Blackhawks' allergy to shooting does them in again

The Chicago Blackhawks are now 0-3-0 without Connor Bedard, and the offensive woes that plagued them before his injury continue to hold them back. They didn’t produce enough pressure with the puck in their 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, and made life easy for goaltender Jakub Dobes.

Spencer Knight was great tonight, making 32 saves. One of the three goals he allowed was off a great redirection, and another he pushed in over the line with his glove while trying to locate the puck. He made numerous big saves and deserved better. However, you’re not beating anyone with just 15 shots goal.

Both teams had goals taken off the scoreboard. In the first period, Alex Vlasic’s goal was disallowed after it was ruled that Ilya Mikheyev interfered with Jakub Dobes. While there was contact with the skates, one could argue that the only reason Mikheyev was in the crease was to avoid contact with defenseman Noah Dobson.

The Canadiens thought they had taken a 2-1 lead late in the second period with a power-play goal, but they were clearly offside on the zone entry, so the goal was quickly disallowed.

Montreal had a second goal wiped out for being offside moments after going up 2-1. At least Frank Nazar ended his 21-game goal drought, so that’s one less thing we have to talk about. The game was tied 1-1 heading into the third period, and the Blackhawks had no answer after the Canadiens scored 20 seconds into the third period.

“After two, I thought we were in position to win a game on the road,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “Beyond that, I thought too many guys had their C game. You’re not going to have your A+ game every night. You have to make sure that when you don’t have it, you at least have a B+ game. Not necessarily the mentality, but in the actual level you play at. That part of the process of making sure we figure it out.”

Bad Loss Left in Toronto

The best part of dropping the puck tonight was that Tuesday’s heartbreaking loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs was officially behind the Blackhawks.

“As far as I can tell, they handled it well, but we’ll know more when we lace them up tonight,” Blashill said. “Was it a gut-punch? 100 percent, because we had played such a good hockey game for so long and didn’t get rewarded, but that’s life. There’s nothing we can do to go back and change anything that happened. All you can do is learn from it and move on to the next. That was probably our best defensive game of the year. If we play that same way, you’ll put yourself in a position to win a lot of hockey games.”

Although they didn’t get their first official shot on goal until Nazar’s goal at 7:27, the Blackhawks got off to a solid start. All four lines won a shift early, and they looked like the team that played so well for much of Tuesday night. There was no carryover from Toronto to start the night in Montreal.

The Blackhawks only had four shots on goal in the opening frame, but one of them went in. They had six scoring chances, while allowing eight to the Canadiens. High-danger chances were 4-3 in favor of the home team.

Frank Nazar Ends His Drought

Nobody was more sick and tired of hearing about Frank Nazar’s 21-game goal drought more than Frank Nazar. He finally got to launch the money off his back by notching the game’s first goal. The tally was his sixth of the season and first since Oct. 28.

Nazar didn’t do anything fancy to get back on the scoresheet. He got the puck into the zone, then went right to the net and put his stick on the ice. Matt Grzelcyk made an incredible pass for the easy tap-in goal. Attacking the front of the net is what all four lines need to do, even when Connor Bedard is in the lineup.

Nazar led the team with nine shot attempts, but only two found the net. The next closest player in shot attempts was Ilya Mikheyev with five. Nazar’s two-way game was noticeable all night, as he used his speed to get back defensively. Hopefully, tonight’s goal will help loosen up and regain that swagger we saw at the beginning of the season.

Kid Line Gets Hemmed In

Nick Lardis was quiet against the Maple Leafs after an impressive NHL debut against the Detroit Red Wings. He’s been on a line with fellow youngsters Oliver Moore and Ryan Greene. The three rookies have had moments of brilliance and some struggles, as one would expect.

“They’re as young as any line I’ve probably had in the NHL,” Blashill said of the trio. “One of the reasons I put them together is because I do think there is a certain comfort level in playing with guys your own age. They’re very familiar with each other. Overall, they’ve done a good job. They’re still growing and learning, but so is our whole team. They’re going to make mistakes just like anyone else, but hopefully, they continue to grow and learn from them.”

This line never got to use their speed as a threat tonight, as they spent most of the game hemmed in their own zone. They had a team-low 33.33 Corsi for percentage (CF%), producing only six shot attempts and no shots on goal. Lardis didn’t have his first shot attempt until late in the third period, and he missed the net by two feet. It’s impossible to produce offense when you don’t have the puck.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• While much of the final 40 minutes of this game was dominated by the Canadiens, I do want to give the Blackhawks some credit for how they responded in the first period. We already talked about how well they started the game coming off the bad loss. In addition to that, they didn’t let Vlasic’s disallowed goal get them down. They came right back on the attack and scored their lone goal not long after that. I was also impressed by the shift following Montreal’s first goal, as they responded with a dangerous scoring chance.

• Artyom Levshunov was back in the lineup after his one-game punishment for being late to practice on Monday. He led the Blackhawks with 21:58 of ice time, as he and Matt Grzelcyk were Blashill’s top pairing. At 5-on-5, he and Grzelcyk had a 53.13 CF% and were on the ice for the Blackhawks' lone goal. Individually, Levshunov had a shot on goal, four shot attempts, and a scoring chance. He created the chance right after the Montreal goal mentioned above by looking for Tyler Bertuzzi at the side of the net, but just missed the pass. The Blackhawks were even on scoring chances, 10-10, and had six of their eight high-danger scoring chances with Levshunov on the ice.

• I don’t know why this team refuses to shoot the puck. I’m sure Blashill is exhausted by telling them to have a shoot-first mentality. The Blackhawks had 41 shot attempts in 60 minutes of hockey, with only 15 on goal. They had one shot on goal in four minutes of playing time. With Bedard out, every chance to shoot must be taken. There is no such thing as a bad shot. In the three games without their top star, Ryan Donato has zero shots on goal on seven attempts, while Andre Burakovsky has two shots on goal in six attempts. That is not good enough. Every player needs to have the attitude that they are the ones who will step up and score a big goal. Unfortunately, we don’t see much of that from anybody.

• Blashill said it all with this postgame quote: "You can't pass up a shot in a scoring area. We literally passed it out of a scoring area into a non-scoring area. That's nonsensical. We're going to have to simplify that piece of it and make sure we have much more of a shooting mentality."