Blackhawks can't slow down Avalanche as they clinch playoff spot

The Chicago Blackhawks aren’t as far from contending for the postseason as some might think. Last night’s win over the Minnesota Wild showed that this group is learning how to finish out games and win. However, the Colorado Avalanche proved tonight with their lopsided 4-1 win that the Blackhawks are still light-years away from being a Stanley Cup favorite.

The Avalanche felt like they were playing with their food for most of the night. They had a season-high 44 scoring chances at 5-on-5, with 38 of those coming in the first two periods. The Blackhawks only mustered 16 scoring chances over 60 minutes. This is one of those games where you just shrug your shoulders and tip your cap to the best team in the NHL.

"As a group, I didn’t think we were winning enough puck battles — because we weren’t skating to the battle enough. Because of that, we couldn’t create much."

Bedard Doesn’t Take Over

Connor Bedard has played at a higher level this season than he did in his first two years in the NHL. His offseason work to increase his speed and strength has worked wonders. As good as he was up until his injury in mid-December, he’s found an even higher gear of late.

In the 11 games since the Olympic break, he has five goals and 12 points, with two game-winning goals. He’s started to take over games and be dangerous every time he jumps over the boards. He’s playing like the player that was envisioned when he was selected first overall in 2023. Not that he was bad, by any means, in his first two seasons, but this version of Bedard puts him into the upper echelon of the NHL.

While Bedard was dynamic tonight, he wasn’t dominant. It almost felt like he wanted to set up his teammates rather than take it on himself. He passed up shots in favor of making a play to a linemate. It almost worked on a second-period power play where he fired a pass to Teuvo Teravainen, who nearly tied the game.

Bedard only had two shot attempts on the night and one individual scoring chance. His line was the only one to finish with an even Corsi for percentage (CF%). To finish with a 50.0 CF% on a night the team had a 30.09 CF% is rather impressive.

Lardis Gets a Promotion

One of the frustrations for Blackhawks fans of late has been the usage, or lack thereof, of Nick Lardis. Since being recalled for his second NHL stint, he’s been stuck on the fourth line playing minimal minutes. While Blashill’s explanation for his limited playing time makes sense, he needs to be put in a better spot to succeed.

“The biggest thing for him is to show us the depth of his game – that he can add offense without having to be on with the very best players on the team,” Blashill said. “If you can do that, that’s a real commodity. He’s working towards learning that.”

Seeing Lardis start the game on a line with Dominic Toninato and Sam Lafferty just made me shake my head. However, he did get 4:11 of ice time in the first period and finally got the training wheels removed. He was moved into the top six, playing on the second line with Tyler Bertuzzi and Frank Nazar. However, Blashill didn’t exactly give Lardis a glowing review.

"He was kind of like the rest of our team, not skating enough and not creating enough,” he said. “But it was our whole team, so I certainly can’t pin that on him."

The second line spent about the same amount of time with Teravainen on the left wing as Lardis. With Teravainen, they had just two scoring chances while allowing nine. They have four scoring chances and gave up six with Lardis. That’s a fairly large improvement.

I’m all for teaching young players valuable lessons and helping them realize how much hard work goes into playing at this level. With that being said, there are 13 games left in the season. Use them to let the kids take on the bigger roles. I want to see less of Teravainen, Andre Burakovsky, and Ryan Donato and more of Lardis, Sacha Boisvert, and Anton Frondell when they are inserted into the lineup. We know who the veterans are; it’s time to get a better idea of what these kids can do.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• The Avalanche probably win this game 8-1 without Arvid Soderblom. As much as I am ready to give Drew Commesso an extended look at the NHL, Soderblom was great tonight. He made 45 saves. It was his third game this season in which he made at least 45 saves. His record in those games is 1-2-0. He faced 14 high-danger shots and stopped them all.

• We have to give Ryan Greene some love for the pass he made to set up the Blackhawks’ lone goal. Wyatt Kaiser deserves a lot of credit for his hands on this play. Not many defensemen can finish like this.

• The Blackhawks were without Louis Crevier and Andrew Mangiapane, who are dealing with minor injuries. Both will likely miss Sunday’s game against the Nashville Predators and rejoin the lineup on the upcoming four-game road trip. Crevier was missed greatly on the penalty kill. The Blackhawks gave up two power-play goals, not necessarily because Crevier was absent, but his long reach could have helped prevent some of the precision passes the Avalanche were firing off.

• Artyom Levshunov led all Blackhawks with 21:23 of ice time. He had two shots on goal, six shot attempts, a team-high four individual scoring chances, four hits, a takeaway, and a blocked shot.