Gate and new co-host Pete Fricano get together to preview a new NHL season and remind you why you all listen. Get your goalie fix!

  In the warmups, Gate and Pete talk about Pet’s new gig doing some announcing with a new LPHL team.

  In the first period, Jeremy Swayman just signed a huge 8 year deal to stay in Boston.

  In the second period, We segue to the Robin Lehner saga.

  In the third period, the Yaroslav Askarov trade.

  We wrap up overtime with some predictions and story lines we’ll be following.

  As an added bonus we talk about out top 3-4 goalies in the NHL.

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The post The Net Perspective – Episode 5 – Swayman, Askarov, Lehner and more appeared first on The Rink.

In a recent, “Laz and Powers” podcast, Mark Lazerus of The Athletic stated, “They have done really well playing the youth with the goalies and the forwards.” Have they really done a good job of seeing just what they have with the young goalies? I would strongly argue that they have not, or they only have to a lesser degree.

The player with the most NHL experience was Malcolm Subban, who was a throw-in to the Lehner deal to even out the number of goalies on the roster. He was a former first-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins and was not able to nail down a backup role anywhere he has been. In fact, Subban became a bit of a lightning rod for hate in Vegas due to his complete lack of consistency. He was statistically one of the worst goalies in the entire NHL at the time of the Lehner trade.

The second in line was Collin Delia, maybe one of the most underappreciated players in the entire Blackhawks system. A free agent out of Merrimack University, he was a Hobey Baker nominee in 2015 with former Blackhawks Nick Schmaltz and Tyler Motte. Delia earned a contract out of prospect camp after showing some real athleticism in the summers of 2016 and 2017. He made his NHL debut in 2018, then getting his first start (and win) in the infamous Scott Foster game, and then was sacrificed to the gods of no defense with Cam Ward in 2018–19. Despite playing behind the worst defense in the entire league for 16 games, he put up a respectable .908 save percentage. Due to the surprise signing of Lehner in the summer of 2019, Delia was relegated to Rockford once again, which led to the 24-year-old being named an AHL all star for his solid play with the IceHogs.

Unfortunately, Blackhawks Head Coach Jeremy Colliton’s unreasonably short leash this January eventually banished Delia to goalie purgatory.

It is hard to believe now but, in January, Kevin Lankinen was the least experienced and third in line. He had some success in the 2018 IIHF World Championships and was also named an AHL all star in 2020, but no one had any idea if his style would translate. He had never played an NHL game. Realistically, no one could predict he would step in and play .930-plus hockey for the first third of the season. He has won the starting position and there is no debating this.

The biggest wild card (and least probable option) was Matt Tomkins. He was a draft pick way back in 2012 and has been toiling around between the AHL and ECHL since 2017. His stats have not been anything special, but one would assume that if the organization was willing to spend a decade developing a prospect, they expect the final product to be more than a marginal AHL/ECHL tweener.

Fast forward to April where the Blackhawks over-performed so well early on that they have been able to hang on to some very improbable playoffs hopes. They have learned quite a bit about the status of the kids in the organization, but Colliton seems to have cut off his nose to spite his face regarding goaltending by hitching his wagon to just Lankinen and Subban. Not that both have not played well, but could Delia or Tomkins be a solution as an NHL backup? Could they be moved for assets? No one knows because the “great communicator” stopped communicating with his goalies and just left them off on shame island.

Over-performing or not, the goal and focus of this season should never have changed from auditioning the kids that can compete at the NHL level. All of them. After the first 10 games, Delia still had better statistics than Subban and Lankinen, yet the door was slammed shut on him after two rust-filled games for no apparent reason.

Two damn games!

Two games in the first four where even Subban gave up five goals per game, as well. There is simply no justification for icing Delia out of the lineup. His save percentage was better than Subban.

Conventional wisdom and Delia’s previous NHL success should be enough to tell you that he could definitely be a serviceable option as a backup. This was supposed to be a “play the kids and see what you have got” year with forwards and defensemen, but, after Lankinen and Subban, have they done that with the goalies?

No.

It is time to see what everyone has, including the goalies. We know Lankinen has won the starting spot, and Subban has played well, but, in a transition year, you need to know what the rest have as well.

The post Net Perspective: Blackhawks’ Colliton needs to look deeper into goaltending appeared first on The Rink.

Currently, the incumbent, Corey Crawford, becomes an unrestricted free agent when the offseason begins. The soon-to-be 36-year-old goalie has been a warrior for the organization and widely underappreciated in Chicago for almost a decade. That said, he has a proven history of serious head injuries and is one swift “doink” on the noggen from another lengthy stint in a dark room. He just wrapped up a six-year, $36 million contract that began the same season he won his second Stanley Cup in three seasons with Chicago.

Despite his COVID-19 diagnosis, lack of training camp preparation and five months off the ice, he made a solid argument for a one or two-year extension to backstop this team…if he can stay healthy, and if his decline does not start rolling downhill at a much quicker rate.

In walking away from Robin Lehner at the trade deadline for a draft pick and a future Rockford IceHogs legend, Bowman left himself few options to keep the puck out of the back of the Chicago net. If it were not for arguably the best goaltending tandem in the NHL at the time, the Blackhawks probably would have been much closer to the bottom of the league and likely would not have been eligible for the play-in round. Losing both goalies would set the team back even further than the flat cap will.

