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RECAP: Blackhawks drop season opener 5-2 in Vegas

  
Patrick Kane celebrates his first goal with the Blackhawks since 2023 in their season opening loss, Tuesday. (photo courtesy of NHL.com)
Patrick Kane celebrates his first goal with the Blackhawks since 2023 in their season opening loss, Tuesday. (photo courtesy of NHL.com)

Well, we’re back! The NHL regular season is upon us, and the Blackhawks are back in action once again. Patrick Kane led the Blackhawks into Las Vegas on Tuesday night to take on the Golden Knights in their first matchup of the season. It was Kane’s first game in a Chicago uniform since the trade that sent him to the New York Rangers in the 2022-23 season.

Here is the different from last year lineup the Blackhawks rolled out on opening night:

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First Period:

In the first period, the Blackhawks looked like a team that wasn’t really prepared for the firepower of the Golden Knights. After only a minute of play, Andrew Mangiapane took a tripping penalty behind the Vegas net, giving the home team their first powerplay of the game. They weren’t able to capitalize on the opportunity, but they received another for a big time miscue on the Blackhawks’ part. Lack of communication led to a too man men on the ice call, putting the Golden Knights on the man advantage halfway through the period.

This time, they would get a goal from Victor Olofsson on a wrister that got past Spencer Knight. It wasn’t a great goal to let up from Knight, as he got beat over the glove side on that shot. Almost five minutes later, the Knights would get another one past Knight. This one was due to no one clearing the front of the net at all. Rookie Trevor Connelly parked himself in front and cleaned up a rebound from a Brayden McNabb shot for the first of his career. Vegas would take this 2-0 lead into the intermission.

Second Period:

After the first eleven minutes of the period being more of a back and forth, with Vegas getting almost all the chances and Knight proving up to the task of stopping them, the Blackhawks finally broke through. After Wyatt Kaiser got his stick on a puck in the neutral zone, the puck found its way to Jordan Greenway. He skated into the zone with Ryan Greene and took the shot on goal, wristing it right past Carter Hart for his first as a Blackhawk.

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Vegas got a goal back a couple of minutes later. With Jack Eichel parked in front of the net, Ivan Barbashev found him from behind the net. He put the puck over the pad and in the back of the net, 3-1 Vegas. Once again, we would head to the intermission with the Golden Knights up by 2.

Third Period:

Four minutes into the third, Showtime had arrived. Patrick Kane got rocking and rolling into the offensive zone. He took the puck from Parker Wotherspoon in the middle of the ice. He out-waited Hart and wristed the puck right over him, 3-2 Vegas.

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After some vintage Patrick Kane, Blackhawks fans were surely hopeful that the team could get some more offense going to get back into this game. That wouldn’t happen, however, as just thirty-nine seconds later, the Golden Knights would get a goal back. With some great passing, the puck found its way to Noah Hanifin. He put a wrister right under the blocker of Knight, making it 4-2 Vegas.

Mark Stone would deposit an empty netter to seal this one, giving the Golden Knights the season opening victory.

Analysis:

As the periods went on, the Blackhawks got better. They started off from horrible, and then to bad, and then to decent, but have a ton to work on this season. We knew this wasn’t going to be right back to the playoffs for them, but some sloppy defensive play is not going to help cover up for any possibly miscues that will happen. This team does need to get better at covering the net and paying attention to where defenders are. The Eichel goal caught everyone watching the puck instead of watching their player they were supposed to defend, along with the Connelly goal in the first.

Hopefully, the physicality that showed up at times in this game comes to the fore more the rest of the season, as this hit by Sam Rinzel shows that they have the ability to push back against good offense with good defense if they use their size to their advantage.

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The Blackhawks’ next game is on Thursday night against the Utah Mammoth. That game will be at 8:30 pm central on ESPN+, Hulu, and Disney+.

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