Going 1-2 on opening road trip not an awful start for Blackhawks

Colorado to Las Vegas in less than a day and then from Las Vegas to San Jose in less than two. One Stanley Cup favorite, another one of the best teams so far in this young season, and one bad team. That's not an easy road trip, especially as the first three games of the year.

But taking everything into consideration for the Blackhawks - the forlorn Blackhawks - the road trip wasn't all that bad.

And now, with five days until their home opener this Friday night, they have time to recollect and review their trip out west.

Their first stop was in Denver. The home team raised a giant banner that celebrated their accomplishments from last year, and then they continued to demonstrate their unbridled enthusiasm by cleaning the ice with the Blackhawks' penalty kill, going 4-for-6 on the power play.

After losing 5-2, the team scurried out of Ball Arena and sped off to Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights awaited their home opener at T-Mobile Arena. The Blackhawks were outshot 37-27, but Alex Stalock, in his second NHL appearance in two years, put on a pretty impressive show in his team's 1-0 loss.

And so the team traveled to California to flush out their problems.

The Hawks went down 2-0, looked an 0-3 season start square in the eyes, and decided that it wasn't for them, as they rattled 5 goals off in a row, 2 of which came from short-handed Sam Lafferty.

Now they are in home, sweet home, Chicago with several days until their United Center debut against the Red Wings.

"Now we can slow it down a bit, make sure we really get things crystal clear," said head coach Luke Richardson of the short break in between games."

Three games into the season, it's hard to take any sort of statistic too seriously. The Blackhawks are 28th in penalty kill percentage (66.7%) but lead the league in short-handed goals (2). Every power play goal they've allowed came in a single contest against Colorado, and every short-handed goal has been scored by Sam Lafferty in one game against the Sharks. The kill looked bad in one game and good in the other two.

Additionally, in a season where the Blackhawks are trying to measure themselves against the worst of the worst, playing the Stanley Cup favorites in the first game of the season isn't going to reveal much.

Five-on-five play has been a bit deficient. The Hawks have been outshot in every game, and Jonathan Toews scored their first even-strength goal in the second period of their third game. The Hawks' power play (2-for-7) needs work, and Seth Jones is playing so many minutes (25:24 per game). Richardson said he wants to use this week's practices to focus on defensive zone coverage, forechecking, playing faster in the neutral zone, and special teams.

The Red Wings are a middle-of-the-pack kind of team this year, and Friday night's game will be a little bit more telling of where this Blackhawks team is at.