10 observations: Blackhawks’ offense dries up in shutout loss to Ducks originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Presented by Nationwide Insurance Agent Jeff Vukovich
The Chicago Blackhawks were shut out for the 11th time this season after losing to the Anaheim Ducks 4-0 on Thursday at Honda Center.
Here are 10 observations from the loss:
1. The Blackhawks struggled to generate offense, especially at even strength. The Ducks aren’t exactly a strong defensive team so this was a disappointing effort. It was the first time all season Anaheim shut out an opponent.
2. The Blackhawks committed six penalties in this game, which is far too many. Anaheim scored on two of them, including a 5-on-3 opportunity in the third period. Connor Bedard was penalized twice, although the hooking penalty in the second period was questionable at best. The Ducks scored on it to make it 3-0 and that pretty much ended the game.
3. Anaheim’s No. 2 overall pick Leo Carlsson left in the second period after an innocent knee-on-knee collision with Alex Vlasic. Hope it’s not as serious as it looked. No surprise that Ryan Strome dropped the gloves with Vlasic 15 seconds into the third period to stand up for his teammate, even though Vlasic did nothing wrong. I think if the same happened with Bedard, the Blackhawks probably respond the same way.
4. Colin Blackwell did not play due to an upper-body injury he suffered in the third period on Tuesday vs. Los Angeles. He’s still being evaluated, so his timeline for a return is unclear. Because he was out, the Blackhawks went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen against Anaheim. They don’t do it very often, but I didn’t mind the decision because Bedard had a career-high five points in the last meeting, so it was an opportunity to get him some extra ice time.
5. The Vlasic-Strome scrap wasn’t the only fight of the night. Jarred Tinordi delivered a hit on Ben Meyers midway through the first period, and Ross Johnston instantly came to his teammate’s defense. The bout left Tinordi a bit bloodied, which has happened quite a bit this season. Some heated battles between Chicago and Anaheim this season after Petr Mrazek and John Gibson nearly fought in the last one.
6. Kevin Korchinski had a tough night in Los Angeles. The next day at practice, the Blackhawks worked on box-out drills, and Korchinski had a solid battle with Nick Foligno. I thought the 19-year-old rookie defenseman was better. I liked his attitude about it all too after he was interviewed by NBC Sports Chicago’s Darren Pang after the first period.
7. Brett Leason oddly has Chicago‘s number. Three of his 11 goals this season have come against the Blackhawks, as well as four of his 20 career goals. He scored twice at the United Center nine days ago.
8. Arvid Söderblom needs to make that stop on Leason’s goal that made it 2-0 in the second period. It was a 46-foot wrist shot and probably deflating for the team that it found a way past him.
9. Chicago’s second line of Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Johnson and Lukas Reichel was invisible. The three of them did not generate a single score chance in more than 10 minutes together at even strength, per Natural Stat Trick.
10. Alex Killorn scored the opening goal of the game in the second period after he redirected Gustav Lindstrom‘s shot from the point; he later added a second goal in the middle frame. Did anybody else have flashbacks from the 2015 Stanley Cup Final? Killorn scored on a fairly similar redirection in Game 1.
