Boston batters Blackhawks in 6-2 rout
Niklas Hjalmarsson summed it up best after the Blackhawks' stinging 6-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Sunday at the United Center.
During the first period, the Swedish defenseman was drilled in the mid-section by a slapshot from the right point by Zdeno Chara, a 6-foot-9, 255-pound mountain of a defenseman. Chara has one of the hardest shots in the league, and this one sent Hjalmarsson to the ice in agony.
He somehow finished the game and afterward a reporter asked how he was doing.
"I'm doing great," Hjamarsson said. "It's just the loss that hurts."
This one bit the Blackhawks pretty hard. They've lost three in a row and have dropped five of the first seven games on this season-high, eight-game homestand. They fell behind 2-0, cut it to 2-1 on a power-play goal by captain Jonathan Toews with 1.4 seconds left in the first and got blitzed for 4 goals in the second.
After allowing 3 goals Friday in the third period of a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche, the effort and result did not sit well with coach Joel Quenneville.
"That was one of those games where you can't be happy about anything that went on today," Quenneville said. "The first period we're down 2-1. The second period was hard to watch. The third period was just another period. Everything went downhill after our power play to start the second."
That sequence is what turned the game in Boston's favor.
After Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask mistakenly played a puck outside the trapezoid behind the net, he was called for a delay-of-game penalty that led to the power play capped by Toews' goal. Immediately after allowing the goal, Rask swung his goal stuck at the left post and clipped Kris Versteeg in the right arm, sending him to the ice in pain.
Rask drew another penalty for slashing and the Hawks started the second on yet another power play. Instead of drawing momentum from it, they failed to get a scoring chance and yielding two to the shorthanded Bruins. Boston killed off another Hawks power play a couple minutes later and then scored 4 straight goals.
Corey Crawford allowed the first 2 and was pulled after giving up 4 goals on 14 shots. Antti Raanta replaced him and gave up the final 2 goals in the second, making it 6-1 starting the third.
The Bruins went 2-for-4 on power plays and never let their foot off the gas to end a six-game losing streak.
"It's not the way we wanted to start," said Patrick Kane, who assisted on Toews' goal for his 64th point. "We got one back there at the end of the first, but it was an ugly second period and just an ugly game overall. We've got to be way better than that."
Their next opportunity is Tuesday against the Florida Panthers, who are locked in a race with the Bruins for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. It will be another desperate opponent.
"We've got to bear down here," Hjalmarsson said. "When it goes good, it's pretty easy to play and everybody's happy, but when stuff starts to get the other way, that's really when you show your true colors."