Blackhawks Postgame Musings: Top six gives encouraging performance heading into regular season

The Chicago Blackhawks wrapped up the road portion of their preseason schedule with the second win in as many nights, beating the Minnesota Wild 4-1. Frank Nazar was the star of the night by scoring three of the Blackhawks' four goals. Ryan Donato gave the visitors a huge insurance goal midway through the third period.

“There’s always going to be ups and downs,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. "There’s going to be learning opportunities in games like this, and that’s what the preseason is for anyway. When you have a young D corps, that will be the story throughout the course of the season. They’ll do some really good things, and then things we’ve got continue to get better at.”

It’s Frank Nazar’s World

The expectations ramped up for Nazar as soon as he put pen to paper on his big contract extension this summer. However, nothing has changed for the Blackhawks' young forward. He goes about his business with quiet confidence and a hint of swagger.

Nazar showed his speed, smarts, and skills throughout tonight’s game. He finished with a trio of goals and could have had at least two more.

After scoring a late empty-net goal to complete the hat trick, Nazar had four shots on goal, five shot attempts, a hit, and a blocked shot, while winning five of his 12 faceoffs.

“He thought he played really well and deserved the goals he got,” Blashill said. “He created opportunities and was really skating. It was probably another level than where he’s been, and it’s more the level that I think has led to his success late last year. It’s a sign of good things to come.”

The rest of the National Hockey League is going to be aware of Nazar in short order. He’s primed for a huge season and has only scratched the surface of his potential. With him on the ice at 5-on-5, the Blackhawks outscored the Wild 1-0, had a 6-3 advantage in scoring chances, and doubled up high-danger scoring chances 2-1.

Tyler Bertuzzi Leads the Charge

Tyler Bertuzzi’s first season with the Blackhawks had its ups and downs. He had his stretches where he was an effective player, adding scoring depth, and then he’d have periods where he was having no impact on the ice. If the Blackhawks get what we saw tonight from him on most nights, this could be a fun year.

Bertuzzi was noticeable early. He made a strong play in the neutral before making a great pass to Nazar, who set up a crashing Wyatt Kaiser in front of the net. Unfortunately, Kaiser didn’t make a clean reception. Betruzzi then made a tremendous play to keep the puck in the zone, and moments later, he set up Nazar’s first goal on the power play.

Late in the second period, Bertuzzi fought off the much larger Zach Bogosian to keep control of the puck. It led to a long shift in the offensive zone that produced a couple of good scoring chances. He finished his night with two assists, a shot on goal, one takeaway, and a blocked shot. However, most of his best plays were the kind that don’t show up on the stat sheet.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• Defenseman Alex Vlasic did not come out for the third period. He appeared to get dinged up after getting pinched along the boards late in the second period. The Blackhawks said he is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury, and will be reevaluated in the coming days.

• Artyom Levshunov’s preseason debut against the Detroit Red Wings had a shaky start, but that could be said about the entire team that night. He looked much better against the Wild today, playing with more confidence. Early in the game, he made a nice stick play to break up a scoring chance for Ryan Hartman. He used his speed to draw a holding penalty that led to the power-play goal. Even late in the game, he wrapped up Marcus Foligno to keep him off his goaltender. While the Wild had a shot attempt advantage at 5-on-5 with Levshunov on the ice, the Blackhawks outscored them 2-0.

• Ahead of the game, I was excited to see the new first line of Donato, Connor Bedard, and Andre Burakovsky. They certainly got off on the right foot. In 11:57 of 5-on-5 ice time, the trio led in shot attempts (11-9), shots on goal (8-2), scoring changes (8-6), high-danger scoring chances (4-3), and goals (1-0). Bedard had five shots on goal, seven shot attempts, and had this beautiful assist.

• Faceoffs have been an Achilles heel for the Blackhawks the last few seasons. With the addition of Michael Peca to the coaching staff, the team should see improvement, and we’ve seen a bit of that in the preseason. As a team, they won 46% of the faceoffs in Minnesota. Ryan Green led the way at 50% (6 of 12). After losing four of his first five faceoffs, Bedard finished by winning five of his nine. He’s 13 of 24 on the preseason, for 54.1%.