Blackhawks bomb on Broadway, get shelled by Rangers

I feel like I should just copy and paste last night’s postgame story and get on with my night. Not much changed during the short train trip from Philadelphia to Manhattan as the Chicago Blackhawks lost 6-1 to the New York Rangers tonight.

It was more of the same for the Blackhawks tonight. Poor puck management, no sense of urgency, and too many guys not moving their feet. All of this led to another lopsided game with the Blackhawks chasing all night long.

Since the end of the second period against the New York Islanders on Tuesday, this team has looked like they’ve never played with each other. These last two games are super frustrating because every time you think this young group is taking a step forward, they go two steps backward. They’ve played well against playoff teams like the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, and Utah Mammoth, but they get dominated by one of the league's worst home teams.

Sure, it’s the second night of back-to-back games, and you have two players who have more NHL games under their belt than practices. Use any excuse you want, but there needs to be more consistency with this team. Yes, these ups and downs are typical of a squad as young as the Blackhawks are, but at some point, you have to turn the corner and learn all these lessons we keep hearing about.

“In the first, we played fast and predictable,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. "We had a good shooting mentality. Then their pressure got to us a little bit, and we didn’t make enough hard, strong plays.”

A Better First Period, But Still Not Great

The first period has been a bit of a nightmare for the last few games. The Blackhawks have allowed the opening goal within the first minute of play in each of the last two games. Too many times over the past handful of games, they dug themselves into an early hole and spent the rest of the night chasing. That is not a recipe for sustained success.

Last night’s first period in Philadelphia was one of the worst, as the entire team looked disjointed and disengaged. That was not the case tonight on Broadway. The top line nearly flipped the script on the first shift when Ryan Greene hit the crossbar, and Connor Bedard produced a quality scoring chance before the game was 30 seconds old.

After the good start, the Rangers started to tilt the ice in their favor, but the Blackhawks regained their composure and scored the first goal of the game. All five players in white touched the puck in the offensive zone before Nick Lardis deposited it into the net for his eighth goal of the season.

The Rangers got that goal back less than a minute later to send the game into the first intermission. While the Blackhawks were far more engaged in the first period tonight, the home team still had the edge. The Rangers had a 29-19 advantage in shot attempts, 19-10 in scoring chances, and 10-4 in high-danger chances.

Blashill Doesn’t Get His Wish

One of Blashill’s biggest issues with Thursday’s loss to the Flyers was that his team didn’t play with the puck enough. At 5-on-5, they were outshot 38-24 with a 64-41 disadvantage in shot attempts. The Flyers also held big advantages in scoring chances (42-19) and high-danger chances (24-6).

“We need to play with the puck more,” Blashill said before tonight’s game. “Last night, I thought we didn’t execute with the puck enough and wound up defending. If you defend a lot, most teams in this league are going to find a way to break you down at some point. So, we’ve got to make sure that we’re sound with the puck, we’re executing, and playing in their zone as much as we can. We’ve got to be on our toes as much as we can.”

Blashill did not get his wish. While the first period was better, it still wasn’t great. The second period was just atrocious. Once the Rangers killed off 1:44 of a Vladislav Gavrikov penalty, they dominated the frame. The Blackhawks had seven shot attempts and only two scoring chances in 20 minutes of hockey. New York had 21 shot attempts and 13 scoring chances, with six of those considered high-danger.

“It felt like we tried to change up our style of play,” defenseman Alex Vlasic said. "We had success in the first by keeping it simple and getting pucks in. For whatever reason, we got away from that, and they were able to capitalize on our mistakes. It’s on us to be smarter with the puck and make harder decisions when we’re in difficult spots.”

The third period was better, possession-wise, for the Blackhawks, but the Rangers had it on cruise control. Even without pressing much, they still outscored the Blackhawks 2-0 in the final stanza.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• The last couple of games show you how much this team misses its veteran leadership group. Jason Dickinson, Connor Murphy, and Nick Foligno were the guys to talk on the bench and in the room to keep this team focused. If you needed a big hit, some puck possession, or a fight to change the momentum, it usually came from one of those three guys. One of them would have definitely stood up for Artyom Levshunov after a big hit from J.T. Miller. These last few games are a chance for someone, anyone, to fill this role.

• These are the types of plays that should get you excited about Anton Frondell. He hunts the puck and strips it away from Miller to set up a scoring chance for Connor Bedard. I wish we had more plays like this to report on, but this line spent much of the night playing defense. He led all forwards with 20:50 of ice time.

• The Blackhawks have not scored on 20 consecutive power plays. Their last goal on the man advantage was scored by Tyler Bertuzzi against the Utah Mammoth, 10 games ago.

• Ethan Del Mastro has struggled over the past couple of games. He got caught flatfooted in the neutral zone, and seconds later, the Rangers scored their third goal. Through the first three games of this road trip, he’s been on the ice for 29 scoring chances and three goals against. When the team returns home, I don’t see the harm in recalling Kevin Korchinski and giving him some time on the third pairing. You have let him try to play his way onto this team at some point.

• Sacha Boisvert got into his first NHL fight with Will Borgen. The altercation came late in the third period when the Blackhawks finally had a physical push back, but it was far too late.