Blackhawks Postgame Musings: Too many miscues lead to loss to Jets

The Chicago Blackhawks began their season-long six-game road trip by getting beaten 6-3 by the Winnipeg Jets. This was by far the worst game of the season, but the Blackhawks didn’t play as badly as the scoreboard suggests. The Jets were able to capitalize on some critical defensive mistakes. When you give a team as good as they are an inch, they will take a foot.

Teuvo Teravainen provided the Blackhawks' first goal by taking advantage of a fortunate bounce off the end boards for his second tally on the campaign.

The Blackhawks got late goals from Alex Vlasic and Andre Burakovsky to draw closer, but it was too little, too late to mount a serious comeback.

“One of the things I would say is that we were down three and cut it to one in the third,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought our guys came out and fought hard. That’s what I was interested to see, in terms of the character of our group. Are we going to lie down, or are we going to come out and play? We did a good job of that. There were parts of the game I thought we played really well. Then we made some big mistakes, and those big mistakes ended up in the back of our net.”

Little Miscues Sink Blackhawks

Spencer Knight allowed more than three goals for the first time this season, and he didn’t get a lot of help in front of him. The Jets are too good a team to be sloppy with the puck and out of position against. They took full advantage of the Blackhawks’ miscues to build a 4-1 lead.  

On the Jets’ opening goal of the game, Connor Murphy was with Vladislav Namestnikov down in the slot, then left him alone for some reason. It looked like he was heading down low to prevent a back-door play when nobody was there. Instead, he left Namestnikov alone in a prime scoring area, and he buried it.

The first of two Gabe Valardi goals was a product of Louis Crevier stepping up at the blue line without coverage from a forward. That led to a 2-on-1 rush and an easy goal for the home.

Jason Dickinson tried a blind backhand pass in the neutral zone that was picked off and quickly deposited into the Blackhawks’ net for a 3-1 deficit. Mark Scheifele’s ninth goal of the season was the weakest goal Knight has given up all year.

On Winnipeg’s fourth goal, Alex Vlasic got caught puck-watching Dylan DeMelo and left just enough room for Valardi to strike again.

Scoreboard Doesn’t Tell the Full Story

Usually, if you see the Blackhawks losing 6-3 to the Jets, you’d think they were dominated. That wasn’t the case tonight. The Blackhawks were the better team at 5-on-5 in all three periods, but it was those small mistakes that ultimately cost them the game.

They ended the night with 49 shot attempts to the Jets’ 42, for a 53.85 Corsi for percentage (CF%). They held a 12-11 advantage in high-danger scoring chances. The Jets outshot the Blackhawks 24-20 at 5-on-5 and had a slight 22-21 edge in scoring chances. Overall, the Blackhawks held their own against the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners, but the talent gap was too large to close.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• Blashill might have found the best combination for Connor Bedard. He’s built good chemistry with Andre Burakovsky, and the addition of Ryan Greene has been a good fit. In 12:31 of 5-on-5 ice time, they had a 66.67 CF%, outshot the Jets 7-4, had an 8-3 scoring-chance advantage, and outscored them 2-0.

• Bedard was dynamic again. He had three shots on goal on seven attempts and had four individual scoring chances. He extended his point streak to three games with the primary assist on Burakovsky’s highlight-reel goal.

• The Blackhawks went 0-for-3 on the power play, but had some good puck movement and looks on the first two chances. Part of that was due to success at the faceoff dot, winning five of the seven power-play faceoffs. Unfortunately, they lost five of their six shorthanded faceoffs. They lost the overall faceoff battle 23 to 30 (43%).

• Dickinson’s rough night ended in the second period when he reaggravated the shoulder injury that has already cost him three games. Blashill said he is questionable for Saturday’s game at the Edmonton Oilers. At this point, he needs to shut it down and get fully healthy instead of being in and out of the lineup.

• The latest injury to Dickinson has some fans hopeful Nick Lardis or Oliver Moore get called up. I think the only way one of them is hopping on a plane to Edmonton is if Dickinson is out long-term. The Blackhawks ideally want Lardis and Moore to stay up when they get recalled. If they need an extra body for a game or two, look for someone like Joey Anderson or Dominic Tominato to get the nod.

• Jonathan Toews had an emotional night facing his former team for the first time. He had the secondary assist on the Jets’ fifth goal. He finished the game with a game-high six shots on goal, won 14 of his 20 faceoffs, but was on the ice for both Blackhawks’ goals late in the third period.