Blackhawks Postgame
Blackhawks Losing Streak Reaches Three Games With 3-1 Loss To Seattle
The Chicago Blackhawks remain winless on their current six-game road trip after a 3-1 loss to the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Monday night. The Blackhawks have now dropped three consecutive games and four of their last five to fall to 5-5-3 on the season.
Joey Daccord was the difference maker in between the pipes for the Kraken on Monday, as the Blackhawks led 30-24 in shots on goal and 36-22 in scoring chances in the contest. Daccord, who moved to 5-1-0 in his career against the Blackhawks with the win, continues to have their number, as he stopped 29 of the 30 shots that were fired on cage by the visitors.
The Kraken defenders also deserve plenty of credit for helping their team earn two points, as they blocked 19 shots on the night and prevented several chances from getting on net, specifically when the Blackhawks had a man advantage. There were also times when Chicago completely missed the net with a prime scoring opportunity.
Despite their excess of offensive zone time, the Blackhawks only managed to turn one of their 65 shot attempts into a goal against Seattle. Since a seven-goal outpour against the Ottawa Senators last Tuesday, they’ve now been held to just six goals over their past three games.
“I think we have better in us,” head coach Jeff Blashill said after the game. “You’ve got to really earn your offense. Sometimes you need some ugly ones, and we just didn’t get quite enough pucks through.”
After a scoreless first period, Seattle potted the essential opening goal, as Jamie Oleksiak’s shot from the blue line snuck through traffic and past Arvid Soderblom to make it 1-0. Neither the Blackhawks nor the Kraken has picked up a win this season when their opponent has scored first. That trend continued for the Hawks on Monday.
Seattle went on to double their lead in the middle frame, as Jordan Eberle set up Matty Beniers for a power-play goal to put the Blackhawks behind by a pair. After Wyatt Kaiser jumped up aggressively to cover the right point, the rest of the penalty kill failed to properly respond in coverage, leading to far too much time and space for Beniers to operate.
The Blackhawks went into the second intermission down 2-0, and they didn’t get on the board until less than ten minutes were remaining in the third period. Connor Bedard made an incredible play on a chip and chase to set up former Kraken forward Andre Burakovsky in his first game back in Seattle since getting traded this past summer.
Bedard extended his point streak to five games with the primary assist, now giving him a team-leading 16 points (6G, 10A) through 13 games this season. Burakovsky also extended his own point streak to four games and has found the back of the net in three consecutive outings. The Swedish forward is up to ten points (4G, 6A) in 12 games on the year.
The Blackhawks’ late-game comeback hopes wouldn’t last for very long, as Jordan Eberle responded less than five minutes later to put the Kraken back ahead by two and seal the victory. Frank Nazar committed a brutal turnover in the neutral zone that led to a 2-on-1 rush, with Eberle putting the puck past Soderblom for the insurance tally.
“There’s a lot of burden on [Frank’s] shoulders for a guy who hasn’t played a lot,” Blashill said on Nazar’s sub-par performance, as he’s been held off the scoresheet for three games in a row. “For us to expect him to be on top of his game every single night is probably not realistic. It’s the same for a lot of our guys, there’s going to be ups and downs.”
The ups and downs have already been apparent in the Blackhawks’ first 13 games of the season, as they’ve gone through a stretch with four wins in five games, and now another with four losses in five games.
“We’ve got to collectively make sure we have more ups than downs,” Blashill said. “Tonight, it was too spread throughout the team. We didn’t have enough guys who had their A-game.”
The Arty Party Rolls On
One player who brought their A-game to Seattle was Artyom Levshunov, as he continues to get better and better seemingly with each passing game. Levshunov moved the puck well in the offensive zone and is clearly getting more confident in his abilities. He and Wyatt Kaiser were the two best defensemen for the Blackhawks on Monday. Levshunov has now been in that conversation for the last two or three games.
Levshunov’s performance wasn’t fully mistake-free, as he committed three giveaways in his 19:09 of ice time. But I thought Levshunov did a remarkable job of recovering during those sequences to prevent a dangerous opportunity from going in the other direction. An example of that occurred after he made a poor decision to pinch in the offensive zone, but he made up for it by chasing down Kraken forward Ryan Winterton to disrupt a breakaway chance.
With Levshunov on the ice at even strength, the Blackhawks led 21-7 in shot attempts, 12-7 in shots on goal, 16-5 in scoring chances, and 7-3 in high-danger chances. Levshunov had a 75.54 expected goals for percentage, which led all of Chicago’s defensemen on Monday.
Moore Races Out The Gates in Debut
After being recalled from Rockford earlier in the afternoon, Oliver Moore jumped into the lineup and made his season debut in Seattle. The 2023 first-round pick (No. 19 overall) was slotted on the third line along with Ryan Donato and Ilya Mikheyev against the Kraken.
Moore’s first NHL appearance of the year got off to an electric start, as he was buzzing all over the ice in the first period. The speedy forward had a couple of chances to get on the board early, as he crashed the net with purpose and nearly got rewarded a few times.
After 20 minutes, Moore recorded a team-high four shot attempts, had two shots on goal, and was credited with two individual high-danger chances in just over five minutes of ice time.
But Moore’s swift start sadly faded as the game wore on, and he didn’t make much of an impact over the final 40 minutes. The 20-year-old forward finished the game with a minus-two rating, three shots on goal, one hit, and one blocked shot in 16:29 of ice time.
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