Instant Analysis: Blues Bamboozle Blackhawks 7-5

Apparently, the Grinch is in St. Louis and he’s stealing more than Christmas. But instead of a Santa suit, he donned a Blues sweater and swindled a sure win away from the Chicago Blackhawks.

A day after falling to Montreal, the Blackhawks blew a 5-2 lead and gave up five unanswered in a 7-5 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

After the Blues took a 1-0 lead, the Hawks roared back with three unanswered goals, none bigger than The Michigan buried by Bedard. Chicago held a 3-1, 4-2, and 5-2 lead following that, and let it slip away.

The Hawks had tallies from Bedard, Foligno, Jason Dickinson, and Anthony Beauvillier.

But the Blues then roared back. A pair of power play goals pulled them within a goal and then Jordan Kyrou tied it at five 26 seconds later. Justin Faulk finished Chicago off with a goal with barely two minutes to go in the third.

Kyrou would pot the empty netter.

This one will hurt for awhile–and the Blackhawks have to do some soul searching after saying all the right things–but falling apart and blowing a three-goal lead.

Collapse a Microcosm of the Blackhawks Season

The hard part here is that the Blackhawks had all the momentum following Foligno’s first career short handed goal. And then…they just unraveled. More perplexing, however, was the coverage on the penalty kill. Twice the Blues had a net front presence that was all but alone. First, Brandon Saad redirected a shot. Jake Neighbours also had a ton of time to get another one that pulled St. Louis within a goal. Though the latter wasn’t nearly as much time as the puck had eyes, glancing off Neighbours pants and into the net.

But it’s baffling because all season long the Blackhawks have talked about how they need to answer and play a full sixty minutes. For just over 45 minutes, they hung in there. The collapse happens, though, where this time it’s a three-goal lead wiped out.

John Scott spoke to it postgame that you could just see the momentum shifting on the ice. Should head coach Luke Richardson have used a timeout? That one will be debated.

But instead of a gift for the team and the fans, it was a lump of coal heading into Christmas Eve.