The Chicago Blackhawks have an embarrassing history against the Minnesota Wild, but they almost got themselves beat on Sunday at the United Center.
He had one shot on goal in the first period, and at one moment in the second period the Wild had that many goals on the board and the Hawks had shots: three.
But then the Hawks came alive in the third period.
Seth Jones picked up where he left off after missing Friday’s Tampa Bay game due to illness.
The Hawks defenseman scored a power-play goal from the slot, his second marker in the last three games and fifth consecutive game with a point.
It was Connor Bedard’s seventh assist of the month, including on three goals.
Four minutes and 20 seconds later, Frank Nazar grabbed Ethan Del Mastro’s rebound and wristed it in to pull the Hawks within a goal.
Nazar continued to have modest returns in his first 16 games, but is now riding a four-game point streak, including goals in back-to-back games.
But the rally ended here.
The Hawks were unable to find the equalizer despite two more power plays. And Marcus Foligno ended the threat with an empty-netter with 1 minute, 42 seconds remaining.
With a 4–2 loss in the series finale, the Hawks’ all-time record against their Central Division rival fell to 34–44–1–13.
In fact, according to NHL Stats, the Wild extended their point streak against the Hawks to 16 games (15-0-1) as of February 4, 2020. Currently only the Boston Bruins have such a long run against an opponent: 15–0–1 vs. the Montreal Canadiens.
Simply put, he owns the Wild Hawks.
When Aaron Rodgers was with the Green Bay Packers, he owned a box suite in the Bears Manassas.
“This is another game where we didn’t perform well,” Tyler Bertuzzi said. “We tried late, but it is difficult to come back after three goals in this league, especially in the third period.
“Obviously we tried, but it wasn’t good enough.”
Here are three things related to loss.
1. You only get one shot…
NHL Stats & Information maintains shot-by-period data from the 1965–66 season. In that time, there were 32 instances in which the Hawks were stopped for a shot on goal in a regulation period (not including overtime).
And for the first time, it happened to the Hawks in consecutive periods: Friday’s third period against the Tampa Bay Lightning (17-1) and Sunday’s first period against the Wild (11-1).
The futility against the Wild was impressive: eight missed and nine blocked shots in one frame.
“For whatever reason, they dominated us and we weren’t prepared to fight some of them,” interim coach Anders Sorensen said. We spent too much time in our own zone and when we had opportunities to shoot we missed the net or it was blocked.
Del Mastro added, “I think we came out a little flat; Tough start.”
The only shot on goal came from Philipp Kurashev with 8 minutes, 20 seconds left in the frame. Coincidentally, in the game against Tampa Bay, it was a Bedard wrist shot.
Locked out when an opponent tries to rally in the third period? This is understandable.
Follow up that effort by firing on almost no cylinders to start the next game? This is astonishing.
“We definitely need to increase our shot volume, get more people on net, create opportunities for shots from the point, shots from the side,” Bertuzzi said.
“We have to do much better than this.”
2. Call it the ‘Foligno Flop’.
Or maybe the nickname “Flop-Ino” is better?
If it weren’t so expensive it might be funny.
When Foligno was holding against Kirill Kaprizov, he contorted himself by contorting and flexing his arms to suggest that the wild forward was embellishing to get a “star call” (see: Patrick Mahomes) from the referees. Was, joked Kaprizov.
But Foligno compounded the damage for the Hawks by committing an unsportsmanlike penalty. The Wild took advantage on a four-minute power play with a goal by Joel Eriksson.
A third wild goal before the Hawks go on a two-goal rally? you do the math.
This is a stunning loss of discipline by the captain of a team who in the previous game had preached “how clean we have to play.” We have to be very smart in our understanding and decision making.”
That play may have been funny, but it wasn’t smart.
And Sorensen wasn’t laughing either.
“There’s got to be better, right?” He said.
3. Young players kept moving forward.
Bedard reached 30 assists on Jones’ goal.
Del Mastro recorded his first NHL point while assisting on Nazaré’s goal.
“Obviously had some good moments on goal there,” Sorensen said. “I thought he struggled, got stuck in the D-zone a few times, maybe trying to do too much.”
“Individual accolades don’t mean as much when you’re losing, but it’s definitely nice to get a point,” Del Mastro said.
Landon Slaggert was the latest call-up from the Rockford Sundays, and it looks like this growing collection of IceHog transplants (Del Mastro, Nazar, Nolan Allen, etc.) are building a comfort zone.
“I was talking about it with Panger (TV analyst Darren Pang) earlier. “There are a lot of familiar faces among the people who have come from Rockford that I have seen form relationships over the years,” Del Mastro said.
“They’re playing well,” Bertuzzi said. “They are playing fast. It’s not easy to come up and play really good hockey and they’re doing it. They look like they belong.”