Chicago Blackhawks vs Minnesota Wild: Five Thoughts

The Chicago Blackhawks lost 4-3 in overtime to the Minnesota Wild last night. Here are Five Thoughts following last nights contest.

No. 2: The Blackhawks defense cannot continue making mistakes like they did last night.

Transitioning to a slightly less upbeat topic, this defense needs to be addressed. Here’s what the Chicago Blackhawks put on the ice defensively last night and in practice today:

1. Keith-Jokiharju
2. Gustafsson-Seabrook
3. Manning-Rutta

First, let’s talk about the positives we saw in last night’s game. It shouldn’t take long.

Henri Jokiharju continues to look like the real deal. He’s been skating with the power play unit as of late and has looked comfortable doing so. In fact, the only Blackhawks power play goal this season happened against Minnesota because Jokiharju elected to shoot the puck rather than try to force a play like some other Hawks defensemen.

Erik Gustafsson helps Brent Seabrook to be a more effective defenseman, however Seabrook still has no business skating with the Blackhawks penalty kill unit.

Finally, Brandon Manning looked more comfortable against the Wild and actually made a few good plays in his own zone.

Considering that, the negatives severely outweigh the positives. The Chicago Blackhawks have given up 18 goals in four games this season. Only the Ottawa Senators, Vegas Golden Knights, Philadelphia Flyers and Toronto Maple Leafs had more.

The Blackhawks offense has been able to score enough to win games — they are tied for third in the league averaging 4.5 goals a game — but trying to simply outscore opponents isn’t a sustainable strategy.

Duncan Keith, supposedly the Blackhawk most reliable defenseman, blew two coverages last night and allowed the Wild to walk into the crease and easily beat Cam Ward. I’m hopeful things will improve with time — Jokiharju will learn from his rookie mistakes, Seabrook may improve in a third pairing, the return of Connor Murphy and Gustav Forsling could help — but regardless the defense we saw last night is not acceptable.

The Blackhawks defense hung Cam Ward out to dry one too many times and it came back to bite them.

The Chicago Blackhawks lost 4-3 in overtime to the Minnesota Wild last night. Here are Five Thoughts following last nights contest.

No. 3: Cam Ward absolutely stood on his head and deserves more respect.

Speaking of Cam Ward being hung out to dry, let’s dive into his game last night.

First and foremost, Ward is the primarily reason that the Blackhawks were in a position to take two points out of Minnesota. In that game, Ward stopped 42 shots on 46 total earning a .913 SV%.

He made some truly outstanding games to keep the Blackhawks in the lead throughout the game.

Take a look at one such example where he made a few big saves late in the game.

Time and time again, the defense broke town but Ward was there.

That is, until he wasn’t.

There are only a certain number of times that your goaltender can bail your defense out before giving up a goal. Apparently, the Chicago Blackhawks defensemen found out this number last night.

Here’s an example of poor defense leading to a goal.  Four Chicago Blackhawks have their heads turned and eyes on one puck carrier. Jason Zucker is able to easily slip in behind the defense and finds wide open ice inside the hash marks.

Keith makes a half hearted attempt at a poke, but there’s nothing him or Ward could do at this point.

Here’s another example where Eric Staal and Jan Rutta get tangled up, but Staal is up first and easily cashes in on the cross crease pass.

Again, nothing Ward can do.

Looking at the numbers in a box score, it looks as if Ward has played relatively terrible to start the season. That said, nothing could be more inaccurate.

If Forsberg, Berube, or any of the other goaltenders not named Corey Crawford that the Blackhawks put in net last season were playing goal for them this year, I guarantee you this team is not 2-0-2.

Cam Ward has played well despite the Chicago Blackhawks defense and it’s safe to say that Ward, and eventually Crawford, deserve better.

Here’s to hoping that they get it.

The Chicago Blackhawks lost 4-3 in overtime to the Minnesota Wild last night. Here are Five Thoughts following last nights contest.

No. 4: Coach Q made a poor coaching decision and it cost them the game.

David Kampf carried the puck through the neutral zone, elected not to shoot on the empty net, and eventually drew a penalty after entering the offensive zone.

Yes, a drawn penalty was good, but why not take a shot at an empty net to seal the deal?

Regardless, theChicago Blackhawks found themselves on a power play with 35 seconds left to go in the game, up one goal. All they needed to do was last thirty seconds up a man to win the game.

This is where coach Q made a questionable decision.

Sure, one strategy is to put an offensive unit on the ice and try to hold the puck for 30 seconds. But, why not do your best to play sound defense and win the game?

Additionally, why is Marcus Kruger on this team if he can’t play in these situations? The same can be said about a lot of supposedly defensive minded/two-way forwards on this team.

The fact that Jokiharju and Keith were on the ice because, well, the Blackhawks don’t have any other defensemen, made sense.

That said, the decision to put Schmaltz-Anisimov-DeBrincat is appalling to me.

DeBrincat and Schmaltz are two of my favorite Blackhawks, but neither of them have any business being on the ice in a defensive situation like that. This move ultimately cost the Hawks as the Wild tied it on this shift and went on to win in overtime.

I typically trust coach Joel Quenneville in almost any situation, but this was a terrible decision and it cost the Blackhawks the game.

No. 5: This team cannot afford to let points slip away.

We’ve talked about this before, but October is more important for this Chicago Blackhawks team. Here’s a quick excerpt from one of our articles on why:

“Elliotte Friedman, a reporter for Sportsnet and an NHL network insider, reported that of the 54 teams who have been 4+ points out of a playoff spot on November 1st since the 2005-06 season (just before the Kane and Toews era), only seven of these teams have made the playoffs.”

Seven teams were able to come back from a four point hole.

In case you need reminding, these Chicago Blackhawks are not the Chicago Blackhawks of years past. Sure, they look a heck of a lot better now than they did last year, but they still have a long way to go.

While it’s great to take a point on the road, the Blackhawks deserved to leave Minnesota with two points and lost a point last night more than they stole one.

Want your voice heard? Join the Blackhawk Up team!

Write for us!

And yes, one point is better than none, but Chicago gave one away last night to a division rival who they will be fighting for a playoff spot. These things happen, but the Blackhawks cannot afford to make a habit of this as it will undoubtedly come back to bite them.

Unless, of course, they manage to go 41-0-41.

Like most things, time will tell.