3 Takeaways From the Chicago Blackhawks Getting Blown Out on the Road by the Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings thumped the Chicago Blackhawks for the second week in a row. The only difference was this 6-2 victory came on home ice for the Kings.

The Blackhawks got shut out last Friday 5-0 at the United Center by LA. Hey, at least the Hawks scored a couple of goals in this latest defeat.

Chicago has shown recently it can beat the bad teams in the NHL as the Blackhawks have won three of their last five games. Those victories were against Arizona, Anaheim, and San Jose. All teams jockeying for positions in the Tankathon.com standings.

When the Hawks have had to play playoff contenders like the Kings or the Colorado Avalanche over their last 10 games, they have been outscored 21-2. This is the early stages of an extensive rebuild, so those are the bumps you take on the road to getting back to being competitive.

Anyways, here are three takeaways from this road defeat...

Kevin Korchinski and Jaycob Megna had a bad night.

Plus/minus is an outdated stat, but both being a -4 actually shows just how bad this defensive pairing was. They were on the ice for four of the Kings' goals and Korchinski's mistake in trying to get the puck out of the Hawks' zone directly led to the third goal

If you are a more of an advanced stat person, Megna's and Korchinski's stat card is not pretty to look at.

Korchinski at least did something positive when he scored a goal in the third period. It was his second game with a goal. That is the maddening part with Korchinski right now. He is starting to show the immense offensive talent he has, but he has been struggling with his other main job duty on defense.

Then again, he is still 19 and head coach Luke Richardson still loves his potential on the back end.

Megna on the other hand is a veteran who was a waiver claim in December because the team was riddled with injuries on the blue line. If he wants to stick around in the NHL, he needs to avoid nights like he had in this one.

The Blackhawks let this one slip away in the second period.

The Hawks went into the first intermission tied 1-1 thanks to a Nick Foligno power-play goal. The second period is when the Kings rattled off three goals as two came from Anze Kopitar.

Yes, it was him who did the most damage much like he did to the Hawks during those Western Conference playoff battles ten years ago during the Hawks' Stanley Cup runs.

The Kings produced six high-danger chances during that period and outdid the Hawks 13-4 in that area overall.

Wyatt Kaiser was solid in his return from the Rockford IceHogs.

The defenseman was recalled from the AHL after he was demoted in November. The young blueliner had an impressive training camp, but he struggled and was sent to Rockford to work on his game. He did have a brief return in December, but for the most part, he has been developing with the IceHogs.

He is back in the NHL as the Hawks want to give him another shot as the season winds down.

Kaiser did not do anything noteworthy besides not being on the ice for any of the Kings' goals. That is actually supposed to be a solid night for a defenseman.

Kaiser skated over 17 minutes and the Hawks had an 11-7 scoring-chance advantage during his five-on-five ice time. Richardson was pleased with how he improved over the game when it came to moving his feet.

The Hawks could sure use Kaiser developing into a solid NHL defenseman to grow along with Alex Vlasic and Korchinski.