Blackhawks Drop 7th Straight in Pat Maroon’s Final Game in Hometown

The Chicago Blackhawks knew they needed to play with urgency against the St. Louis Blues today as they entered the game in the Western Conference’s final Wild Card spot. They matched them stride for stride for nearly two periods before St. Louis took advantage of momentary lapses. So, a fairly typical game where it feels that every mistake ended up in the back of their net.

The most eventful moment of the opening period came at the 15:03 mark when Jake Neighbours sent defenseman Alec Martinez face-first into the end boards. Jason Dickinson immediately responded by dropping the gloves.

Somehow, the Blues got a power play out of this, and Dickinson had to sit for 17 minutes thanks to getting the instigator minor and 10-minute misconduct that comes with it. There was no penalty called on the original hit, which is mind-blowing. Martinez had his back turned to Neighbours the whole time, and he extended his arm to drive him into the boards. How is that not a penalty? To make matters worse, neither Martinez nor Dickinson returned to the game.

The Blues broke the scoreless tie late in the second period on a flukey play. For a brief moment, it looked like a badminton game broke out as two Blues batted the puck upwards before Robert Thomas swatted it in. Two minutes later, Alexey Toropchenko took advantage of a turnover and a bad change to score an easy goal and double the Blues’ lead.

It felt that things would unravel when Tyler Bertuzzi took a tripping penalty just over a minute later. However, the Blackhawks used the ensuing penalty kill to get some momentum. Ilya Mikheyev scored his second shorthanded goal of the season.

Moments later, Landon Slaggert and Frank Nazar nearly tied the game with another prime shorthanded chance, but Joel Hofer came up with the stop.

In typical fashion, the Blackhawks could not carry the momentum into the third period. The Blues’ fourth line struck again, this time with Toropchenko finding Nathan Walker at the side of the net for the goal. Six minutes later, Zack Bolduc put home an Arvid Soderblom rebound to make it 4-1.

Ryan Donato Leads the Way

The lines were shuffled throughout the game, with the Blackhawks down a forward for all but 15 minutes today. According to Natural Stat Trick, interim head coach Anders Sorensen used eight line combinations at 5v5. Ryan Donato played on two different lines and was terrific, no matter who was on the ice with him.

He spent most of the day on the third line with Tyler Bertuzzi and Joe Veleno while getting some shifts on the top line with Frank Nazar and Connor Bedard. In 2:52 of ice time, that line had 10 shot attempts to just one for the Blues when Donato was on it.

The Blackhawks had a 21-17 lead in shot attempts during Donato’s 17:01 of 5v5 ice time. They outshot the Blues 11-5 and had an 11-9 advantage in scoring chances. Unfortunately, the Blues outscored the Blackhawks 1-0 with Donato on the ice, and at the end of the day, that’s the only stat that matters.

In the period, Donato was slashed by Cam Fowler on a scoring chance, but no call was made despite the referee looking right at the play. He let out his frustration on his way to the bench. It’s incredible how Bedard got an “abuse of officials” misconduct penalty for barely saying anything, while Donato got nothing for this. NHL officials are a strange breed.

I’ve written about this before, but these are the situations where Sorensen needs to fight for his team. Between this and the Dickinson/Martinez sequence, he needs to work the officials more. I know he’s not an overly emotional guy, but I’ve heard him yell at the players. Put some of that energy into the officials when things aren’t going your way. This has been absent from the Blackhawks bench for a long time. You don’t need to scream and yell after every play but stick up for your team when it’s getting screwed by the guys in stripes.

Pat Maroon is Ready for a New Chapter

With the elbow injury to Colton Dach, Pat Maroon was back in the lineup for the Blackhawks today. It was his 840^th NHL game and now his final in his hometown of St. Louis. During the pregame skate, Maroon chatted with CHSN analyst and good friend Darren Pang and, essentially, announced his retirement.

Maroon has a love/hate relationship with Blackhawks fans. Those who only look at the stats don’t know why he plays as much as he does. His four goals and 16 points in 59 games don’t jump off the page, but the three-time Stanley Cup champion brings much more to this team than points. There is no doubt that Maroon cares. Whether dropping the gloves, talking trash, or giving advice, his teammates respect and adore him.

Maroon had an eventful final game in his hometown. He had a prime scoring chance late in the first period before getting into a scrap with Tyler Tucker in the third.

Maroon was named the Number One Star of the Game in a very cool moment by the Blues, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

The Blackhawks will have a quick turnaround, as they will host the Philadelphia Flyers at 2 pm tomorrow.