I have to be the bearer of bad news once again, though. Crawford is not coming back for a huge cut in pay, not to play behind a team that will likely take a step back in their defensive coverage before they take a step forward. He is not taking the “hometown discount” fairy tale people love to fantasize about.

First of all, Chicago is not his hometown, he has just played here his entire career, and, second, Chicago will not be his only offer. Most importantly, despite all the naive toxic optimism that has been floating around, this team will not be in the Stanley Cup conversation in the next two or three years.

Bowman needs Crawford more than Crawford needs Bowman and the Blackhawks. This is why some two-year bargain deal is not likely. Crawford has earned more than a fraction of the fair market value he made over his previous contract. Two years at $4-4.5 million is a fair expectation. Any less than that is utterly insulting and he would be well within his rights to walk away offended.

What are Bowman’s other options?

He could stick with two of the goalies currently under contract, but Collin Delia and Kevin Lankinen have a combined 18 NHL games (all by Delia), and the last thing you want behind a young, mistake-prone defense is two goalies that are just trying to find their own NHL legs. Using either as a backup is another story. You can shelter them and play them in situations that help build their confidence.

Another option is to qualify Malcolm Subban and see if the former first-round pick of the Boston Bruins is ready to be a quality NHL starting goaltender, which is a highly unlikely result.

The most likely option, if Crawford is not the answer, would be exploring the free agent market. When considering this, one blatant misconception about the free agent market needs to be debunked. Just because there are a lot of names on the free agent list does not mean there are “good” names. The list of quality free agent goalies is short.

Short, as in five goalies including Crawford.

After you get past the initial four or five goalies, you are already into “nice backup but not a quality NHL starting goalie” territory.

STOP TELLING PEOPLE THE 2020 FREE AGENT GOALIE CLASS IS DEEP!

You are just feeding casual fans incorrect information they will just regurgitate to other fans that will not even bother to look at the actual list.

When/if the Stanley Cup is raised, and the draft has commenced, the list of available free agent goalies is as follows:

After Braden Holtby, Crawford, Robin Lehner, Matt Murray and Jacob Markstrom, this list is a bunch of spare parts that will give you Cam Ward-level production. Most are reaching their mid-30s, and have never been full-time NHL starting goalies or have been passed around and discarded like a bottle of Boones Farm at a high school dance.

You can quickly disqualify Crawford, Lehner and Markstrom. Lehner has reportedly agreed in principle to a five-year, $25 million deal to remain in Las Vegas and Markstrom will be far too rich for the Blackhawks’ flea market budget. This leaves Holtby and Murray, which, as I stated earlier, has really narrowed the pool of good available goalies.

Honestly, Pittsburgh is running Murray out of town because he is wildly unreliable and trends indicate that Holtby is well into his decline as a starting goalie. Neither is going to take less than $4 million to play in Chicago, either.

There are definitely other goalies on the list, but none I would be marching out as the uncontested starting goalie of the mighty Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 1. Craig Anderson, Jimmy Howard, Thomas Greiss, Cam Talbot, Anton Khudobin and Mike Smith are all serviceable backup goalies at this point in their careers. The last thing this young Blackhawks defense needs behind them is a carousel of aging high-risk, low-reward hail marys.

The Blackhawks were gifted an answer in goal and his name is Robin Lehner. They chose to play coy, roll the dice and send him off to a potential Stanley Cup championship with a better and classier organization. Now, they are left with scraps to choose from and have absolutely no discernible plan in net. This is not how a world-class organization builds (or rebuilds) a winner.

The post ANALYSIS: What are Stan Bowman’s realistic options in goal next season? appeared first on The Rink.

The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “Double J” get together with HockeyBuzz Blackhawks writer Tyler Cameron to discuss the Blackhawks highly disappointing trade deadline.

• Nathan Noel to the Philadelphia Flyers for TJ Brennan
• Robin Lehner to the Vegas Golden Knights in a three way deal (including Toronto) for Malcolm Subban, Stanislav Demin, and 2020 second round pick
• Erik Gustafsson to Calgary for a draft pick
• If you are interested in writing for The Rink for any division, email writefor@the-rink.com

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The post Blackhawks Rinkcast – Season 3, Episode 13 – Trade deadline “fizzle-ure” appeared first on The Rink.

Lehner was reported to have been headed to the Carolina Hurricanes, but the reports are that Carolina did not feel they could sign him to an extension.

The Blackhawks signed Lehner to a one-year, $5 million deal late in the day on July 1 after talks fell apart with his previous team, the New York Islanders. He has proven to be an elite-level goaltender for the second year in a row with a 16–10–5 record and a .918 save percentage behind a team that has given up the most shots on net per game in the entire NHL.

In return for Lehner, the Blackhawks acquired Malcolm Subban, prospect Slava Demin and a 2020 second-round draft pick from Vegas. Also as part of the deal, the Golden Knights acquired unsigned prospect Martins Dzierkals from Toronto in exchange for a 2020 fifth-round pick.

The deal breaks down to:

Vegas cap hit of $1.4 million.
Toronto cap hit of $1.1 million.
Chicago cap hit of $2.5 million.

CHI gets a 2nd and a prospect in package for Robin Lehner. #SNTrade

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) February 24, 2020

Malcolm Subban

Stanislav Demin

The post BREAKING: Blackhawks trade Lehner to Vegas Golden Knights appeared first on The Rink.

