Blackhawks lose roller-coaster game on late goal from Oilers' Draisaitl

Once in a while, the United Center puts up a screen on the scoreboard called the Oblivious Cam. Similar to its cousin, the Kiss Cam, it's a way to interact with the fans, except this one is a test to see how inattentive some fans are.

The camera normally pans to a patron who is on their phone with no knowledge of what's going on in the world, and there's a timer on the screen that stops when the unaware fan finally looks up at the scoreboard.

The Blackhawks have not been favored in a single game this season, including four games against non-playoff teams from 2021. Thursday night, the Hawks lost to the Oilers 6-5, who apparently knew they were supposed to win.

Somebody finally looked up.

The Hawks started down 1-0 after a first-period Zach Hyman one-timer set up by Connor McDavid, whose engagement became a reoccurring event Thursday night. A couple minutes later, however, Max Domi (who also kept showing up throughout the night) laced a breakout pass straight to Andreas Athanasiou, who took advantage of an empty Edmonton defense, scoring on the breakaway. Reese Johnson, playing in his second game this year, followed that up with a rebound goal of his own, erasing the 1-goal Oiler lead and taking one of their own.

The second period unraveled just a bit. Thirteen penalties were called, one a double minor. But before anything was enforced, McDavid did a McDavid. Eighteen seconds into the period, he tore into the zone and ripped one past Hawks goalie Alex Stalock.

McDavid's score came before the slew of penalties; the next three in the period came on the power play. Without taking a breath, it went Jonathan Toews, and then McDavid again, and then Domi.

With the game still holding its breath, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a power-play goal in the third, the refs called three more penalties, and McDavid completed his a trick.

Patrick Kane tied it up at 5 goals apiece, and then Leon Draisaitl scored the game-winner for the Oilers with 37.6 seconds left in the game. The United Center finally breathed again, more of a sigh.

The early underdog streak had come to an end, and it turns out the Oilers weren't so oblivious about it.

Johnson to the IR:

Jujhar Kaira saw some good minutes on the second line Thursday against the Oilers and probably will see some more moving forward, as the Blackhawks announced that morning that Tyler Johnson had been placed on injured reserve. Johnson sprained his ankle in Tuesday's game against the Panthers, but Hawks head coach Luke Richardson hopes it won't be too long until they'll have him back.

"All the pictures and everything," Luke Richardson said, "the doctors seemed to think it would be on the shorter end."

Milestones:

Thirteen minutes into the first period, first-year Blackhawk Athanasiou recorded his 200th career point with his breakaway goal, and Kane moved into fifth-place all-time for assists (755, shared with Doug Weight) among American-born skaters. It was Athanasiou's fourth point and Kane's fifth assist of the season.