Blackhawks lose again, falling 3-2 to the Panthers despite a competitive game

The Chicago Blackhawks were back to work on Sunday afternoon (Oct. 25) hosting the 5-4-2 Florida Panthers. It was a beautiful day and a "Best Day Ever" theme at the United Center to celebrate the youth and their families. Not only that, but the Blackhawks honored veteran defenseman Ian Cole with a ceremony for playing in his 1000th game on Friday night (Oct. 23). What could possibly go wrong?!

Well, the Florida Panthers ruined the mojo. After a very competitive game, a late goal by the Panthers let to yet another loss for the Blackhawks, who fell 3-2 in this one. They're now 3-8-0 on the season. Let's get to the lineup changes, game notes and player reaction.

Blackhawks lineup & special teams

After two tough losses in a row, the Blackhawks made some tweaks to the forward lines and defensive pairings for this game.

Roman Kantserov - Connor Bedard - Patrick Kane

Tyler Bertuzzi - Anton Frondell - Jordan Greenway

Teuvo Teravainen - Frank Nazar - Ryan Donato

Cole Smith - Ryan Greene - Andrew Mangiapane

Alex Vlasic - Ian Cole

Wyatt Kaiser - Artyom Levshunov

Kevin Korchinski - Sam Rinzel

Spencer Knight/ Arvid Soderblom

Extras: Oliver Moore, Ethan Del Mastro, Bowen Byram (upper body)

Head coach Jeff Blashill moved depth forward Jordan Greenway up to the second line for this contest. He said he wanted some size among the top six against a heavy Panthers team. Teravainen moved down to the third line, and Andrew Mangiapane, who just came off injured reserve, drew into the lineup on the fourth line. Blashill felt he could provide energy.

Oliver Moore was a healthy scatch. Per Blashill pregame, "Ollie's going to be a really good player in this league. My confidence in Ollie is high ... he's played good hockey. Ollie's probably like the rest of our young guys. We just got to continue to learn how to basically not beat ourselves. As a group, we got to learn that. And as individuals, we got to learn that. Ollie's not alone. It's our whole team."

It sounds like Moore is getting a game to evaluate his game from above.

On defense, Kevin Korchinski finally drew into the lineup. He's only played in one contest so far, while Ethan Del Mastro played the last three contests due to an upper body injury to Bowen Byram.

Spencer Knight got the nod in net; his sixth consecutive start.

Power play units

PP1: Bertuzzi, Bedard-Kantserov-Kane, Teräväinen

PP2: Donato, Greene-Nazar-Frondell, Levshunov

On the second power play unit, Ryan Greene slotted into Moore's place, while Artyom Levshunov manned the point instead of Sam Rinzel

Penalty kill contributors

Greenway, Cole, Vlasic, Nazar, Greene, Kaiser, Teravainen, Levshunov

Blackhawks game notes

• For the second game in a row, the Blackhawks scored first. Ryan Greene notched his first goal of the season from the front of the net. He was assisted by Mangiapane and Korchinski, who both drew into the lineup after only playing in one previous contest. What a great way to get started!

• But it didn't take long for the Panthers to even the score, courtesy of Sandis Vilmanis. The Latvian got behind both Wyatt Kaiser and Artyom Levshunov, and the rest was history. He was assisted by Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe.

• With Tyler Bertuzzi in the box for tripping, the Panthers wasted no time scoring on the power play to make it 2-1. The goal was tallied by Matthew Tkachuk, and assisted by former Blackhawk's defenseman Seth Jones and Matthew's brother Brady.

• The Blackhawks survived the first frame lucky to be down just 2-1. The heavy-playing Panthers were knocking them around a lot. Florida led 15-6 in shots and 23-16 in scoring chances.

• Things were at a stalemate until a little over halfway through the second period. But then Roman Kantserov tallied his fourth goal of the season, which now leads the team. The helpers were provided by Patrick Kane and Connor Bedard.

• The Panthers couldn't stay out of the box in this contest. By the end of the second, the Blackhawks had been awarded seven! power plays. However, they had nothing to show for it, despite being credited with seven shots on the man advantage. The Panthers led 24-15 in total shots on goal through 40 minutes of play.

• The referees decided to even things out penalty-wise in the third period, awarding the Panthers three power plays. But the Blackhawks killed them off, and got breakaway chances from Frank Nazar and Cole Smith while they were at it.

• Alas, with just 2:23 to go in the game, Lars Eller got one past Spencer Knight to go ahead 3-2. He was sprung by Aaron Ekblad off of a bad line change by the Blackhawks. It was pretty heartbreaking, as Chicago had been keeping up with the Panthers compete-wise, and thought they were going to at least get to overtime.

• The Blackhawks emptied their net after the Florida goal, but they weren't able to get the equalizer. They fell 3-2 in the end, and are now 3-8-0 on the season.

Quotable Quotes

Ryan Donato played an excellent game, registering one shot on goal but six shot attempts. He was in front of the net for scoring chances numerous times, but either missed the net or broke his stick on all of them. He said he broke four sticks. Postgame, he was frustrated with the outcome but encouraged by the Blackhawks compete level against a strong Panthers team.

"Guys were chomping at the bit, excited, hungry. Obviously it's heartbreaking with the loss, but I think there's a lot of good things that we can build on. I think we got a lot of chances tonight. If we play hockey like we did tonight, it bodes well for our success in the future."

Captain Connor Bedard once again had to answer for another loss. He was asked how the team can keep frustration at bay. I think just kind of trying to channel it. There's going to be frustration. We're 3-8, so if there's no frustration, then that's even worse and too much frustration. But you got to use that in the next game, and trying to dig ourselves out. I think when you play with that edge, you play a little better. If we can we can do that the rest of the year, that'd be great.

There was a lot of pressure on Kevin Korchinski in this contest, seeing as he's been on the outside looking in so far this season. The defenseman he had a solid game, providing the secondary assist on the Greene goal and being a plus-2 in 12:41 minutes of ice time. He seemed happy with his play, and especially the confidence factor despite being on a short leash.

"At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you have a leash or not. You want to make the right play. You want to make a good play, and you want to help the team win. So having a leash, not a leash, you gotta have the same mindset that you gotta make plays out there. If it's not there, you got to live another day. Just play your game and be confident yourself."

Coach Blashill was complementary of Korchinski as well. "I thought he did a lot of good things ... He's got a little bit of drifting back when he's got the puck in the neutral zone. We're just getting him to plant his feet and go north. But I thought he played solid. I thought he played solid in that pair with (Sam) Rinzel. Thought both of them did a lot of good things."

As far as the game overall, Blashill acknowleged that this is a results driven league, and another loss does not go over well. But he was happy with the way the team played, and hopes they can build on it. "Overall from a process standpoint, they're (the Panthers) obviously a really good team. I thought through the majority of the game we played pretty damn well. You know, I thought we did a lot of good things".

Once its all said and done, the Blackhawks really needed to score on one of their seven power play opportunities. Both Bedard and Blashill concurred that they need to be better in that area. It will be interesting to see if Bowen Byram is available moving forward, and whether his presence on the point of the top power play unit will be helpful.

The Blackhawks will next host the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday (Oct. 27). Then they’ll head on the road to face the Detroit Red Wings (Oct. 29) and the Boston Bruins (Oct. 31), to close out the month.  

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