey’s Kyle Palmieri. 2-0.
Finally, at 13:22, Crawford gave up his third goal on 4 shots, when Pavel Zacha was left inexplicably untouched in the slot for what seemed like eons, where a teammate found him for an easy one-timer.
That was it for Crawford, who you really couldn’t blame for any of the goals.
Anton Forsberg went the rest of the way for the Hawks, giving up one goal on a Taylor Hall breakaway—otherwise solid, stopping 20 New Jersey shots.
The Hawks came out flying in the second period, putting 22 shots on New Jersey goalie Cory Schneider. One, a wicked Patrick Kane wrister through a New Jersey defender screen, went in. Congrats to Kane on his 300th NHL goal.
The Hawks generated some decent chances in this period, but Schneider, a quality NHL goaltender, was up to the task. In total, Chicago had 41 shots in the game, but many were from the perimeter, at bad angles, or without any net front presence.
Hall got his goal in the third, basically faking Forsberg out of his jock. But the young Swede netminder did redeem himself with a nice save on a Jesper Bratt penalty shot. And overall, Forsberg was good when tested.
So, how do you unpack this game and the state of this team?
Plain and simple, after steady improvement over the previous five games, the Blackhawks are struggling yet again to score and seem to be struggling to get out of their end. The Devils forechecked the Hawks hard and created opportunities off it, especially their first goal, aided and abetted by the aforementioned bonehead turnovers,
New Jersey also blocked a ton of shots. Full marks to the Devils. They disrupted the Hawks’ zone exits, protected their own house, and had Chicago on their heels at key moments. All things the Hawks mostly failed to do in turn.
The Hawks had some extended offensive zone possession and generated chances off it—especially with the Kane line. No big surprise there. But aside from Brandon Saad and Artem Anisimov, the Hawks didn’t do much business around Schneider.
Jonathan Toews was, yet again, average.
Panik spent a lot of the night on his backside and out on the perimeter.
Alex DeBrincat got his lightning quick shot off on a few occasions, but he is learning that NHL goalies are not as easily fooled as 18 year olds in the OHL on shots from 30 feet out.
Patrick Sharp is giving effort every shift. He’s just—as Eddie Olczyk clearly pointed out on WGN after the first period—basically done as a meaningful NHL player.
Other than that, more meh.
The fourth line guys are mixing it up and finishing checks. Jordan Oesterle continues to draw raves for his speed, passing and instincts in the offensive zone, but he has his struggles in the defensive end.
There’s no easy answer or quick fix when a number of players are underperforming—including one who locks up 10-15% of your cap commitment in Toews. Still, this looks like a team that needs a shake-up of some kind.
It’s easy to blame Quenneville for sending two mediocre to awful faceoff guys out on the penalty kill for two games straight. But Toews can’t take every key draw in every situation. And neither would-be centers Vince Hinostroza or Ryan Hartman (22% on the night, centering the third line) are any better.
Does adding a strong, defensive depth center cure what ails this team right now? Not entirely, but a change in chemistry might.
Sharp proved yet again tonight, after drawing back into the lineup with Toews and Saad, he’s not an answer anymore. And if Quenneville, with the skins he has on his wall, feels Sharp is worth experimenting with versus other pieces (Hinostroza, last week’s “answer”) he has, what does that say?
Q’s (suddenly, after 3 Cups) an idiot—or Q doesn’t have as much to work with anymore?
More is certain to be revealed when the Hawks next take the ice 5 days from now in Vancouver.
All for now.
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