The Chicago Blackhawks skated into their contest against the Montreal Canadiens with the trade deadline looming and questions around the futures of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews with the organization. Blackhawks fans should be champing at the bit to get a return on any player on the roster, whether that player led the team to three Stanley Cups just less than a decade ago.
- Jaxson Stauber allowed four goals on 31 Montreal shots. The loss dropped Stauber’s season record to 3–1–0 with a .911 save percentage. He looked like he was battling it behind a team disinterested in being in Canada.
- Connor Murphy made a clean hit on Nick Suzuki, which he had to answer the bell when Josh Anderson jumped him. Murphy was on the losing end of the tussle but the game of hockey is in a bad spot when players cannot make clean hits on players. The 10-minute misconduct is great and all, but the silliness needs to stop.
- Jake Allen stopped all 22 Blackhawks shots in what could be one of the easiest shutouts in quite some time. Chicago did not generate many high-quality scoring chances and did not do much in the “tough” areas on the ice.
- The contest started a six-games-in-nine-nights stretch for the fledgling Blackhawks. As fans, we can only hope this team is going to run out of steam and bottom out, allowing them to fall to the bottom of the standings. The pressure will mount for Kyle Davidson to make moves, and we may see this team completely bottom out in March and April. Then all we can do is hope the odds work out. It is time to cheer on Columbus and Anaheim.
Chicago is back in action on Wednesday to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto for a 6 p.m. CST puck drop.