Blackhawks Locker Room Talk
Blackhawks Locker Room: ‘A little bit of Complacency”
CHICAGO – It was almost different. The Chicago Blackhawks looked like they were on their way to a 3-0 win midway through the second period till a Teuvo Teravainen goal was taken off the board from an offside review.
Instead of running away with the game, the Predators came back turning a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 regulation win thanks to goals from Filip Fosberg, Gustav Nyquist and Brady Skjei.
Following yet another loss, Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy spoke of the moment shift following the Teravainen overturned goal.
“Yeah it shifted, but I don’t know if that was the reason,” Murphy said. “There were just lapses. We lost our momentum and our jump. That’s lulls in the games that’ll happen, and unfortunately we let it slip too far away.”
The Blackhawks finally got the start they were looking for. Early in the game, Craig Smith scored off a great pass from Lukas Reichel. The Blackhawks registered 13 shots on goal in the first, with ten in the first ten minutes of the game.
In the second period, the Hawks came out flying again, a Connor Bedard goal assisted by Vlasic and Murphy gave the team a 2-0 lead with 14 minutes to go in the second period.
The Blackhawks had three second period power plays, and failed to capitalize on any of them. The Preds also scored a short handed goal in the second period.
“It’s hard to give up special teams in general,” said Murphy. “You want to come out on top of that every night. It’s a big part of the NHL. But we had plenty other power plays and we had penalty kills to shut them down, but we didn’t score and then we also gave up one. There’s more to the game than just giving up that one goal.”
Murphy played tonight with Alex Vlasic for the most part. The two have built up some chemistry, both assisting on Bedard’s goal. Vlasic had a great pass to Bedard in the slot.
“That’s something we’re trying to implement a little bit in our game, just shoot pucks and be ready to capitalize on those rebounds,” Vlasic said. “Kind of turned my head to the middle and saw [Bedard] standing wide open, so I just kind of threw it to him and he made a nice little one-timer.”
In a limited time, Murphy has seen just how good Vlasic can be offensively.
“He’s on the power play for a reason,” Murphy said. “He’s got ability and made a beautiful pass on the goal tonight. To be able to be a two-way player like that is really important.”
Vlasic spoke of the mindset the Hawks might have struggled with after going up two goals midway through the game.
“A little bit of complacency,” he said. “You get a 2–0 lead and sometimes you kind of expect that things are going to continue to go your way. And when you play a good team that’s older, they know how to play the game, they’re going to be able to bounce back from those mistakes that they make and then they’re going to be able to try to turn the tables in their favor.”
Reichel had a great assist on Craig Smith’s opening goal of the game.
Craig Smith ‼️ 🚨 and congrats to Nolan Allan on his first NHL point! pic.twitter.com/9zKVVJ0Zhq
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) October 26, 2024
Reichel spent some time playing with Bedard and Teravainen, even in the third period of a close game. After the loss, Richardson spoke positively of Reichel’s performance.
“Thought he gave us the speed that we wanted early in the game,” said Richardson. “And tried to get him on the power play, a real nice shot off the side, and he made some good plays today. And he tracked hard defensively. So definitely another step forward for him.”
Reichel finished the night with over 14 minutes of ice time, the most he has had this season.
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