The Chicago Blackhawks entered Monday night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks coming off a shutout loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday. The Hawks rolled out this lineup against the Pacific Division-leading Canucks.
Blackhawks lines in morning skate vs. Canucks. Reichel and Guttman appear to be scratches.
Foligno-Kurashev-Raddysh
Blackwell-Dickinson-Anderson
Pitlick-Entwistle-Donato
Katchouk-Sanford-RJohnsonVlasic-Jones
Korchinski-Megna
Phillips-CrevierMrazek in starter’s crease
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 22, 2024
The biggest newest of the game was the healthy scratch of Lukas Reichel. The young forward continues to struggle this season and it appears that Luke Richardson is done messing around with the youngster.
The Canucks got both their goals in the first period. The first goal was a tap-in by former Blackhawks forward Pius Suter. Andrei Kuzmenko skated into the zone and executed a spin-o-rama pass that hit Suter on the tape. The second goal of the game was scored by Quinn Hughes. Hughes activated in the offensive zone and picked up a loose puck. He went top shelf over the shoulder of Petr Mrazek. The rest of the game was a stalemate with the Blackhawks playing tough hard-nosed hockey, but did not have any goals to show for their style of play.
The Hawks fell in their 17th straight road game, losing 2–0 to Vancouver. It was the second shutout loss in a row for the Hawks.
Analysis
The Hawks continue to play hard despite being unable to put the puck in the net. During the Richardson era, his teams always compete hard but are just short on talent. It is not fair to evaluate Richardson based on his win-loss record as a coach. He is currently coaching a team with one arm tied behind its back. His mission this season is develop younger players and instill the hard-nose style of play. He has done a decent job thus far especially if you look at Kevin Korchinski’s play. Korchinski is far from a finished product, but you can tell his game has improved throughout this season.
A big part in the Hawks staying competitive in games has been the play of Mrazek. Mrazek turned in another solid performance despite getting no offensive support and playing behind young and unproven defensemen. Mrazek now has allowed three goals or less in his last five starts. He should be a candidate for a contract extension similar to Jason Dickinson and Nick Foligno. The Blackhawks do not have any current NHL starters in their system without Mrazek. With 32 games under his belt this season, he needs just seven games to surpass last season’s high of 39.
While Alex Vlasic has taken a huge step in his development and has been one of the best Hawks defensemen this season. Other younger defensemen have struggled in their own zone. Louis Crevier and Isaak Phillips are the most recent example of young defensemen struggling. They were on the ice when both goals were scored. While both Creiver and Phillips have shown flashes of NHL talent, there is still much work to be done on the development side with both of these players.
The Blackhawks’ next game is Wednesday night against the Seattle Kraken on TNT at 9 p.m. CST.