Blackhawks fall 4-3 to the Sabres, despite a much better offensive performance

The Chicago Blackhawks took on the Buffalo Sabres in their third game of the 2026-27 season on Saturday, Oct. 3. It was gut check time for the team, as they'd lost the first two games in rather ugly fashion.

All in all, they put up a much better effort than their two previous games. They connected for three goals and were even up 2-0 in the first period. But they still had tons of trouble stopping the Sabre's rush game, and fell 4-3 once it was all said and done. They still definitely need to clean things up defensively.

Let's get to the lineup, game reaction and postgame quotes from the Frondell, Vlasic and Coach Blashill.

Blackhawks Lineup & special teams

Roman Kantserov - Frank Nazar - Patrick Kane

Tyler Bertuzzi - Anton Frondell - Teuvo Teravainen

Ryan Donato - Oliver Moore - Nick Lardis

Cole Smith - Ryan Greene - Jordan Greenway

Alex Vlasic - Ian Cole

Wyatt Kaiser - Artyom Levshunov

Kevin Korchinski - Ethan Del Mastro

Spencer Knight/Arvid Soderblom

Scratches: Sam Rinzel, Bowen Byram (family matter), Andrew Mangiapane (lower body), Connor Bedard (IR)

Byram was unavailable due to a family matter and the Blackhawks chose to scratch Rinzel, which set up both Korchinski and Del Mastro for the season debuts.

While head coach Jeff Blashill tinkered with the forward lines in the first two games of the season, he went back to what he'd deployed throgh most of training camp for this contest. The only exception was Teravainen drawing in on the second line instead of Lardis. Lardis, in turn, played on the third line.

Knight got the nod in net, as Soderblom played in the last game.

Power Play Units

PP1: Bertuzzi, Nazar - Kantserov - Kane, Levshunov

PP2: Donato, Moore - Frondell - Lardis, Korchinski

Nazar and Frondell were swapped on the power play, with Nazar on the top unit and Frondell on the second unit.

Penalty Kill Contributors

Vlasic, Teravainen, Frondell, Cole, Nazar, Levshuonov, Kaiser, Greenway, Greene, Smith

Blackhawks Game Notes

• The Blackhawks struck first with a goal by Donato, his first of the season. Defenseman Vlasic delivered a beautiful centering pass which Donato put away to make it 1-0. Nick Lardis was credited with the secondary assist. For Chicago, it was refreshing to get off to a good start after two previous bad starts.

Believe it or not, the Blackhawks struck second as well! Vlasic carried the puck into the zone. Then it was Teravainen with an on-point pass to Frondell, who made a nifty fake-out on Sabre's Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Instead, he slipped a pass to Bertuzzi who tapped it in. 2-0 Blackhawks.

• Unfortunately, the Sabres cut the lead in half with a goal by Jack Quinn to make it 2-1. Quinn shot it hard from pretty far out and got it past Knight.

• The Blackhawks looked much better in the first period than they have in their first two games. While still giving up a lot of odd man rushes, they were more decisive and intentional in their play, connecting on passes and generating offensive chances.

• In the second period it looked like Nazar was tripped, but there was no call on the play. The Sabres then proceeded to tie up the game at the other side of the ice. Ironically, it was former Blackhawk and fan favorite Louis Crevier who was involved in the goal. His famous heavy shot from the blue line was deflected in by Tage Thompson. 2-2 game.

• Most of the second frame the Sabres were having their way with the Blackhawks, controlling play and hemming Chicago in their own zone. But towards the end of the period Moore and Frondell had a 2-on-1 chance. After some nice give-and-go, Moore squeaked the puck past Luukkonen. Vlasic earned the secondary helper, his second point of the game. The Hawks headed into the final 20 minutes up 3-2.

• With 13:50 to go in the game, the Blackhawks looked like they were doing a little puck watching headed back the other way after a scoring chance. Rasmus Dahlin took advantage, tying the game up at 3-3. Peyton Krebs and Mattias Samuelsson were credited with the assists.

• Offsetting penalties led to 4-on-4 play, and more questionable defense, albeit after a long shift, led to a fairly easy goal for the Sabres. Jiri Kiluch found the back of the net to make it 4-3 for the home team with a little over six minutes to go in the game.

• The Blackhawks pulled their goalie with about a minute left in the contest, but the couldn't find the equalizer. They fell 4-3 in the game and are now 0-3-0 on the season.

• The pairing of Korchinski or Del Mastro were on the ice for two goals against in their Blackhawk's debut, which is never a good thing. Del Mastro probably had the better outing of the two. He registered two hits, two blocked shots and one shot attempt in 15:01 minutes of ice time. Korchinski was credited with two shots on goal while playing 11:21 minutes.

• Despite the loss, the Blackhawks did play a better offensive game. Frondell and Vlasic both had two points a piece, and Nazar had a strong game. They still need to clean things up defensively, allowing way too many rush chances. But all in all, a much better performance by the Blackhawks. Hopefully they can build on that moving forward.

Quotable Quotes

Frondell felt this game was a step in the right direction. On the team's performance, "I thought from the first shift, we came up big and played with a lot of confidence as a team. We won battles, had a lot of pressure, and I felt like that was going through the whole game."

Vlasic seemed relatively upbeat after the loss. "We did well in this game and continue that moviing forward. I think we learned from our mistakes in the first couple games, and there's no point in dwelling on it. It's still early in the year. Obviously, every game matters, but we're trying to get this thing on the right track, and make sure that everything that we're doing is for one another." He also added they were looking forward to finally playing in front of the home crowd on Tuesday (Oct. 3).

Coach Blashill liked the effort he saw tonight. "I thought our compete and swagger was way better. That’s more the standard that we want to play with. Obviously you’re going to make mistakes and you want to learn and grow and that’s what we’ll focus on ... let's build on the process.

The first road trip of the season is in the books for the Blackhawks. Now they can return to Chicago and enjoy some home cooking. The next contest will be special, as it's Patrick Kane's first time back at the United Center as a Blackhawk since 2023.

The Blackhawks will host the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, Oct. 6, before heading on the road to face the New York Islanders and Matthew Schaefer on Thursday, Oct. 8. They're back in Chicago on Saturday, Oct. 10 to take on the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes.

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