The season in the abyss trudged on for the Blackhawks against the young fast Toronto Maple Leafs, Wednesday night. After a disappointing loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning, this Blackhawks team needed to put their big boy pants and play the rest of the season like a team with their lives on the line. Coach Joel Quenneville made a couple of line swaps, but the lineup stayed basically the same. Meatball hero Jeff Glass was in net again for the Blackhawks.
These were the Blackhawks starting lines:
Subject to the Q-Blender at any moment
Brandon Saad – Nick Schmaltz – Patrick Kane
Alex DeBrincat – Jonathan Toews – Anthony Duclair
Patrick Sharp – Artem Anisimov – Ryan Hartman
Tomas Jurco – David Kampf – Vince Hinostroza
Duncan Keith – Jordan Oesterle
Erik Gustafsson – Brent Seabrook
Michal Kempny – Connor Murphy
This might come as a surprise to everyone that has watched this team but the Blackhawks took the lead in the first period; on the power play; on a goal from Brent Seabrook. The goal came just eleven seconds into their initial power play which was drawn by a David Kampf rush up the middle of the ice. Seabrook’s goal was of the simple nature as he just let a cannon go from the top of the circle that was slightly redirected by the stick of Leo Komarov and beat Freddy Andersen.
A few minutes after the Seabrook goal, Anthony Duclair forced a Leafs turnover deep in the Toronto zone and fed Alex DeBrincat for that thing he does very well, a one-timer. DeBrincat actually beat the goaltender but Andersen got enough of the shot to direct it off the post. If the Blackhawks can get this kind of play from those youngsters, they may actually have some success.
Toronto looked to have tied the game with just over five minutes left in the opening period, but James van Riemsdyk had blatantly skated into Hawks goalie Jeff Glass and affected his ability to stop the shot, thus negating the goal.
The Leafs, though, scored a goal that counted jsut a couple of minutes later. Brent Seabrook thought that there was going to be an icing call, and rightfully so, but the referees decided otherwise. Seabrook casually touched the puck as if there was an icing call but the play continued.
Chaos ensued in the Blackhawks zone and they never controlled the puck again until a Jake Gardiner shot hit Mitch Marner in the midsection and plopped into the net past Jeff Glass. Terrible break for a team that needs more help than anything.
As we have become fairly familiar with, the Blackhawks led the first period in shots 17-11 and won 65% of their faceoffs. The most important stat, though, was the 1-1 on the power play. This was their only power play goal in the new year, outside of the Sens anomaly game.
The Blackhawks kids came out in the second period and showed some of the electricity that we have been waiting for, as of late. Anthony Duclair, David Kampf and Nick Schmaltz all had their names mentioned by the NBC broadcast team for noticeable plays.
The action then slowed down to a crawl, though. In fact, at the 10 minute mark off the period, the total shots on net for both teams was a mere seven.
Each team had a couple of second period power plays but neither was able to take that elusive one goal lead, and the intermission came with Leafs leading in shots 11-7.
As the third period opened, the luke warm play carried over from the previous period until the five-minute mark.
A Tomas Jurco penalty gave the Leafs a power play that was not generating much pressure initially. Eventually, though, the Leafs caught the Blackhawks defensemen a step behind the play and Tyler Bozak found a wide open Nazem Kadri on the back door for a 2-1 lead.
Shockingly enough, the Blackhawks came back and scored their second power play goal of the game a mere three minutes after the Leafs took the lead. Vince Hinostroza started the play by avoiding the perimeter play, which has been the bane of the power play’s existence, and tossed the puck to Artem Anisimov at the front of the crease. Anisimov tried to jam the puck past Andersen, but was not able to beat him. Nick Schmaltz was able to sweep in and pick up the rebound to tie the game.
Toronto tried to challenge and have the goal reversed for goalie interference but the war room in Toronto agreed with the call on the ice. The goal stood and the tie game remained for the entirety of regulation.
Just six seconds into overtime, William Nylander found himself on a breakaway and drew a penalty which resulted in a very rare overtime penalty shot. Jeff Glass was slightly overmatched on the free shot and Nylander won the game.
The Blackhawks earned a standings point but they also threw one they can ill afford to lose away.
Pluses
- David Kampf’s confidence seems to be growing night after night, and he has shown more speed and skill on the offensive side of the ice than his predecessor Marcus Kruger
- Speaking of confidence, Anthony Duclair has been making more and electric plays. It is only a matter of time before he is finishing.
- Vince Hinostroza on the power play has been a great addition to the powerplay. His speed was noticeable with his former Rockford line mates, Kampf and Jurco, too.
- The Hawks were over 50% at the faceoff dots, once again, even though Anisimov, Schmaltz and Kampf were all under.
Minuses
- The missed icing was a huge issue, in the grand scheme. Giving up a breakaway six seconds into the overtime and then taking a penalty which resulted in a penalty shot is, once again, shooting yourself in the foot.
- Jordan Oesterle nearly handed the game to the Leafs when he casually turned the puck over to William Nylander, who ended up 1-on-1 chance with Glass. Glass made the save this time, but this was now two games in a row where Oesterle had awful turnovers deep in his own end. He still led the entire team in time on ice with 25:46, though.
- Patrick Sharp and Ryan Hartman are dropping further and further down the depth chart. They both played a team low 9:24.
- Tomas Jurco led the Blackhawks in the category we all expected he would; hits.