Crawford solid but rest of Hawks do little in loss

DALLAS — What to think of Friday's 2-1 loss by the Blackhawks in their regular-season opener might depend on if you are an optimist or a pessimist.

There were things to like, such as Corey Crawford's play in goal and some dominating minutes by the offense, especially over the second half of the game.

But there also was sloppy defensive play, little impact from the eight newcomers in the lineup and the fact the Stars had a 37-19 advantage in hits.

“There were some mistakes here and there,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “It's not the way we wanted to start the season, obviously score-wise, but the way we played as well. I think we made a lot of mistakes and gave up too many quality chances.”

If Crawford hadn't been the best player on the ice in a scoreless first period with 13 saves, the game might have been over early.

“He kept us in there, kept it close,” Toews said.

The Hawks had 38 shots on goal, including 22 in the second period, but there could have been more traffic to bother Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen.

“Against a big goalie like that we have to create a little more traffic in front of him to score goals,” Marian Hossa said. “We created some chances, but they weren't high, high quality chances.”

Nick Leddy got the Hawks' only goal with Crawford pulled for a sixth attacker, but it didn't come until 14 seconds remained and it was basically too late.

Among the newcomers, center Jamal Mayers and defenseman Sami Lepisto played fewer than 10 minutes. Mayers had 1 hit. Defenseman Steve Montador played nine minutes, mostly at right wing on the fourth line in the third period. Andrew Brunette was minus-1 with 1 shot on goal while Rostislav Olesz was mostly invisible.

“Not up to expectations,” Brunette said of his play. “It's still a little bit of a feeling-out process. I have to do things a little bit different.”

Rookie Brandon Saad played 13 minutes with 2 shots but was taken off the top line with Toews and Patrick Sharp after the first period.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville also used Michael Frolik and Bryan Bickell with Toews and Sharp, then in the waning minutes put Patrick Kane out there with his old linemates.

“We were generating some offense, but we didn't have any finish,” Quenneville said. “We're still trying our lines to begin with so we were just looking for something that might have just sparked us.”

Dallas broke a scoreless tie 59 seconds into the second period after Duncan Keith's pass around the boards from behind his own net found nobody there to receive it. Alex Goligoski picked up the puck and beat Crawford with a slap shot.

Later in the second with the teams playing 4-on-4, rookie center Brandon Pirri lost a faceoff in his own zone and the puck ended up in the net when Crawford couldn't hold Sheldon Souray's big point shot. Jamie Benn was there for the rebound.

“The first one, I didn't see it right away off the stick,” Crawford said. “The second one, that was a bullet there and I just couldn't hang onto it.”#376;Follow Tim's Hawks reports via Twitter @TimSassone and check out his Blackhawks blog, Between the Circles, for more on the team at dailyherald.com.