Chicago Blackhawks 5 Thoughts From Tampa Bay Collapse

The Chicago Blackhawks took a 4-1 lead in the 2nd period, but they couldn’t hold on and they ended up losing 5-4 in overtime in Tampa Bay on Monday night. Here are 5 thoughts from the Chicago Blackhawks collapse in Florida.

5. The Jurco Experiment

Tomas Jurco has been showing some signs of playing better hockey, and he’s been doing a lot of little things right. So, it wasn’t too big of a surprise to see him get on the back check and fore check, and then finally he picked up his first goal with the Chicago Blackhawks while pouncing on a rebound.

Jurco may not be a regular during the playoffs for Coach Joel Quenneville, but it seems like he wants to have enough confidence in him to be able to play him when needed, and tonight had to give both of them more confidence heading towards the playoffs.

4. The PK Still Worries Me

At the beginning of the year the Chicago Blackhawks couldn’t stop anyone’s powerplay, but they seemed to have figured things out for the most part.  Tonight during the Lightning game, the PK failures reared it’s ugly head with Tampa scoring twice with the man advantage.

The PK during the playoffs is a huge factor when scoring isn’t as high.  The Hawks only have a few games left to get this squared away, and it really would help if they didn’t take stupid penalties like two delay of game penalties they took on Monday night.

3. John Hayden On the Bottom Line

John Hayden got a look on the bottom line tonight, and he didn’t stood out at all to me so I’m not sure if he’s here to stay during the Stanley Cup playoffs.  He needed to throw his body around a little more for me when he’s playing that role rather than when he’s playing with Jonathan Toews on the top line.  He did get some time on the 2nd unit of the powerplay so it’s not like Joel Quenneville has lost faith in him already.

2. Scott Darling With A Rare Struggle

Some of the goals weren’t really Scott Darling’s fault, but this was for sure not his best game either.  Darling didn’t look big in net in the 2nd period, and often he was out of position and gave away his net.

Darling and Corey Crawford really struggled in Florida so we can throw this all out if you ask me and chalk it up to late season blues and losing a little focus before the playoffs begin.

1. Trevor van Riemsdyk is a weak link

TVR will make a pinch that works like he did on the Richard Panik goal, but he makes a lot of bad choices throughout the game.  It’s not the big turnovers that drive you nuts watching TVR, but it’s times when he can skate or throw the puck up the boards and instead he throws the puck in behind the net with all kinds of traffic there that drives you nuts.

TVR is the #6 defenseman which usually doesn’t see a lot of playing time in the playoffs, but if you ask me I want Michal Kempny out there before TVR, but I doubt that will happen.

Next: Hayden and 2nd Line Centers

Either way the Hawks blew a 4-1 lead and leave Florida with only 1 point after playing two games on or near the beach.  Next up Pittsburgh on Wednesday night.