Blackhawks Postgame
Blackhawks Preseason Recap: Young Lineup Throttled By Red Wings; Studs & Duds
The Chicago Blackhawks iced an extremely young lineup for their preseason opener against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night. Eight former first-round picks hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena, including Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar, Sam Rinzel, and Artyom Levshunov. There was plenty of excitement ahead of the first preseason game — but that feeling didn’t last very long after puck drop.
New head coach Jeff Blashill’s defensive systems clearly still need additional time to settle in with his young group, as the Blackhawks were outshot 43-17 en route to a 3-2 loss to the Red Wings. The final score doesn’t reflect how dominant Detroit was for the majority of the contest.
Let’s dive into the recap, highlights, and the best & worst players.
HAWKS’ SPEED EVIDENT EARLY
The opening ten minutes of Tuesday’s game was probably the best stretch of play from the Blackhawks. They played with excellent pace early and looked dangerous on their first few shifts. There was also some great hustle shown to have two icing calls waived off. The young guns were buzzing early on.
Connor Bedard made an impact right from the jump, and he looked much faster on his skates than he did in his first two NHL campaigns. Bedard specifically worked on his skating and speed during his offseason training, and it appears to be paying off. A faster Bedard should be a scary thought for the rest of the league.
The Blackhawks’ 2nd line of Oliver Moore, Frank Nazar, and Aidan Thompson had a noticeable jump in the first period. The trio moved the puck well in the offensive zone, but they tried to get too fancy with their best scoring chances. A learning lesson for three inexperienced players — shoot that biscuit! Good things tend to happen.
RED WINGS STRIKE FIRST
Despite the Blackhawks flying around in the first half of the period, the Red Wings were actually the team that kicked off the scoring with a power-play goal from Carter Mazur.
The Blackhawks worked on special teams for the first time in training camp on Monday, so everything is still pretty fresh. Blashill is implementing a penalty kill system that he utilized with Tampa Bay while serving as an assistant coach, and he specifically mentioned that it will take time to fully settle in with the players. An example of the learning curve occurred on Mazur’s goal, as the defensemen left far too much open space in front of their own net.
BEDARD LIGHTS THE LAMP
With the Blackhawks trailing 1-0 early in the second period, Bedard rifled a one-timer from Rinzel past Red Wings’ goaltender Sebastian Cossa to get his team on the board.
Rinzel was trying to feed Bedard all night on the power play, and I thought the duo showed a strong connection when entering the offensive zone together on the man advantage. Rinzel manning the point on the top power play unit gives Bedard another crucial weapon on the ice to work with.
THE MOMENTUM SHIFT
Less than two minutes after Bedard’s game-tying goal, the Red Wings responded right back to regain the lead. Nate Danielson redirected a shot from the point up over Soderblom’s shoulder to put the Red Wings ahead 2-1.
The quick answer by Detroit felt like the turning point in the game, as they went on to outshoot the Blackhawks 17-5 in the second period — and 31-9 over the final 40 minutes. The early energy and intensity suddenly withered away from that point on, and then fatigue and poor execution took over.
The Blackhawks were stuck in their own end for most of the second and third periods, with little to no answers for the Red Wings’ pressure and puck-hounding. They registered a measly four shots on goal in the final frame.
KAISER PROVIDES LATE LIFE
One of those four shots in the third period came off the stick of Wyatt Kaiser, who tied the game 2-2 with a beautiful shot into the top corner.
Thompson showed tremendous poise and patience to get the puck over to Kaiser while skating down the slot.
DETROIT ANSWERS AGAIN
Even though the Blackhawks managed to tie the game, the Red Wings coming away with the win almost felt inevitable, given the way the third period was trending. Elite goaltending could only keep them alive for so long, and the defensive-zone blunders finally caught up with them on Emmitt Finnie’s game-winning goal.
Blackhawks Studs
Connor Bedard
Bedard was the best skater on the ice for Chicago, as he made several quality passes to set up his linemates for chances and scored his first goal of the preseason. The 2023 No. 1 overall pick also won 7 of his 10 faceoff attempts, which is an area he’s struggled in his young career.
Arvid Soderblom
Soderblom was the sole reason why this was only a one-goal victory for the Red Wings. The 26-year-old Swedish netminder stopped 40 of the 43 shots that he faced, including 29 of 31 in the final two periods. His post-to-post movements were excellent all night. Soderblom was one of the few Blackhawks who made the most of their opportunity on Tuesday.
Sam Rinzel
Saying Rinzel was the best defenseman for the Blackhawks in this game isn’t too much of a compliment, but it’s still true. The 6-foot-4 blueliner looks noticeably thicker than he did in his first NHL action late last year, as he bulked up over the summer and gained 17 pounds. Rinzel’s skating and top speed always stand out, but I thought he fared well in board battles and in the dirty areas tonight. It was also nice to see him pick up his first point of the preseason.
Blackhawks Duds
Lukas Reichel
Reichel received a major opportunity on the top line with Bedard, and he didn’t really do anything with it. After having a great scoring chance in the opening minutes of the first period, Reichel was hard to notice for the rest of the game. With Blashill calling this a “make-or-break” training camp for the 2020 first-round pick, a strong performance against the Red Wings would have gone a long way. Reichel finished with just one shot on goal in 14:17 of ice time.
Kevin Korchinski
With the ascension of Rinzel, Kaiser, and Levshunov in the Blackhawks’ prospect pool, the shine around Korchinski isn’t quite what it was when he was selected seventh overall in the 2022 NHL Draft. Part of that is also because of Korchinski’s struggles in the NHL during his first two professional seasons. He’s still only 21 years old, but it’s time for him to make real progress.
By no means was Korchinski horrible against Detroit, but he also didn’t stand out in any manner. He finished the game with one shot on goal, and the Red Wings had a 9-1 advantage in scoring chances at 5v5 when he was on the ice.
Artyom Levshunov
Calling Levshunov’s performance a dud might be a bit harsh, but he was all over the place on Tuesday. He had a couple of clear breakdowns and made some bad decisions, leading to scoring chances for the Red Wings. Levshunov did make up for it with a nifty end-to-end rush that led to Kaiser’s game-tying goal, but he needs to tighten up his play if he wants to make the NHL roster.
Up Next
The Blackhawks are back in action for their second preseason game on Saturday, September 27th, against the St. Louis Blues. The game is scheduled for 6:00 pm CT at Enterprise Arena in St. Louis and will be televised on CHSN.
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