Lyle Odelein came from Columbus on a trade-winds gust and fellow defenseman Joe Reekie came back after 15 games on the injured list with a broken right foot.
But despite getting big and tough reinforcements, the Blackhawks couldn’t find a way to win Wednesday night for the sixth straight game, losing 3-1 to New Jersey at the United Center.
“They’ve gone to the Stanley Cup finals for the last two years for a reason,” Hawks coach Brian Sutter said. “They played a textbook game. You had to stand back and admire what they were doing but I sure as heck didn’t like what I saw on the other end. They made us look bad in a lot of situations.
The loss–which followed three straight ties–left the Hawks with an 0-3-3 record to show for their last six outings. They remain fourth in the Western Conference but are only two points ahead of the fifth-place Los Angeles Kings, who play host to Colorado on Thursday night.
Compounding the defeat was a shoulder injury to Hawks second-line right wing Steve Sullivan. He went down after taking an elbow from Sergei Brylin at 13:23 of the second period.
Devils defenseman defenseman Colin White opened the scoring about five minutes into the game with a shot from beyond the left circle through heavy traffic.
The Devils increased their lead to 2-0 at 2:34 of the second period when John Madden moved to the front of the net and scored on a rebound shot.
Sutter decided to take action. He took out goaltender Jocelyn Thibault and put in Steve Passmore.
“I didn’t pull Jocelyn because he wasn’t stopping the puck,” said Sutter. “I changed goalies to try to shake things up.”
Canadian Olympian Martin Brodeur got a rare night off from New Jersey coach Kevin Constantine and his understudy, 38-year-old John Vanbiesbrouck, got the start.
Vanbiesbrouck’s bid for the 41st shutout of his career ended at 10:25 of the second period. Alex Zhamnov started and ended the perfectly choreographed scoring play. Zhamnov came up with the puck in the New Jersey end, passed it to Tony Amonte and stayed on the move. Kyle Calder rushed the net on the left side and Amonte sent him the puck from beyond the right circle. An instant after the puck touched Calder’s stick he slid it across the goal mouth to Zhamnov, who tucked it into the right corner of the net.
