Blackhawks Postgame Musings: Making the right plays leads to an ugly victory

It wasn’t pretty, but it was still worth two points. The Chicago Blackhawks gave head coach Jeff Blashill his first victory as head coach. Ilya Mikheyev scored twice, the opening goal during a lopsided second period, and a late empty-netter. Andre Burakovsky scored the game-winning goal on a third-period power play.

“We’ve been in this situation four times now, where they’re one-goal games late,” Blashill said. “That’s a good thing, but you have to find ways to win. You can’t just be close, you have to keep finding ways to win, which we did tonight.”

Overall, Blashill was satisfied with the result. The Blackhawks didn’t generate a ton of scoring chances, but they didn’t give us many either. He said that while they ideally want to create a ton of chances, limiting their opponent's opportunities is the key to winning in the National Hockey League.

Jason Dickinson Stabilizes Third Line

Jason Dickinson returned to the lineup tonight after missing Saturday’s home opener against the Montreal Canadiens with an upper-body injury. He said that he bounced back quicker than expected and that he felt good after joining his teammates for the morning skate.

Blashill said his team has been guilty of too many unforced errors to start the season, and having Dickinson back should help.

“One thing we can take pride in is our effort and compete – the areas that are in our control,” Dickinson said of the first three games. “We still make mistakes out of habits that we’ve created over the past couple of years. If we clean those areas up, then we’ll feel a lot better about the results.”

Dickinson finished off his return to the lineup with the primary assist on the opening goal, three shots on goal, and he won eight of his 17 faceoffs. While the third line is supposed to be the team’s best defensive line, they were the best offensive trio for the Blackhawks. At 5-on-5, they had a 13-5 advantage in shot attempts, 8-1 in shots on goal, 8-2 in scoring chances, and produced six of the Blackhawks’ seven high-danger chances, while only allowing one. Sometimes, your best defense is a good offense.

Wyatt Kaiser Keeps Doing the Little Things

If you look at Wyatt Kaiser’s stat sheet, especially the possession stats, you’d think he had one of the worst games of his career. He spent most of the night defending, with the Mammoth getting 19 shot attempts to just seven for the Blackhawks with Kaiser on the ice at 5-on-5. Utah generated seven scoring chances against Kaiser, but produced no goals.

However, Kaiser made numerous small plays that don’t show up on the stat sheet but need to be made to win a game. He read passes perfectly, breaking them up and starting the play going the other direction. He used physicality to separate players from the puck. His best play came midway through the second period. Kailer Yamamoto beat him wide, but he recovered, swung around, and used his stick to break up a prime scoring chance.

Blashill loves talking about winning habits. Kaiser is a perfect example of how habitually making the right plays will lead to wins on the ice. He’s leading by example, and his coach trusts him. He led all Blackhawks with 21:49 of ice time.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• Artyom Levshunov was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch on Saturday. With Blashill dressing seven defensemen, it allowed Levshunov to be used in more ideal situations. Mikheyev doesn’t score his first without Levshunov absorbing a hit from Michael Carcone to keep the puck alive. Those are the types of plays that will endear him to his head coach.

• The Blackhawks won a game in which Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar combined for one shot attempt. The Mammoth shut down the top two lines, but the third line and power play were there to pick up the slack. Bedard, like Kaiser, made a handful of plays you don’t get a tick on the scoresheet for. He used his stick to break up a scoring chance and was active on both forecheck and backcheck. He also went 5-for-6 at the faceoff dot.

• Nick Foligno takes a beating on social media from time to time for his lack of dynamic plays. Well, he’s not here to make those types of plays. He’s here to provide his veteran leadership and make the right plays. But he still knows how to make the highlight reel every once in a while, like with his pass to set up the game-winning goal.