Blackhawks Drop Franchise Tying 19th Straight Road Loss

The Chicago Blackhawks played the Edmonton Oilers tough again but like their game just over two weeks ago, they fell just short again. The Oilers won their 15th straight with a 3-0 win over the Blackhawks tonight, which tied a franchise record 19th consecutive road loss.

The hard part is that Chicago again kept Edmonton at bay and even saw a penalty shot for Mackenzie Entwistle. But as written in yesterday’s wrap and the preview, the Blackhawks have little margin for error simply because they lack the depth and skill to compete with the Oilers of the league.

So a loss a penalty to Nick Foligno–which the former disagreed with–led to a Connor McDavid goal and later in third period, it was McDavid finding Zach Hyman to pot Edmonton’s insurance goal. McDavid would ice it with an empty netter and that’s all she wrote.

Blackhawks, Mrazek Do What They Can

The Oilers, similar to their performance in Chicago, weren’t as sharp as normal but the McDavid effect did more to carry them as the game went on. Petr Mrazek played as he has all season long–strong and keeping Chicago in as long as he could. Mrazek would finish with 31 saves.

But the history of 19 straight road losses speaks again to where the Blackhawks are in the rebuild cycle. A season ravaged by injury, without generational talent Connor Bedard now for two weeks, and missing the top end talent needed to score goals has made wins tough to come by.

But there’s still a stick tap or two for a team that few give a chance to night in and night out and yet they’re still playing teams hard and giving themselves a chance every night.

It was there against Edmonton Thursday night just like it was before. But as has been the story often this season, they’re just a few goals short once again.