Blackhawks fall short to Blue Jackets at home for third straight loss

For the Chicago Blackhawks, success in 2021 is not going to be monitored with the final score of a given game; instead, it is about going out and improving the little things night in and night out. With so many injuries hurting this roster and keeping them out of the lineup, it is amazing the ‘Hawks have lost their last three games by only one goal.

It is hard to imagine that the Blackhawks games against Detroit came over a week ago, but that is exactly the case. The good feeling everyone had after the team beat Detroit handily twice is gone, and it has been replaced by a team that can not score goals.

In the Blackhawks, past three games, they have failed to score more than two goals, even though the ‘Hawks goalies, primarily Kevin Lankinen, have done their best to keep the games close. Columbus had 27 shots on goal last night and many were some pretty high dangerous scoring chances, yet Lankinen stopped 25 of the 27 shots.

The top star of the game for the Blackhawks had to be Kevin Lankinen, and the team needs to start doing a better job in front of him, not in their own end, but on the scoreboard.

The Chicago Blackhawks’ main issue right now is scoring goals.

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It is hard to imagine that a team with untested defensemen and goalies would be having the most issues on the offensive side of things. however, the injuries to basically everyone have left the forward groupings a little open.

The Blackhawks actually played a better game than the Blue Jackets. They were leading in basically every category, except the one that mattered the most in goals. Jeremy Colliton kept throwing the lines into a blender similar to Joel Quenneville in the past. Here were a few forward lines we saw last night.

Brandon Hagel – David Kampf – Ryan Carpenter

Dominik Kubalik -Carl Soderberg- Brandon Hagel

Dominik Kubalik – Dylan Strome – Andrew Shaw

Mattias Janmark – Pius Suter – Patrick Kane

Mattias Janmark – Carl Soderberg – Patrick Kane

Having multiple different forward groups has its perks, and so does carrying seven defensemen and eleven forwards, but for the sake of generating offense and getting back on track, it might be for the best that Colliton and company let different lines develop some chemistry and build some success rather than shaking things up every time something does not work.

The Blackhawks now have a record of 2-4-3, and obviously, that is not great. While I do not think it is out of the question that this team could get 20 or so wins, it is starting to get frustrating that the Blackhawks keep losing their games by one goal or in OT. Hopefully, the ‘Hawks will be able to start pulling out some clutch performances during a close matchup.