After falling to the Washington Capitals at home, the Chicago Blackhawks took to the road on Tuesday against the Edmonton Oilers. In a highly anticipated Connor Bedard vs. Connor McDavid matchup, the Hawks team came in shorthanded. Seth Jones did not make the trip due to injury and Kevin Korchinski is still away from the team for personal reasons.
Blackhawks lines in warmups vs. Oilers are all switched up:
Donato-Bedard-Kurashev
Beauviller-TJohnson-Raddysh
Foligno-Dickinson-Anderson
Reichel-Guttman-EntwistleVlasic-Crevier
Phillips-Murphy
Roos-ZaitsevMrazek
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) December 13, 2023
First period
Both teams were flying high out of the gate. Bedard got the scoring started with a nasty wrister to put Chicago up 1–0.
Ridiculous shot by Connor Bedard. Wow. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/S1CcYVk9NX
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 13, 2023
Not to be undone, McDavid got the Oilers on the board with a beautiful pass to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for the Edmonton goal. The Oilers added another goal from Blackhawks killer Sam Gagner. Gagner got a pass of the boards that he put past Petr Mrazek. The first period ended with the Blackhawks down 2–1 to Edmonton.
Second period
In the second period, the Blackhawks were outshooting Edmonton and playing really solid defense. The momentum shifted when Nikita Zaitsev deflected a pass into his own net. It is already tough on the Blackhawks’ goalies with the team’s defensive struggles; now they have to worry about errant deflections from their own defensemen. Leon Draisaitl was credited with the goal for Edmonton. The second period ended with Edmonton a power play.
Third period
The third period began with the Edmonton still on the power play. Zach Hyman scored, with McDavid recording his second assist of the game.
The final score was 4–1 Edmonton.
Analysis
With Bedard getting the first goal of the game, it was his 12th goal of the season. When the spotlight shines on Bedard, he appears to burn that much brighter. This game also shows the talent inequalities on the Hawks. Edmonton is a very talented offensive team that struggled to start the year; the Hawks have Bedard and that’s it.
While Bedard continued to show why he is an all-world talent, Lukas Reichel continued to trend downward. After being benched for one game, Reichel was brought back into the lineup on the fourth line, where he has produced absolutely nothing. Reichel looked to an NHL regular after his stretch at the NHL last season; this season he appears to be a fringe NHL guy, at best. After two periods of play, Reichel had played less than six minutes. For the game, Reichel played a season-low 8:54. While “we” at The Rink suggest that Reichel might be sent to Rockford, Ben Pope of the Sun-Times believes that it is unlikely.
The Hawks were outclassed by a more talented team.
The Blackhawks travel to Washington to take on the Seattle Kraken on Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 9 p.m. CST.