In the first period, the Hawks looked like a team that knew they were going to be sellers come Monday’s trade deadline. Within 90 seconds, the Hawks were already down 1–0 due to an apparent allergy to playing defense. Adam Boqvist was easily beat by Filip Chytil up the side boards and Chytil put the puck through the five hole of Chicago goalie Robin Lehner. It was very apparent that the Hawks’ biggest weakness in the first period—much like this season—was puck control and they could not seem to accomplish it on either side of the ice.

The Blackhawks only had a few good shots late in the first and it was because of a slashing penalty on Rangers wing Brett Howden. Alex DeBrincat had a shot that hit the side post for what would have been the game-tying goal. The Blackhawks got most of their 12 first-period shots on goal on that power play alone while the Rangers spread their 12 over the length of the period. As always, Lehner needed some help. New York led 1–0 after 20 minutes.

DeBrincat strikes the post on the #Blackhawks power play and the period comes to an end. Chicago trails 1-0 after twenty minutes of play.#CHIvsNYR pic.twitter.com/l1BykbDbaL

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) February 20, 2020

In the second period, the Blackhawks did something they have not done in a while: looked like a team that wanted to play playoff hockey. They came out with speed and looked more eager to resuscitate a season that at many times has looked dead on arrival. That glimmer of hope would come in the form of captain Jonathan Toews and rookie phenom Dominik Kubalik. As New York was putting a lot of pressure on Lehner with back-to-back chances, the puck slid between the legs of the Chicago netminder for what looked to be a 2–1 Rangers lead. But alas, enter Toews. He got to the net just in time to poke the puck away from crossing the goal line. The home team looked hungry in the second and they would get fed shortly after.

Jonathan Toews appreciation tweet #OCaptain pic.twitter.com/NCTmtHzgLs

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) February 20, 2020

The Hawks pulled out an old classic with a new twist as Patrick Kane slid the puck across the ice to Duncan Keith who then slung it to Kubalik who just beat the skate and pad of goalie Igor Shesterkin to tie things up at 1–1. This goal was Kubalik’s rookie leading 24th goal and Keith’s 500th career assist. A very nice look at both past and present coming together for this team in transition. Not only did the Blackhawks look more agile and determined, but they also were not afraid to get physical.

Yahtzee!#CHIvsNYR pic.twitter.com/Vyqps4cm9Z

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) February 20, 2020

On the other end of the ice, Lehner earned a roughing penalty for shoving Rangers forward Brendan Lemieux after Lemieux pushed David Kampf following the whistle. However, that would be all of the action for the rest of the frame. The Blackhawks outshot the Rangers 16–10 in the second period and seemed poised to chip away at the Western Conference wild card standings tied 1–1 heading into the third period.

Robin Lehner isn’t in the mood for shenanigans. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/KqOKibZGSD

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) February 20, 2020

What goes up, unfortunately, must come down, at least for the Rangers. The third period saw seven goals scored, but the Blackhawks were not the benefactor of most of them. Almost three minutes in, Pavel Buchnevich buried a solid pass from Chris Kreider in front of the net to put New York ahead 2–1 and the Rangers would not trail ever again. New York scored again, 90 seconds later, in the form of a power play goal from the elder Strome brother, Ryan. Olli Maatta was hit with a holding penalty and the older Strome scored his 15th on the season to put the Rangers up 3–1. Kubalik picked up his 25th goal of the season, and second of the night, two minutes later to pulling the Hawks within one again at 3–2, but the Rangers just refused to let up.

Make it 2⃣for Dominik Kubalik!

Is the Calder in the @NHLBlackhawks rookie’s future? #NYRvsCHI

: NBCSN
: https://t.co/xFg9MuaGSV pic.twitter.com/V4tZGrTirV

— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) February 20, 2020

Kreider scored his 24th on the season for a 4–2 Rangers lead and Artemi Panarin got an unassisted goal for his 30th on the season to push the gap to 5–2 to get his revenge on his former team. The younger Strome, Dylan, could not handle a pass from Maatta and it ended up in the Panarin’s bread basket.

Drake Caggiula tried to keep the dwindling home crowd invested when he buried a crisp pass from Toews off the boards for his seventh on the season to make the score 5–3 New York, but it was too little, too late. Two minutes later, Mika Zibanejad just barely squeaked a nice pass from Buchnevich to the left side of Lehner for the Rangers’ sixth goal of the game and fifth of the period. Chicago lost this one 6–3 late and the “For Sale” sign was firmly nailed up at the United Center. This one was over well before the final horn sounded, but it did not make the loss any less devastating. The Blackhawks needed a miracle on the 40th anniversary of “Miracle on Ice,” but it was not to be.

Here lies the obituary for the 2019-20 #Blackhawks.

They are survived by star Patrick Kane.

There were many fallen soldiers including Andrew Shaw, Brent Seabrook, and Calvin de Haan.

There will be a lottery player in Chicago next season. Hopefully the draft will be kind.

— Blackhawk Up (@Blackhawk_Up) February 20, 2020

The Blackhawks return to action on Friday night against the Nashville Predators in Chicago. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CST.

The post Along the Boards: Blackhawks overwhelmed late in 6–3 loss to the New York Rangers appeared first on The Rink.

