The Chicago Blackhawks (23-29-10) were decimated of their veteran players at the NHL trade deadline and fell to the Vancouver Canucks 19-36-7) 6-3 at the United Center. Vancouver forward Brock Boeser scored twice. Chicago was led by forwrad Frank Nazar with a goal and an assist.
Ryan Donato gave the Blackhawks the 1-0 lead at the 1:08 mark of the first period. Donato retrieved his own dump-in and fired a backhand into the net behind Canuck goaltender Nikita Tolopilo.
Chicago’s lead would not last long, as a minute later Canuck winger Drew O’Connor tied the score at 1-1 beating Arvid Soderblom.
Forward Jake DeBrusk would give the Canucks the lead at 2-1 a few seconds later, tipping home a Zeev Buium’s shot from the point.
Vancouver extended the lead to 3-1 at the 6:32 mark of the opening period Teddy Blueger slid a puck behind Soderblom to give Vancouver three goals on seven shots.
The Blackhawks would answer back at 12:00 with pretty tic-tac-toe play finished by Ilya Mikheyev. The goal, Mikheyev’s 12th of the season, was assisted by Oliver Moore and Tyler Bertuzzi.
With the score 3-2 after one period of action, Nazar tipped a shot from Alex Vlasic from the point that beat Tolopilo to tie the game at 3-3 at the 19:17 mark of the second period.
Boeser scored his first goal of the night early in the third period, on the power play, to give the visitors the one-goal lead. The lead appeared to disappear when Landon Slaggert scored at the 15:00 mark only to have the goal disallowed for a kicking motion to direct the puck into the goal.
Vancouver would take advantage of the disallowed goal and take a two-goal lead at the 18:34 mark of the third period before Boeser scored his second goal of the night into an empty net to give the Canucks a 6-3 victory.
The Blackhawks travel to Texas to take on the Dallas Stars for a 5 p.m. CDT puck drop on Sunday at the American Airline Center.
Analysis
Nazar finding the back of the net and assisting on another is exactly what the slumping sophomore needed. Nazar has been a little snake-bitten this season, shooting at 8.2% for the year and only has eight goals and 19 assists in 46 games played. The 22-year-old has been tasked with more ice time this season at 18:27 and has shown some struggles defensively, which in turn, looks to have spilled over into his offense.
The trade deadline decimated some of the Blackhawks’ older players and it is strictly the youth movement from here on out this season. Bedard is clearly the next player in line and this is his franchise for the foreseeable future. The Hockey News rated Anton Frondell the best prospect in hockey not yet in the NHL. The future is bright and General Manager Kyle Davidson spoke to the media and said they are sticking to their plan. As fans, all we can do is wait…two more seasons before they compete for the playoffs.