Slow start leads to another Hawks loss
Despite an avalanche of losses that could have buried their morale, the Blackhawks have done an admirable job this season of keeping their cool while the cameras are rolling.
For the most part.
That wasn't the case during Thursday's 5-0 drubbing administered by Colorado at the United Center as:
∎ Goalie Petr Mrazek screamed at defenseman Jaycob Megna after Ross Colton gave the Avs a 2-0 lead at 6:56 of the second period; and
∎ Reese Johnson yelled, “Let's (bleeping) go!” to the bench after fighting Chris Wagner midway through the second;
Johnson, a role player who has fought four times in 39 appearances, knows this kind of inner sniping can poison a locker room.
“That's definitely something that can't happen,” Johnson said. “It's fine getting frustrated. You've got to channel that. We've got to maybe address that and move on.”
Said D-man Jarred Tinordi: “You try and keep (emotions) in check. Let's be honest here: We haven't won a ton of hockey games. You do your best to not let that creep in, but … everyone wants to (win) in this league.”
The Hawks had an excellent chance to do that Saturday against Columbus, which had dropped 13 of its previous 19 games.
Instead, they fell all over themselves.
Again.
The Blue Jackets scored 33 seconds in after Seth Jones mishandled the puck in front of his own net. Alexandre Texier swooped in and rifled home a shot past goalie Arvid Soderblom.
Not much went right after that, and Columbus went on to a relatively easy 5-2 victory.
“We just played really slow,” coach Luke Richardson said. “We kept turning pucks back and they kept coming at us. It was kind of a bad combination.”
Richardson, who often spins a positive light during postgame press conferences, did so once again by talking about how happy he is with how hard the Hawks have competed over the last month.
While that's basically true, the losing is taking a toll.
“It's really frustrating,” said forward Philipp Kurashev, who scored off a feed from Connor Bedard at 17:32 of the second period to trim Columbus' lead to 2-1. “Losing sucks, especially when you play bad and you kind of deserve to lose.”
Ryan Donato scored the Hawks' other goal at 6:18 of the third. It snapped his 26-game drought but came with the Hawks trailing 4-1.
The Hawks (15-41-5) have been outscored 12-2 over the last seven periods plus an overtime, and they are 1-11-3 in the last 15 games.
Arvid Soderblom (2-18-1) started in net and made 26 saves. He has lost 13 straight, with his last victory coming on Nov. 24.
Now the Hawks hit the road for games at Colorado and Arizona. Then comes the trade deadline Friday.
No matter how bad things get or what twists are thrown their way this week, Donato is adamant the team needs to stick together.
“There's so many things you can learn throughout an entire season,” he said. “If you're negative it's really hard to harp on those things.
“These young guys are hungry. They don't like losing. That's a good thing. … That's a bright spot in the future is how sick of losing these guys are. I'm happy to be part of that and hopefully we can grow from it.”