At this point, after the impending third straight year of not making the playoffs and not winning a playoff game since 2016, the “professional” writers are still too terrified to call a spade a spade and call this entire organization out for what it is…

B-R-O-K-E-N

The longer that the Blackhawks fanbase accepts McDonough and his entourage of “yes men”  making awful decisions after terrible moves, the longer Chicago will be just another average NHL team in the middle of the pack just scraping by. The Chicago Blackhawks are a broken organization and no one seems to be holding the front office accountable for it. As much as I love to watch Leafs fans meltdown, at least they are holding the team’s decision makers responsible.

For that, I respect them.

It didn’t have to be this way, though. Last summer, when the Blackhawks (by no actions of their own) were gifted the third overall draft pick, Stan Bowman made the right decision by drafting Kirby Dach. It certainly wasn’t the popular decision but drafting Dach over yet another in a long line of “smallish puck moving defensemen” was the right move. Bringing in Calvin de Haan and Olli Maatta for the rights to two players they didn’t want anymore and a middle-six wing (that has since been replaced very nicely by Dominik Kubalik) were sneaky good moves. This brings me to the final move he made which, again, was gifted to him.

Robin Lehner

Late in the day on July 1, when Lehner’s people were scrambling, Bowman had just enough cap space to sign Lehner to a pretty affordable one year deal. Big win! Before Lehner was brought in, Bowman was looking at another season with the fragile Corey Crawford and the inexperienced Collin Delia as his goaltending duo. Fast forward eight months and Lehner has been nothing short of an amazing addition to this team.

Not so fast, though, because it looks as though they are about to screw that up, as well.

If recent reports are correct (and I have no reason to think they aren’t), the negotiations between Lehner and the team have headed south this past week. One might assume that Lehner and his agent are looking to drive his salary into the $9 million or $10 million range, which is something that the Blackhawks certainly should not buy into. Recent reports, though, are that he is looking for a seven-year deal in the range of $7 million to $7.5 million, which is very reasonable for a 28-year-old goalie who was a Vezina Trophy finalist a year ago and is currently (at minimum) a top ten NHL goalie. The same team that is paying $11 million for Lehner and Crawford this season, is allegedly balking at a potential duo (Lehner/Delia) that would be paid $8 million next season.

I’m no math professor, but $8 million sure seems like less than $11 million.

Yes, it’s true that the team could bring back their soon-to-be 36-year-old goalie who has multiple recent major concussions on his resume for a cheaper deal. That is because he’s aging out and has a major head injury history, which are both things you cannot avoid with “hopes and prayers”. Contrary to what one Blackhawks “writer” thinks, the UFA goalie crop this summer is NOT strong. Outside of Lehner and Crawford, the only name on the list that might be able to play at their level is Braden Holtby, who is somehow having an awful season behind one of the best teams in the NHL. You don’t turn that around by playing behind a defense that gives up the most shots in the entire league.

Jeff, surely there have to be more goalies out there, right?

This is the alleged “strong” goalie market they have to choose from July 1:

Craig Anderson
Jaroslav Halak
Anton Khudobin
Thomas Greiss
Mike Smith
Cam Talbot
Jimmy Howard
Pavel Francouz

Francouz is the only one that could potentially be a better-than-Cam Ward level backup. The current Avalanche backup is older than Lehner, though, at 29. Call me crazy, but letting your known asset go to take a huge risk on any of these guys listed above is an enormous gamble with a high likelihood of little-to-no reward. (note – Francouz signed and extension in Colorado)

How has this organization completely screwed themselves like this? The answer? Arrogance.

Last season, when fans had to suffer through Cam Ward and Collin Delia getting their brains beat in on a nightly basis, they kept trying to sell that unrealistic playoff narrative. Stan and company did nothing to open up this roster for a re-tool at the deadline and the team finished with a mediocre draft position. This should have landed them yet another three-year project that could eventually turn into a serviceable NHL player after Kane and Toews were either gone or swiftly riding off into the sunset.

Then, by sheer luck, the third overall pick was dropped into their lap. They got lucky.

None of this happened because Stan Bowman or John McDonough are great at their jobs. How do they follow that up? Another dismal season, potentially reverting their goaltending situation right back into last season’s disarray, One More Shift and more public relations nonsense about the playoffs that they are in no way qualified to compete in.

That is called kicking the can down the road. When will enough be enough? When will fans stop renewing season tickets? When will the fanbase hit the Wirtz cartel where it hurts them most, the pocketbook?

The Chicago organization has been suffocating under a blanket of John McDonough led stupid decisions for at least five years and they just keep getting away with it by spoon-feeding the casual fans with their “just get in the playoffs, anything can happen,” and “anything is possible when you have Toews and Kane on your team” narratives. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, fans, but that’s a bunch of Public Relations nonsense the marketing department is feeding you so you will still spend money on their mediocre-at-best product. You’re all being lied to, treated like idiots, and far too many fans are lapping it up like a big bowl of chicken noodle soup.

You should all be as furious as I am about it!  The time is now, people.

It is time for Rocky Wirtz to put his money where his mouth is and stand firm on this “accountability” he has been preaching about for the last three summers.  Start chopping heads, otherwise, they have just become another franchise repeatedly blowing smoke up everyone’s behinds and they will become victims of their own arrogance.

