Colliton lets loose after Chicago Blackhawks blow big lead in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS - Jeremy Colliton isn't one to show his frustrations very often during postgame interviews.
But there was no mistaking his displeasure after the Blackhawks blew a 3-1 lead Tuesday and dropped a 6-5 decision to St. Louis.
"Our details of our game were just not near good enough to get a win in this building against this team," said a seething Colliton.
The second-year coach has been known to look on the bright side after a loss, and he could have easily gone that route considering how close the Hawks came to defeating the defending champions on their home ice.
Instead, he took the road less traveled.
"They were jumping in (on the rush) - their fourth guy kept beating our fourth guy up ice and creating 4-on-3s," Colliton said. "(Also) we're changing on the backcheck, and I don't know how you win if you do those things."
The Hawks (27-28-8) are all but out of playoff contention now, but that doesn't matter to Colliton. He's still trying to build a culture in which everyone understands that good habits protect you when things get tough.
He preached that in Rockford, and he's doing his best to preach it in Chicago.
The Hawks grabbed a 3-1 lead on goals by Duncan Keith, Connor Murphy and Patrick Kane, but turnovers and sloppy play opened the door for the extremely dangerous Blues.
• Seconds before St. Louis made it 3-2, David Kampf and Murphy appeared lost deep in the defensive zone as the puck was being retrieved near the blue line by David Perron. Somehow both lost track of Robert Thomas, who sneaked in front of the net just off to Corey Crawford's right side. After accepting a perfect pass from Perron, Thomas wheeled around and easily whipped a shot into the back of the net at 7:38 of the second period.
• As the Hawks were nursing that 3-2 lead early in the third period, Ryan Carpenter tried to slip a short pass to Patrick Kane as both were approaching the offensive zone. A backchecking Jaden Schwartz neatly picked it off, however, and, before you could blink, St. Louis was off on a 2-on-1 that led to Ryan O'Reilly's game-tying goal. If Carpenter just bangs the puck deep into the zone, that scoring play never develops.
• Eleven seconds later, Olli Matta's high-velocity pass to Kirby Dach misfired in the Hawks' defensive zone and was picked off by Zach Sanford. Sanford stopped, shot through a Murphy screen and WHAM - it was 4-3 Blues with 15:57 remaining.
"I don't know how you expect to win when you make those types of mental mistakes," Colliton said.
The Hawks did take a 5-4 lead when Brandon Saad scored his 19th goal of the season, but the Blues quickly tied it again and got the game-winner when Sanford scored on the power play with Dach in the box for hooking.
"That's a really good team," said Crawford, who hadn't allowed more than 3 goals in his last 12 appearances. "I mean we showed a lot of character to come back. ...
"We can take a page out of their book - they play the game hard. Seems like when they get momentum they come even harder. It's tough as a goalie giving up four in one period, but there's nothing we can do now.
"We've just got to find what we did good and move on."
They will indeed. And they'll do it with a 'D' corps that includes Slater Koekkoek, Nick Seeler, Adam Boqvist and Lucas Carlsson, as well as plenty of young forwards who are still earning their stripes.
As outlined above, though, the veterans also are having a role in the sloppy play. So it will be interesting to see how the Hawks fare in stiff tests against Tampa Bay, Florida, Edmonton and St. Louis over the next 11 days.
What will their record be at that point, and does it still matter?
"Of course it matters," Colliton said. "You can't help but look at it, and that's how you're measured in the end. To me, we can't get that record where we need it to be until we're more consistent with our play.
"I said it (Tuesday) morning: We have played hard and well and competed for the most part, but it's up to me to still push them to be better, and tonight wasn't good enough."
Blackhawks Scouting Report
Scouting report
Blackhawks vs. Tampa Bay Lightning, 6 p.m. at Amalie Arena
TV: NBCSCH • Radio: WGN 720-AM
The skinny: Tampa Bay, which won the Presidents' Trophy for most points in the league last season, was scuttling along at 17-13-4 after losing at Washington on Dec. 21. Since then, coach Jon Cooper's squad has gone an incredible 23-5-1, although 3 of those losses came in the last three games. Steven Stamkos (29G, 37A) left Tuesday's loss to Toronto with an injury, and there is no word on if he'll miss tonight's contest. ... Other than Stamkos, Tampa Bay is led by Nikita Kucherov (30G, 46A), Brayden Point (22G, 36A), Alex Killorn (23G, 23A) and defenseman Victor Hedman (9G, 43A). ... The Lightning acquired forward Barclay Goodrow (8G, 17A) at the trade deadline. ... Tampa Bay has allowed 8 power-play goals in the last five games. ... The Hawks scored 3 PP goals against St. Louis on Tuesday, the first time they've accomplished that feat since scoring 4 in an 8-2 win at Ottawa on Jan. 9, 2018.
Next: Florida Panthers, 5 p.m. Saturday at BB&T Center
- John Dietz