Things go from bad to worse for Blackhawks in embarrassing loss to Sabres

There are a lot of words you can use for the Chicago Blackhawks’ 5-on-5 effort tonight, and none of them are good. Ugly. Embarrassing. Pathetic. Those are the first few that come to mind. They compounded Thursday’s bad loss to the Seattle Kraken by getting run out of the building by the Buffalo Sabres. Losing 9-3 to the last-place team in the Eastern Conference doesn’t exude a ton of confidence.

“Obviously, a tough one for us,” head coach Jeff Blashill said. “We didn’t have it physically. Sometimes when you don’t have your best, you have to make sure you’re mentally dialed in. We weren’t dialed in enough. Some of this is a growing thing for our team. We’ve got a lot of guys that have never been through the NHL schedule, so there will be moments when they have to learn as they go. Part of it is learning that when you don’t have your best physically, you have to play good mentally.”

The Blackhawks have raised their standard of play this season, thereby raising the expectations of the fan base. Tonight’s effort fell far short of that standard. With the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche next on the schedule, all the good vibes from the first month of the season could be wiped out in the blink of an eye. These last two games have a lot of us wondering just how good this team is. I don’t have an answer for that, but I know they aren’t as bad as what we’ve seen from them in the last four periods. Regression was expected, but tonight was just awful.

From Bad Finish to Even Worse Start

If Blashill didn’t like his team’s first period against Seattle last night, he downright loathed what he saw in Buffalo tonight. We all wanted to see the Blackhawks come out on fire after how the Kraken game ended. Instead, they somehow played worse than they did finish out Thursday’s contest.

Josh Doan and Jason Tucker opened the scoring with goals 1:22 apart. The Blackhawks couldn’t clear the zone on the first goal, then Oliver Moore tried to make one extra move inside his blue line that led to the second goal. A rare defensive lapse on the penalty kill by Ilya Mikheyev led to the third goal.

The Sabres dominated the opening frame at 5-on-5 with a 66.67 Corsi for percentage (CF%). They had a 10-2 advantage in scoring chances and 4-1 in high-danger scoring chances. It was about as ugly as you could get. The late Tyler Bertuzzi goal gave them some life, or at least we thought it did.

“Unacceptable on our part to not be prepared to play,” Connor Murphy said. “If more so for Sodie, to hang him out to dry. You can have lapses. You can have games where you don’t have your best, but there is no excuse for how we played tonight.”

Top Line Shows Up

Three of the 18 Blackhawks skaters showed up in Buffalo while the rest coasted through 60 minutes. The top line of Ryan Greene, Connor Bedard, and Bertuzzi did all they could to carry this team, but it wasn’t enough against the all-of-a-sudden juggernaut that is the Sabres.

In his 100th game for the Blackhawks, Bertuzzi scored two of the three Blackhawks goals, including one on the power play. Ten of his 12 goals this season have come on the road, so maybe they should let him wear the white sweater every game.

Bedard factored in all three goals. He picked up his 100th and 101st career assists on the Bertuzzi goals. While he didn’t get a point on Alex Vlasic’s second-period goal, the play was made possible by his zone entry.

Moments after the Vlasic tally, Bedard was denied on a breakaway thanks to a great pad save by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Had he converted here, the Blackhawks are down 5-3 and have all the momentum. Instead, Luukkonen made the stop, and Hosh Doan scored his second goal of the night less than a minute later to make it 6-2.

I wrote before the game that Greene has been making the most of his second opportunity on Bedard’s line. He had the primary assist on Vlasic’s goal to give him points in three of his last four games.

On a night the Blackhawks gave up eight 5-on-5 goals, this line was somehow a plus-1. In 12:07 of ice time, they outshot the Sabres 8-6, outscored them 2-1, and produced four high-danger scoring chances while only allowing two.

Nuggets & Tidbits

• I am not one for tin foil hats and conspiracy theories. I will also never believe that the NHL or its officials have it out for any specific team. However, the poor officiating the Blackhawks have been subject to over the first 20 games of the season tests my restraint. First, Bertuzzi took a stick to the face in the opening minute of the game, and it wasn’t called.

• In the third period, Ryan Donato was denied a wraparound chance because Lukkonen blatantly tripped him. You can see the referee watching this sequence and refusing to raise his arm. The Blackhawks lost tonight because they played bad hockey, but the frustration level with the men in stripes has to be at an all-time high.

• I, for one, would like to have the Sam Rinzel from the beginning of the season back. The defenseman who had confidence and swagger. What happened to that guy? While he did have two assists tonight, he was on the ice for five goals against. The Tage Thompson goal in the third period was a direct result of an ill-advised cross-ice pass in the neutral zone. That was one of his three giveaways on the night. His decision-making has been poor of late. I’m not sure if Kyle Davidson is ready to give him a stint in Rockford to regain his mojo, but I’m willing to bet they’ve had that conversation.  

• No, Laurent Brossoit is going to take away Arvid Sodreblom’s job. First, he’s not even close to returning to game action. Second, Soderblom has been good up until tonight, and it was hard to hang tonight’s result on him with the way the team played in front of him. He was put in a tough spot, having to finish out the game with Spencer Knight given the night off. He will bounce back.