The post ANALYSIS: Where is this alleged Blackhawks accountability? appeared first on The Rink.

The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “Double J” get together to discuss the Blackhawks latest slide, and the upcoming trade deadline.

• The Blackhawks play has them falling down the standings.
• Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome.  What is up with Alex Debrincat?
• Corey Crawford and Robin Lehner.
• Blackhawks claim defenseman Nick Seeler from the Wild.
• A few The Rink #Puckbag questions.
• If you are interested in writing for The Rink for any division, email writefor@the-rink.com

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

Also, please help spread the word to more #RinkRats and visit our sponsor www.PUCKHCKY.com. Use the discount code “THERINK” for 10% off all orders.

The Rinkcast is brought to you by the Overtime Podcast Network

The post Blackhawks Rinkcast – Season 3, Episode 12 – “As we’ve been saying…” appeared first on The Rink.

The-Rink.com host “Gatekeeper” gets together with Blackhawks and Steel writer Ray Napientek to discuss the state of the team at the all-star break.

• What are the Blackhawks at the 51 game mark?
• Coach Q returns to feed the Blackhawks a little of their own familiar medicine.
• Dominik Kubalik, Kirby Dach and Adam Boqvist are all some great positives.
• Brandon Hagel gets a shot, hopefully.
• More #PayRobin talk: How incredibly dumb it would be to let a guy of this talent go.
• A few The Rink #Puckbag questions.
• If you are interested in writing for The Rink for any division, email writefor@the-rink.com

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

Also, please help spread the word to more #RinkRats and visit our sponsor www.PUCKHCKY.com. Use the discount code “THERINK” for 10% off all orders.

The Rinkcast is brought to you by the Overtime Podcast Network

The post Blackhawks Rinkcast – Season 3, Episode 11 – “Mid” season discussion appeared first on The Rink.

Unlike past trade deadlines, we don’t have any information on which way the Blackhawks are leaning—just reading the tea leaves of an organization in flux. As we were this past June, when it was The Rink, and onlyThe Rink, who theorized (on the RinkCast) that the Blackhawks might go after a No. 1 goaltender via the free agency route, which they then did.

Based on the same or similar lines of logic, here are some things you might expect the Blackhawks to accomplish over the next 30 days.

1. Robin Lehner is a Blackhawk for the next handful of seasons, at minimum, with average annual value on the deal of $7-7.5 million.

Some have assumed that Lehner was signed to be this year’s Cam Ward. He wasn’t. The Hawks could have signed another Ward for less money, or even Ward himself, to be, well, Ward. Lehner was signed because the team had serious concerns over how effective Corey Crawford would be and how much load he could carry, this season and going forward. And to take a trial run with Lehner as the team’s future No. 1.

Crawford has been able to split duties with Lehner, and while he has shown flashes of the old Crawford, he also hasn’t been really in the same ballpark as Lehner. Who is much younger, already a fan favorite, and by all accounts really does want to be in Chicago—if he is properly paid.

Shouldn’t be a problem, but extension negotiations and dopey fan narratives being what they are, Lehner’s future in Chicago is somewhat in question.

Some want to trade Lehner at the deadline, either because he potentially returns more than Crawford does, or because they haven’t given up the dream that the oft-concussed Crawford, at age 35, is going to return to Stanley Cup form (probably not happening). But here are the problems with that argument.

First, both players are on expiring contracts, both are healthy for the time being—so the difference in the return on one versus the other is not significant. Second, another argument for dealing Lehner is “why do we need him—we’re rebuilding.” Well, you can sign the 28-year-old Lehner—a legitimate top 10 goalie in the league—and rebuild from the net out (as you’re supposed to), and when you’re contending again in three or four years, you’ve got your goalie. Or you can roll the dice on Collin Delia, Matt Tomkins, Kevin Lankinen or some kid who is 17 years old right now. Feeling lucky? Buy a Power Ball ticket while you’re at it.

2. Erik Gustafsson is in another sweater

Gustafsson is also an impending free agent. So, you really have to either deal him and get what you can, or re-sign him for a lot more money than he’s making now. It should be an easy choice, and if Bowman makes the wrong one, it ought to be grounds for his dismissal.

Some fans love what Gustafsson brings: flash and dash, exciting three-on-three overtime goals, slick passes and a big shot. But the fact is, Gustafsson’s regular season game is a big, fat tease—and completely ill-suited to playoff hockey—where there’s little open ice, few penalties called, no three-on-three overtime and games and series are won through hand to hand combat along the boards and around the net. One mistake—which Gustafsson is always prone to—and you’re on the first tee. Remember Chris Campoli?

Get what you can. Now.

3. If you’re “buying,” buy draft picks and quality prospects for the future, not a veteran “for the playoffs” this year

Some higher-profile Chicago beat writers have theorized that Stan Bowman will be a “buyer” at this year’s deadline—which typically means he would be looking to add a veteran player or two to upgrade the roster for the playoffs. While some writers and fans might espouse such nonsense, it would be GM malpractice.

