Blackhawks First Intermission Report: Game One Against Tampa Bay

The Chicago Blackhawks find themselves down against the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-0 after one.

If you watched the first 10 minutes of the Chicago Blackhawks game you probably thought the team looked pretty solid. While there were some mistakes, the first ten minutes looked pretty good.

However, everything that followed showed how long of a year this will be for the ‘Hawks. After a failed power play for the ‘Hawks, Ondrej Palat scored a power-play goal for the Lightning a few minutes later. Then, Mathieu Joseph made things two to zero thanks to a play by Malcolm Subban.

Subban lost the view of the puck and sent it in the ‘Hawks own net with his pad. Obviously, this might be an indication of a long year to come, but at the same time, there might have been some first-game jitters the team was working through.

Hopefully, Chicago can go out in the second period and play a little more competitive. There were missed passes, players were left wide open in the defensive zone, and it just wasn’t great. However, an NHL game is a full 60 minutes.

The score might be three zero, but that doesn’t tell the entire story for the Blackhawks. The third goal for the Lightning was just a poor tip out in front that no goalie from Chicago in recent history would have stopped.

Yes, Chicago looks like a team ready to sit at the bottom of the standings, but I hope we can see them take a step in the right direction after falling behind early. Chicago will start the second period on a power play, capitalizing on that situation will be very valuable for the team.

Now, some might be calling for Chicago to put in Collin Delia right about now, but that would set a bad president during a season in which we will see a goalie battle in the net. Say Delia gives up two goals to start this coming period if they switch netminders, then all of a sudden things would look even worse.

Hopefully, the Blackhawks can stick with this game and try to keep the score down a little for the Bolts. Moving forward let’s see fewer penalties by the Blackhawks and more shots on goal during the power play. Go Blackhawks!