Blackhawks fall 5-2 to the Avalanche in what seems like the same old story

The Chicago Blackhawks met the 8-5-1 Colorado Avalanche for a Monday night showdown on Nov. 2, sporting their green Hometown Remix jerseys for the first time this season. They were looking to turn the tides after losing five of their last six games. But it was not to be on this night. They fell 5-2 to a strong Avalanche team, despite taking an early lead and showing plenty of compete.

But it seems like it's the same old story night after night. The team is young and mistake-prone, and they continue to shoot themselves in the foot time after time. For every step forward there's two steps back. Anger and frustration are starting to take over. Here's the details from yet another loss.

Blackhawks lineup & special teams

Kantserov-Bedard-Donato

Bertuzzi-Frondell-Mangiapane

Moore-Nazar-Kane

Smith-Greene-Teräväinen

Vlasic-Cole

Kaiser-Levshunov

Del Mastro-Rinzel

Knight/Soderblom

Extras: Korchinski, Greenway, Byram (upper body)

This was basically the same lineup as Saturday’s contest versus the Boston Bruins. Except Jordan Greenway was the odd man out while Teuvo Teravainen drew back into the lineup on the fourth line. Since Andrew Mangiapane has returned from a lower body injury, he’s suited up twice and played quite well, so he remained on the second line.

The defensive pairings were the same, while Spencer Knight was back in net after Arvid Soderblom manned the crease in the last game. Head coach Jeff Blashill also clarified during morning skate that defenseman Bowen Byram is not yet cleared to play.

Power play units

PP1: Bertuzzi, Kane-Kantserov-Frondell, Bedard

PP2: Greene, Nazar-Donato-Moore, Rinzel

Penalty kill contributors

Frondell, Vlasic, Teravainen, Cole, Greene, Kaiser, Smith, Levshunov, Nazar

Blackhawks game notes

• Less than a minute into this contest, defenseman Wyatt Kaiser threw a puck on net which deflected off the Avalanche Cale Makar's stick and past netminder Mackenzie Blackwood. It just goes to show good things happen when you shoot the puck! Ryan Donato was credited with the assist. 1-0 Blackhawks.

• The Blackhawks struck twice for the second goal as well! Just a few minutes later, at the 7:05 mark of the first, Connor Bedard and Roman Kantserov had a beautiful sequence that resulted in a 2-0 score for the home team. It was one heck of a shot by the rookie Kantersov; his sixth of the season to lead the Blackhawks. He's currently on a five-game point streak that includes three goals and two assists.

• Then Martin Necas of the Avalanche thought he'd scored with a shot from the point. But the Blackhawks challenged for goaltender interference and the goal was overturned. Upon replay, you could see Gabriel Landeskog was completely blocking out Spencer Knight in the crease.
  

• But the excitement was short lived. The Avs scored twice in a matter of 26 seconds to even the score 2-2. The first was by Nazem Kadri, who rushed in to swat in a loose puck (assists by Landeskog and Brent Burns). The second goal was a one-timer by Jaden Schwartz that beat Knight (assists by T.J. Hughes and Devon Toews).

• At the end of the first period the score was even, but the Avalanche were leading in shots 14-4. The discrepancy was even worse in shot attempts. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Avs led 27-11 in shot attempts.

• The Blackhawks were playing with fire by committing three penalties in the second period. Sure enough, on the third man advantage the Avalanche's Kadri cashed in with a tip-in off a Makar shot. It was Kadri's second goal of the night. The secondary helper was credited to Nathan MacKinnon. 3-2 Avalanche.

• The Blackhawks were awarded a power play of their own late in the second frame, and Frank Nazar was in Patrick's Kane's spot on the top power play unit. It turns out Kane wasn't on the bench either. He did not return for the third period and was ruled out for the rest of the contest. After the game, Coach Blashill said he'll be out at least the next few games with an upper body injury. That's a tough loss.

• To add insult to injury, with just 10.6 seconds to go in the period, the Avs' Schwartz scored his second of the night when he got a piece of a shot from defenseman Sam Malinski. It trickled past Knight after he lost track of the puck. Hughes was also given an apple on the play. 4-2 Avalanche, and things once again were going down the toilet for the Blackhawks.

• With Kane out, it was mostly Bedard and Nazar double-shifting in the third period. Nazar came awfully close to scoring when he rang one off the crossbar.

• The Blackhawks emptied their net with just under three minutes to go, but the Avs scored right away. The empty netter was scored by Toews. "Fire Blashill" chants started up at the United Center as the game came to a close.

• The young Chicago squad gave it a good soldier's try. They really did; fighting until the end. But it's hard to fight back when you're down to a team like the Avalanche, while also down a forward. Once it was all said and done, the Blackhawks fell 5-2, and they're left to pick up the pieces yet again.

Quotable quotes

Oliver Moore was very open and honest after the game, saying the team is tired of losing. He even went so far as to call himself out for a bad effort on the overtime goal against the Boston Bruins. I asked him how the team bounces back after another tough loss.

"I think the biggest thing in this league that I'm learning, even from last game for me. I have a bad effort on the OT goal, and you have to watch it. You have to find a way to come with a fresh mindset every day, and you know that's that's all we can do. That's all we can control. And yeah, like I said, we don't want to keep talking about it though (winning). We want to do it."

Connor Bedard is becoming a pro early in his career about saying the right things after a loss. "I don't think there's a lack of belief or a lack of effort in here. That's never the question. I think it's just finding our game. Like I said, we believe in our group, we believe in each other, and we think it's going to start swinging the other way. We just got to stick with it and stay behind each other, stay positive, and do what we need to do, and not force things too much."

But the real story postgame was a very defiant and obviously frustrated Blashill. He made it clear he doesn't like the fans and the media saying the team, himself included, isn't trying to compete and turn this thing around. Per Blashill,

"I think I see the game different sometimes than what you guys do. I think a lot of times just the score dictates how people feel about the game. I heard our guys were getting asked questions, 'What was the difference in the compete level from Boston till tonight or Detroit?' You know, tonight, like to me, if you compare the compete level in Detroit and compete level tonight, you're not watching the game. Not even close to the same."

He admitted they took too many penalties, but he pushed back once again when asked if he thinks the team's compete level has changed. "I've had zero issue with our compete level, with the exception of two games, and I've said that publicly. The Utah game and the Detroit game are the only games in which I think our compete level wasn't good enough. So I don't know why that narrative's out there. I've been super honest with you guys when I feel the compete level is not good enough. I haven't sugarcoated it...I thought our compete level was absolutely fine tonight. I thought, in fact, I thought it was good for a lot of the game. Does that mean we didn't have any mistakes? Of course, we have mistakes. So we're going to build off that."

It's tough times right now as the Blackhawks attempt to right this ship. They'll now head on the road to visit the Florida Panthers on Wednesday (Nov. 4) and the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday (Nov. 5) in the first of back-to-back contests of the season. They lost to the Panthers 3-2 on Oct. 25, although it was one of their more competitive matchups. Then it's on to Carolina for a rematch with the Hurricanes, who they lost to 5-2 on Oct 10. They’re bound to win something soon, right?!

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