Blackhawks let one get away late
It wasn’t enough that the Blackhawks got something out of Saturday night’s 5-4 shootout loss to Colorado.
Despite picking up the 1 point in the standings in a game they once trailed 3-1, this was one the Hawks should have pocketed in regulation.
A fourth defensive breakdown by coach Joel Quenneville’s count let Avs impressive rookie Gabriel Landeskog score the tying goal with 1:48 to play in the third period.
Landeskog was somehow left alone in front of the net to beat Corey Crawford.
“We just had an unfortunate bounce at the blue line and they capitalized,” said Hawks defenseman Nick Leddy, who appeared to be out of position while partner Duncan Keith chased the puck.
“We feel like we should have won that game,” Leddy said. “It was just a tough bounce.”
Quenneville didn’t want to hear anything about a bad bounce on the tying goal.
“Bad bounce? No, bad play by us,” said Quenneville, who felt his team basically gave the Avalanche all 4 of its goals in regulation.
“We gave them 4 goals,” Quenneville said. “All 4 goals are cardinal sins how we defend, or how we play situations and plays. They all led to their goals. All the plays we talk about daily and how we play, we played them all poorly.
“Every goal was directly our responsibility. We know how we have to play those situations. We can’t serve them up like we did tonight.”
The Hawks did have a golden opportunity to win in overtime with a 4-on-3 power play for the first 1:57, but they failed to capitalize despite starting the extra period with four forwards on the ice in Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa.
“We’ve got to score on that power play in overtime,” Kane said.
The Hawks went 0-for-3 in the shootout against Avs goalie Semyon Varlamov with Viktor Stalberg, Toews and Kane missing, in that order as Quenneville shook things up and used Stalberg leading off.
That’s 0-for-6 in 2 shootout losses for the Hawks, who also were blanked last weekend by Boston and goalie Tim Thomas. Quenneville hinted he might shake things up even more the next time the Hawks are in a shootout.
“I don’t like our approach,” Quenneville said. “We’ve got to do something different.”
Toews and Kane are 0-for-2 in the 2 shootout losses. “It’s something we need to be better at,” Kane said. “It’s something I need to be better at.”
It didn’t look good for the Hawks when they went down 3-1 at 13:25 of the second period, but a power-play goal by Toews in the final minute and a goal by Jamal Mayers from the fourth line early in the third tied it.
Mayers’ goal went in off a Colorado skate and came after a great rush up the ice by Leddy.
Marian Hossa’s goal with 5:27 to play brought the Hawks all the way back into the lead.
“It was nice to tie it up and take the lead, but it’s tough to give one away, especially when you’re up that late,” Kane said.
tsassone@dailyherald.com