Canes strike early, Blackhawks lose 3-0 at home
The Blackhawks beat the Anaheim Ducks Saturday night 3-2 after being down 2-0 in the first period. It was the fourth game in which they had trailed first and came out on top in the end. It's worked out a couple of times for the Blackhawks, but it's not a spot head coach Luke Richardson wants to consistently be in.
"We want to move forward as an organization, and we have to be ready for games and the start of games," Richardson said, "... we've put ourselves in that predicament a few times this year. Sometimes not by our play, just by circumstances, but as the season goes along, we're not going to be able to catch up in some of these games."
Whatever it was Monday night, play or circumstances, Richardson was right: they weren't able to catch up against the Hurricanes, losing 3-0.
"I thought our start was better, obviously, than last game," Richardson said. "It couldn't be any worse. We've just got to continue to do that. We gotta try and have momentum, especially at home, in our building and try and get on the board early [and] get the crowd into it."
The game reached a low point with 5:53 to go in the second period. The Blackhawks were already losing 2-0, but with 5:53 to go, Caleb Jones held the puck behind Petr Mrázek's net and sent a pass straight at Jesper Fast's stick, which deflected it to a wide open Andrei Svechnikov. He put it in for his twelfth goal of the season.
Before the game, Richardson explained that sometimes, teams get off to slow starts simply because of the long grind that is the NHL season. "You just have to recognize where you're at, body-wise, health-wise," he said. If a player can recognize that they're a bit tired from the job, it's on them to play more simply throughout the game.
It may not have been because of exhaustion that the Blackhawks lost, as they did have a number of very good chances to score, but the Hurricanes' young netminder Pyotr Kochetkov was too stingy for the home team.
Carolina just started too hot too quickly, and the Blackhawks fell back to 6-6-3.
Tyler Johnson returns:
Johnson, who has been on injured reserve since Oct. 25 with an ankle injury, was on the ice Monday morning before the Blackhawks' game against the Hurricanes but did not specify a return date.
New D pairs:
For the past several games - at least since Seth Jones has been out with a thumb injury - the defensive pairings have been Jack Johnson-Jake McCabe, Jarred Tinordi-Connor Murphy, then Jones-Filip Roos. Against the Hurricanes, Richardson replaced McCabe with Jones on the first line. Roos and Jones both were minus-2 on the game, Johnson and Murphy were minus-1, and Carolina finished with 31 total shots on goal.