First, what exactly do the Hawks have to trade that brings back any meaningful value—that doesn’t also simultaneously hurt the team or cut away at a still thin prospect pipeline? No one really has an answer for this. Well, not a realistic answer. Some say, “Saad! Trade him.” Sure, but I’d much rather try to win a playoff series with a Brandon Saad than without one. Some say, “Gustafsson.” Okay, but how much does he bring back? Dylan Sikura, at this point, returns very little. If Bowman really wanted to be a buyer of a quality NHL veteran at the trade deadline, other teams are going to want Kirby Dach, Adam Boqvist and/or a first-round draft pick—not the rest of Gustafsson’s deal.

And here’s the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Let’s say Bowman does the incredibly foolish thing and takes his eye off the future at the deadline, adds a veteran or two (probably on expiring deals), and the Hawks squeak into the playoffs—they are exceedingly unlikely to win more than a game against the top seed in the West. This team is old, slow, banged up and soft—for the most part—and with a terrible defense, which is not a recipe for playoff success, even though some keep tapping their slippers together and saying “anything can happen.”

Bowman had a good spring and summer last year as far as meaningfully rebuilding the Blackhawks toward playoff contention. But there is a lot more work to be done. He needs to continue that progress. Look for—no, hope for—the above to keep the momentum.

Please comment below.

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First period

There was a good amount of back and forth to begin the period, with the Panthers getting some good chances in on Robin Lehner with their fourth line in particular putting good pressure on. Brian Boyle generated a couple of good shots on goal in the frame, and defenseman Mark Pysyk, playing on that line as well, also made some noise for Florida. The Blackhawks had a few good chances of their own, getting guys in front of the net and getting pucks there. Just when it looked like the Blackhawks may get a power play because the Panthers had too many men on the ice, Adam Boqvist put the puck right into the crowd, putting the Blackhawks on the penalty kill instead. They killed it off with relative ease, with players like Ryan Carpenter and Zack Smith laying out to block shots and get the puck back out of the zone. The period would end just as it started, with no score but a lot of action.

Second period

The second period began with a lot more action down on the Panthers’ side of the ice with the Blackhawks controlling the play for much of the first few minutes. It eventually swung the other way, with the Panthers getting more and more opportunities on the Blackhawks’ net. This eventually led to two quick goals for the Panthers, with Evgenii Dadonov managing to sneak one past Lehner to make it 1–0 Panthers. Then, a minute and a half later, Frank Vatrano put a wrister right past the glove side of Lehner on a good feed from behind the net to make it 2–0 Panthers. The Blackhawks got a power play when Dominik Kubalik was tripped up taking the puck up the ice. Chicago was unable to put the puck in the net, but did get some good opportunities even still. As soon as the Panthers had killed off the power play, Aaron Ekblad came out of the box and took a pass from a teammate, finding Vatrano again streaking up the wing. He skated in an wristed the puck five hole on Lehner to make it 3–0 Florida. Just over three minutes later, Kirby Dach, celebrating his 19th birthday, took a pass from Alex DeBrincat, skated in and put a backhander over the shoulder of Sergei Bobrovsky in Kane-esque fashion, drawing the Blackhawks within two and making the score 3–1 Panthers. Late in the period, DeBrincat got called for a trip, putting the Blackhawks back on the penalty kill again. After several good sequences for the Blackhawks, the Panthers took advantage of a failed clear by Carpenter, making the score 4–1 Panthers and giving Vatrano the hat trick, as the puck went off of him in front of the net before going in. That is how the period would end, with the Panthers getting out to a big lead.

Third period

The period started off well for the Blackhawks, gaining a power play with just over two minutes gone by in the period on a Keith Yandle hold. Erik Gustafsson put a one-timer on net late in the power play and Drake Caggiula got a tip out in front to put it past Bobrovsky, cutting the score to 4–2 Panthers. After a couple more good Blackhawks chances, David Kampf got taken down by Noel Acciari to give the Blackhawks another man advantage in the period. They got some good opportunities, along with a Brandon Saad shot after, but they were not able to put anything past Bobrovsky. With five minutes left, the Blackhawks got yet another power play on a high stick from Mike Hoffman. Chicago was unable to generate much offense and needed more puck movement to try to get things going. With just over two minutes left in the game, the Blackhawks pulled Lehner, hoping to spark something and mount a comeback. They did, with Kane scoring his 25th goal of the year on a nifty cross-ice pass from Dach to get within one and make the score 4–3 Panthers. However, the Panthers got a power play again in the last 30 seconds of the game and just played keep away to get the win. Let’s go along the boards and see what was being talked about this game.

One more 'Thank Q'.

Full tribute to Joel Quenneville from the #Blackhawks and the fans at the United Center pic.twitter.com/HNW57tuahf

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) January 22, 2020

This was a cool thing to see. Not only did the Blackhawks put up a tribute to Kane for his 1,000-point milestone, but they also welcomed “Coach Q” back with a montage as well. Some would argue that Quenneville never should have been let go, but hey, that may just be me.

Joel Quenneville is all of us during Patrick Kane’s 1,000th point celebration. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/3DFEOlNm9X

— Paul Roumeliotis (@PaulRoumel) January 22, 2020

Yeah, that beam was a mile wide. And it definitely was for all Blackhawks fans who were able to watch Kane score point No. 1,000 on Sunday night. What a special moment, and who better to share it with than the coach who was with him to score so many of his 1,000 points.

Patrick Kane extends his point streak to 11 games and picks up career point No. 1,001. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/J7DyLWWThl

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 22, 2020

Sadly, it was too little, too late. The Hawks did not look good tonight and gave up too many opportunities from turnovers, with bad passes and poor decisions, along with Lehner not playing up to his usual standard.

