Blackhawks play better, but come up short in loss to Avalanche

The Chicago Blackhawks headed into tonight’s game against the Colorado Avalanche reeling from back-to-back bad losses. The Avalanche came into the contest riding an eight-game winning streak and has only lost once in regulation this season. Many felt this could be another ugly loss for the Blackhawks, but they held their own in a 1-0 loss.

The Blackhawks played an excellent opening period, outshooting the Avalanche 11-2. However, Scott Wedgewood was fantastic, and it felt like a big win for Colorado that the game was scoreless at the first intermission. The Avalanche flipped the script with a dominating second period, with a 19-1 shot advantage. Spencer Knight made one lone mistake by tossing the puck back into the middle ice, leading to the only goal of the game.

“Going into Friday’s game, we were one of only four teams that hadn’t lost two in a row in regulation, which is pretty impressive for a young group,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “You look around the league, and teams seem to be going on runs both ways. We want to avoid those negative runs. Coming and having greater urgency, we’re going to get a couple of days of practice here … Wednesday is going to be critical. Again, building off a lot of things we did positive, just have a better second.”

Jason Dickinson Has Healthy Return

Jason Dickinson returned to the Blackhawks lineup for the first time since Oct. 30. It’s been a frustrating season for the veteran forward; the upper-body injury he suffered during the second game of the year has cost him 13 games.

However, when Dickinson has played, he’s been very effective on the Blackhawks' third line. Entering tonight’s game, he had the highest Corsi for percentage (CF%) among the forwards. With him on the ice at 5-on-5, the Blackhawks have a 33-27 advantage in scoring chances, and 16-11 in high-danger scoring chances. He’s also won 54% of his faceoffs.

Dickinson was noticeable early with his physicality. He dished out a team-high five hits, had four shot attempts, and won 53% of his faceoffs. He and Ilya Mikheyev were fantastic on the penalty kill.

“Colorado’s the bar right now,” he said. “The way they’re playing, they definitely deserve to be talked about in that light. But there are no moral victories in the NHL. As much as we’re a growing team, maybe you can look at these that way.

“So every game, it matters. It doesn’t matter who it is on a given night, if it’s two days of rest and then into a game. It all matters. It’s just a matter of doing it on an everyday basis. Like you said, responding to a tough one, that’s what matters to me.”

Blackhawks Do Their Job on NHL’s Top Line

Heading into tonight’s game, it was assumed that Dickinson’s line would be on the ice against the Avalanche’s top line. However, Blashill trusted the Connor Bedard line with the task of trying to shut down the most dangerous line in the NHL. We saw this earlier this season in Edmonton, when Bedard’s line was matched up against Connor McDavid most of the night.

Superstar Nathan MacKinnon leads the Avalanche’s top line, who tops the NHL with 17 goals and 37 points. He is the early-season favorite to win his second Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. Coming into tonight’s game, he had 16 goals and 48 points in 44 career games against the Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks kept the Avalanche’s top line in check for much of the night, with Bedard going head-to-head against MacKinnon. Shots were even 7-7 with the MacKinnon line on the ice. They had a 10-7 scoring chance advantage, but the Blackhawks had one more high-danger scoring chance.

“MacKinnon’s line is a great line, one of the best lines in the league, especially with Nate being out there, and a lot of times when he’s out there, Makar is out there,” Blashill said. “They play together, I don’t want to say exclusively, but a lot. So, there’s a double-edged sword, and I thought they did a good job. I thought there were times when I’d put Dickey out there against them, but I didn’t want to give Dickinson a full night, just coming back from injury. I wanted Connor to check him and be able to check for his offense, and I thought that line did a good job.”

Nuggets & Tidbits

• Ryan Greene continues to fit in well with Bedard. His play in the offensive zone is starting to catch up with his defensive game. He has learned to be alert and ready for the puck to be on his stick at any time. He had three excellent scoring chances in the first period. The game could have been different had he converted on any one of them.

• The referees had another questionable night, at best. Dickinson was called for a slashing penalty in the second period when the replay clearly showed Artturi Lehkonen snapped his own stick on the ice.

In the third period, Tyler Bertuzzi was called for tripping even though it wasn’t his stick that did the dirty deed. After a quick conference, the officials rescinded the call. Blashill said he has seen a call get taken off the board before and was pleased that the right call was eventually made.

• Artyom Levshunov looked like he was thinking far too much on the ice tonight. His decision-making was odd at times, and some of his passes were not as sharp as they needed to be. Blashill has said numerous times that Levshunov is at his best when he is playing off his instincts. These are the types of rough patches we are going to have to live with while playing so many young defenders. It wasn’t his best game, but he was far from a liability on the ice.

• While nobody is officially saying, it sure looks like Frank Nazar is not fully recovered from the injury suffered on Nov. 7. He has still been effective with assists in four straight games before tonight. Still, he just hasn’t been as dynamic as we’ve seen in the past. We’ll see how the Blackhawks handle him going forward, but if he’s not 100%, shutting him down for a little bit might not be the worst idea.