Blackhawks Postgame Chatter: ‘It’s Frustrating–We’ve Put in Some Good Efforts’

CHICAGO – Blackhawks defenseman Jarred Tinordi and the rest of the team thought things were going the right way.

Until they weren’t. After a pair of games where Chicago took teams to overtime, the Hawks suffered a 5-0 beating by Colorado Thursday night where they weren’t able to do much of anything against a team that seized control after two quick goals in the second period.

“It’s frustrating,” Tinordi said of the result. “We’ve put in some good efforts, we’ve been close, we were looking to get over that hump tonight and we didn’t do it.”

Beyond that, Tinordi is no fool as to how the season has gone.

“We haven’t won a ton of hockey games,” Tinordi said. “You do your best to not let that creep in, but that’s what we’re all here to do. That’s what everyone wants to do in this league, is to win. It’s frustrating we don’t get it done.”

Reese Johnson who dropped the gloves after the Hawks were chasing a 3-0 deficit, admitted that frustration was an issue for the Blackhawks as the hole got bigger.

But it also can’t be an excuse the rugged forward explained.

“It’s easy to get frustrated in a game where you’re not winning,” Johnson said.  “But I think those are the times we just got to dig deep and go to work. I think it’s easy to get frustrated, easy to get down on yourself and teammates but at the end of the day no one’s going to catch it, we’re the ones on the ice, and I think in those situations all you’ve got to do is work harder.”

Blackhawks Outplayed Significantly For First Time in a While

Now, they’re in the midst of a five-game losing streak and that fifth loss was punctuated with five goals against. But a pair of overtime losses against playoff teams in Winnipeg and Detroit at least gives the hope that some things are going right.

Thursday night was the opposite of that where the Blackhawks couldn’t do much of anything to get rolling. Once in that hole, well, the Hawks were playing catch up and against Colorado–that won’t go well.

“We gotta go back to how we started the game,” head coach Luke Richardson said. “I thought we started the game well, played well, it’s disappointing at the end of the period to give that one up. Obvoiusly we started chasing the game then, didn’t have the same type of execution defensively against them. Really, that led them to not getting much of our offense going. That just let them go–they’re a great team.”

The result doesn’t come as a suprise then, that the team they were up against is not only a top team in the Central Division, but a Stanley Cup contender, too. In three games now, they’ve been outscored 11-3 with the pair of losses (5-0, 4-0) shutting Chicago’s attack out completely. The 3-2 win back in December was a great push back they would have enjoyed tonight.

But it wasn’t to be. And it’s off to Saturday where they have a shot against a team looking for lottery luck instead of a playoff berth.

“It’s fine getting frustrated, you’ve got to channel that,” Johnson said. “I think we’ve got to maybe address that and move on. Games happen pretty quick in this league, so huge bounce-back game against Columbus.”

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