The Blackhawks now have a week and a half off until Feb. 1 when they are back in action against the Arizona Coyotes. That game will be at 7 p.m. CST on NBC Sports Chicago.

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The-Rink.com host “Gatekeeper” goes solo and gets together with our old buddy Tyler Cameron from HockeyBuzz.

• Recorded prior to the Sens and Habs games.
• We discuss the pending Robin Lehner contract situation.
• Dominik Kubalik is red hot and looking like a steal.
• Who are our picks for a new Blackhawks GM?
• What might happen around the trade deadline?
• If you’re interested in writing for The-Rink about  any division, email writefor@the-rink.com

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

Also, please help spread the word to more #RinkRats and visit our sponsor www.PUCKHCKY.com. Use the discount code “THERINK” for 10% off all orders.

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As big Lehner fans and the progenitors of the #PayRobin hashtag, we were also quick to cry foul—perhaps temporarily forgetting the true nature of contract negotiations in the NHL, and what’s most likely at work here.

Go ahead #Blackhawks front office: bollocks up re-signing Lehner and it’ll be the deserved END of some careers, while his will go on elsewhere.

— The Amazing Rando (@jaeckel) January 10, 2020

First, it’s all a negotiation.

As much as we want to see Lehner in Chicago long-term, GMs (for the most part) and agents (completely) are not in the business of fulfilling fan narratives. If I’m Lehner’s agent, my job is to get my client the most money and term on his next deal (because that’s also how I make my money) and hopefully in a situation where my client can thrive, win playoff games, and get endorsement deals. Period.

So that said, why wouldn’t I use Sergei Bobrovsky’s 8-year, $80 million contract as a starting point in my conversations with Stan Bowman? Because it’s not nice? Lehner is, fact, going to get paid this summer like he’s one of the top 10 goalies in the NHL—because he is one of them.

All that said, that’s the high end of the market. And if you’re Stan Bowman, you want to frame this negotiation by starting out at the low end of the market—say the deal we heard was initially offered.

And through negotiation, you likely end up somewhere in the middle, which would be about $7-7.5 million per for 5-6 years. Seems reasonable.

“But, but, you can trade Lehner. He doesn’t want to stay in Chicago anyway.”

We believe—and we’ve heard—Lehner wants to stay in Chicago. You don’t want to believe us or our sources? Listen to Lehner then:

Robin Lehner on whether he's open to discussing contract extension with #Blackhawks in-season.

He also said he's not interested in taking a discount, but doesn't want to be overpaid either: "I want to gain some respect that I think I deserve." pic.twitter.com/q0ZnMno1FC

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 10, 2020

No, he’s not going to give the Hawks a hometown discount, nor should he. Can the Hawks trade Lehner for a bucket of pucks at the deadline?

Sure, and then you’re left with Colin Delia, Kevin Lankinen and the shell of Corey Crawford (if he doesn’t retire anyway) next year—and going forward. Unless you decide at some point to pay a top goalie—who wants to be in Chicago—the going rate for his services. And you already have that guy. Let’s be logical, mmmm-kay?

To hesitate on this would be front office malpractice. But, in all likelihood, the Hawks are going about this the right way, for now, even if at the risk of offending Lehner. It’s a negotiation. And it’s between the Hawks and Lehner’s agent. Not just the Hawks and Lehner.

And certainly, the situation can change—the two parties can move toward each other and come together in the middle of the range outlined above—which seems to make a lot of sense. And there is time yet for that to happen.

Or one side or the other can get angry and shut it down, allowing Lehner to go to UFA this summer, or trading him or his rights before then. And that’s the time to panic.

Because #PayRobin is better than the alternative.

What do you think? Sign in and comment below.

Photoshop courtesy of Jeff Osborn / Photograph courtesy of NHL.com

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The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “JJ” usher in the new year during the first period of the Blackhawks / Predators game with even more Blackhawks injuries.

• Blackhawks down 3–0 to the Preds while we recorded.
• Talk about the latest injuries.
• Some positive things to say about Adam Boqvist and Dominik Kubalik.
• It wouldn’t be a Rinkcast without more goalie praise.
• It also wouldn’t be a Rinkcast without some realism.
• We wrap with a short Rinkrat PuckBag segment.
• Check out our friend and former writer’s blog http://fansfronchroom.wordpress.com
• If you’re interested in writing for The-Rink about the Chicago Wolves (or any division) email writefor@the-rink.com

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

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#Blackhawks rolling the same lines from Tuesday in a different province and a different year:
Kubalik – Toews – Quenneville
DeBrincat – Dach – Strome
Sikura – Carpenter – Kane
Smith – Kampf – Highmore

Keith – Boqvist
Gustafsson – Murphy
Maatta – Gilbert

Lehner in net.#CHIvsVAN

— Carter Baum (@CarterBaum) January 3, 2020

The Vancouver Canucks would be the Blackhawks’ first opponent in 2020. Their greeting for the Blackhawks might be called “rude” by some people’s standards.

#Canucks get another power-play goal, this one J.T. Miller’s and continue to look exceptionally dangerous – with both units generating a ton of looks – with the man advantage.

