The Chicago Blackhawks have talked about wasting opportunities, but they completely squandered the recent momentum they gained against the St. Louis Blues, Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes.
Their 5-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets dropped them to 1-9-2, and it feels like a trip back to square one.
For the third time this season, the Hawks let an opponent score in the first minute.
“It’s not good,” Connor Murphy said. “Starts are important to every game and we haven’t done a good enough job with that.”
Said coach Jeremy Colliton: “Tonight was, in most all areas, not the level we needed to win.”
The Jets outshot the Hawks 33-18 — and just how does a team trying to rally get outshot 15-4 in the third period?
It was goaltender Marc-André Fleury’s sixth game in which he has given up at least four goals. The Jets’ 13-1 advantage in high-danger chances, according to naturalstattrick.com, shows the defense is doing him no favors.
“They were able to stretch us out in our zone and protect the puck and hold us off in those 1-on-1 situations,” Colliton said. “We weren’t able to get stops and it wore us down as the game went on.”
Colliton saw no need to peel the paint in the locker room by giving it to an already beaten-down team.
“Tonight, we’ve got to leave this game,” he said. “We’re nowhere close with that effort. I don’t think that’s us. We’ve performed at a much better level than tonight.
“We’ve got to take the day off and regroup and come out flying.”
Here are three takeaways.
1. What’s going to energize this team if not 1-9-2?
The Blackhawks started off looking as if they were playing at half-speed and found themselves down two in the first 3 minutes.
It was a haunting reminder of their first road trip:
At Colorado Avalanche: 4:26, 5:48 (3 total goals in the first period)
At New Jersey Devils: 0:17
At Pittsburgh Penguins: 0:15, 5:33 (4 total goals)
At Winnipeg Jets: 0:46, 2:23
However, they phrase it — “play fast,” “play a full 60,” “ready from puck drop” — players and coaches have preached starting fast and keeping up that energy level.
So how did they come out so flat again?
“There’s not an excuse,” MacKenzie Entwistle said. “We’re coming in here against a big solid team. we’ve got to be ready to start the game. We got out to a 2-0 deficit early, it’s tough come back from a team like that.
“It’s frustrating, we’ve got to start out on time.”
Murphy noted the difference between recognizing the problem and correcting it.
“Just like me sitting here right now talking about things, but to go out there and do it every shift is a different thing,” Murphy said.
Said Colliton: “It’s been hard on the players, the stretch we’ve been going through. We’ve had some good performances we haven’t gotten rewarded for and it weighs on you. There’s no excuse.
“We can’t give ourselves a chance to win when you have the type of performance that we did tonight. But all we can do is move onto the next one and come out with energy and compete level and do a better job.”
2. How much time does Erik Gustafsson have?
Gustafsson had a big moment on defense — yes, defense — when he broke up a 2-on-1 by the Hurricanes Wednesday.
“He was trying to pass it and I was just trying to take away the pass and I like to slide on the 2-on-1s,” Gustafsson. “That time it worked out and we up and scored the 3-1 goal after that. It’s something I have to do more.”
It’s understandable Gustafsson wants to do more.
He has had four assists in 11 games, but while he’s had moments like stopping a two-man rush, later in that same game he picked the wrong time to pinch and Seth Jarvis got by him on a breakaway goal, setting the table for the Canes’ comeback win.
And in Winnipeg Friday night, Kyle Connor easily got around Gustafsson in the neutral zone and notched the Jets’ fourth goal.
To be fair, Seth Jones’ bad position on Paul Stastny and Jake McCabe’s turnover in the neutral zone resulted in Jets goals too, but their positions are secure.
Gustafsson latched onto the Hawks after his professional tryout with the New York Islanders didn’t materialize into a contract. He benefited from having a previous stint in Chicago.
But his margin is thin.
He’s battling to stay on the third pairing, but Riley Stillman, Ian Mitchell and Isaak Phillips have rotated into that group, and Wyatt Kalynuk and Caleb Jones, sidelined by injuries, are waiting in the wings.
“I have to show everything every night,” Gustafsson said. “I haven’t played that well to start the season, but I think I’ve started to play my own game the last four games. I just have to keep going.
“I know the guys who are hurt right now, the want to play, too, so it’s competing to be in the lineup.”
3. Fans had mixed reactions to Chris Vosters and Colby Cohen.
The “Turtleneck Twins” — the nickname the NBC Sports Chicago studio crew was pushing — filled in for Pat Foley and Eddie Olczyk.
Maybe Vosters gave a little too much play-by-play at times, a common critique when radio man John Wiedeman has manned the role, and one Wiedeman admitted himself.
Sometimes you have to let the game breathe, he said, and let the visuals tell the story.
Vosters has a clean delivery and brings a different energy – though his energy doesn’t seem to have a level below “eight.”
Cohen points out some unique analytics without getting lost in the mathematical weeds, but he sometimes paints a rosier picture than there is.
Foley retires after this season, so could we see more of this pairing in the future? Here are some takes from the fans.
“It is like listening to very poor FM DJs doing hockey. Not insightful. No cadence. Boring.”
“I like both of their personalities. I think Vosters specifically is doing a great job. I don’t hate Cohen, but he’s a little too positive. Even when they’re down by four or five goals, he’s still praising the effort. It seems kind of forced at times.”
“Vosters is a young Joe Buck Jr. and straight out of central casting! Great!”
“Cohen is better in the intermission studio. Vosters needs a better goal call, but otherwise he’s OK.”
Here is more game coverage.
The Chicago Blackhawks found themselves down two goals to the Winnipeg Jets in the first 21/2 minutes Friday night and never recovered in a 5-1 loss at Canada Life Centre.
The Hawks fell to 1-9-2. That early-season bugaboo of starting slow and giving up quick goals on the road made a return appearance against the Jets, who outshot the Hawks 33-18.
Paul Stastny caught Seth Jones out of position and scored on Marc-Andre Fleury 46 seconds into the game, and Neal Pionk sniped another goal at the 2-minute, 23-minute mark.
The Jets scored twice before the Hawks got their first shot on goal, and the Hawks had only two cracks at the net in the first seven minutes.
“Right from the start, we weren’t ready to play,” Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton said. “Actually, we had a good first shift but we didn’t finish the shift off, and then it snowballed from there. They get the second one. It’s an uphill battle.”
Dominic Toninato and Kyle Connor scored less than two minutes apart in the second period.
Nikolaj Ehlers took advantage of Calvin de Haan’s bad pass in the neutral zone to take it back the other way and cap the scoring with the Jets’ fifth goal.
With the Hawks still down 2-0, Ryan Carpenter added what would’ve been his second-career power-play goal. But the puck had slightly popped out of the zone before he scored, and after a Jets challenge, the goal was disallowed.
“The disallowed goal, the offside, was a missed opportunity for us,” Colliton said. “But overall, we just weren’t to the level that we expect to be.”
Fleury faced a staggering 13 high-danger chances in the game, per naturalstattrick.com. The Hawks got just one against Eric Comrie, who had 15 saves. Fleury had 28.
MacKenzie Entwistle scored the Hawks’ lone goal, a short-hander Jones set up from behind the net and Entwistle’s first.
“Nice to finally get one, been working hard,” Entwistle said. “I believe it was on the kill, and our kill has been great all year. So it’s definitely nice to get one but not the result we’re looking for.“
The Hawks had just two shots on goal on their two power plays.
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