— Thomas Drance (@ThomasDrance) January 3, 2020

Despite allowing the early goal, The Blackhawks peppered Canucks goalie Jacob Markstrom with shots. After dominating most of the period, Chicago got its first goal from an unlikely scorer.

Connor Murphy scores #Blackhawks first goal of 2020 and extends his point streak to three games. pic.twitter.com/GJlxUYYbC1

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 3, 2020

I like Connor Murphy getting involved in the offense. Doing much more this year and looks really good doing it. #Blackhawks

— Ron Luce (@rnldluce) January 3, 2020

Late in the first period, Blackhawks’ rising star Kirby Dach nearly gave Chicago the lead—missing by inches—when the Canucks were saved by the post.  At the end of the first period, the Hawks and Canucks were tied 1-1 in a very fast-paced game.

The second period began with Chicago coming out red-hot, getting lots of pucks on net. Despite the electrifying start by the Blackhawks offense, the defense allowed the Canucks to take the lead once again.

Canucks regain the lead with a goal from Tanner Pearson. Great tip in the slot from him. 2-1 VAN.

— Spencer (@spencerloane) January 3, 2020

The Vancouver lead would not last long however, as the Blackhawks responded quickly.

Kampf ties the game as his shot finds its way through the screen in front of Markstrom. #Canucks #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/RjVadpiRuF

— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) January 3, 2020

Chicago kept the heat on the home team—Patrick Kane continued his goal scoring streak and gave the Blackhawks a 3–2 lead.

Power-play goal. Patrick Kane scores his 23rd goal of the season to make it 3-2 #Blackhawks. pic.twitter.com/LTWYhTREuW

— Brandon (@brandonmcain) January 3, 2020

The Blackhawks onslaught continued, with the team seeming to find offensive chemistry that had been sporadic at best in 2019. Jonathan Toews’ turn would be next:

We like this kinda party!

The Captain keeps the lamp lit in Vancouver pic.twitter.com/EPMj50XuIk

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) January 3, 2020

While the offense was clicking, the defense, ironically and predictably, reverted to form, leading to the rapid evaporation of the Blackhawks’ two-goal lead.

Vancouver gets one back. Quinn Hughes on the PP. #Blackhawks @NHLBlackhawks #CHIvsVAN #VANvsCHI #Canucks

— The Rink — Where Hockey happens (@TheRinkOfficial) January 3, 2020

In a period where playing defense was clearly optional, the Canucks once again tied the game.

Brock Boeser sets it up for Elias Pettersson who ties it 4-4 for the #Canucks pic.twitter.com/64RRWhsWLA

— Harman Dayal (@harmandayal2) January 3, 2020

After two insane periods, the third period did not disappoint. The Canucks took a lead 5-4 midway through the third period, when Dennis Gilbert kicked the puck into his own net. Chicago goalie Robin Lehner was openly frustrated by the goal, breaking his stick on the crossbar. Adding injury to insult, Robin Lehner took a beating in the net— with two shots hitting his exposed neck during the game.

Dennis Gilbert is not having a great start to 2020#Blackhawks #CHIvsVAN pic.twitter.com/S3CMRAim1z

— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) January 3, 2020

After Gilbert’s gaffe gave the Canucks the lead back, the Blackhawks continued their roller coaster ride of a game. Kane continued to shine, especially in the third period, netting his second goal of the game.

Patrick Kane reminding everyone that he is, in fact, still a top 10 player at age 31. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/yXJ0peECBR

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 3, 2020 

Shortly after Kane scored the game-tying goal, Lehner was bulled over by Tanner Pearson and went down holding his knee. Blackhawks trainer Mike Gapski gave Lehner the all clear and the third period resumed.  The night of physical and emotional pain would continue for Lehner as he soon allowed the sixth Canucks goal of the night.

SCORES!!!!!! OH MY GAUDETTE!!!!!! 6-5 #CANUCKS!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/LJhgfaG4oH

— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) January 3, 2020

The Canucks would later net an empty net goal to make the final score 7–5.

Along the boards

Kane Remains hot

Patrick Kane continues to get better with age. He netted two goals in the game and was a dominating offensive presence on the ice. People are going to start running out of superlatives before too long.

Tonight was the th time in the regular season that Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews scored in the same game pic.twitter.com/HGJnsblepT

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) January 3, 2020

Lehner beat up in the loss

In addition to allowing six goals for the first time in his Blackhawks career, Lehner took two pucks off the neck/collar area during the contest, may have torqued his knee a bit, and one would expect that after making his fourth start in a row, he might get the next game off, giving Corey Crawford start against the Red Wings Sunday.

Robin Lehner is in pain. That’s a collar bone shot. THOSE HURT!!!! @RobinLehner #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/jHmR0Pfegr

— Puckin’ Hostile (@PuckinHostile) January 3, 2020

So #crawford will get a start in the next game. Lehner is getting beat up.

— Sean Fitzgerald (@Diesal3426) January 3, 2020

WHAT DO YOU THINK? COMMENT BELOW. 

The Blackhawks return to action on Sunday for a late afternoon matchup with the Detroit Red Wings at home. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CST. 

The post Along the Boards: Blackhawks lose a crazy game to the Canucks 7-5. appeared first on The Rink.

The contest did not start pretty for the Blackhawks. By the end of the opening frame, the Blackhawks were down 3–0 with tallies from Michael Grabner, Clayton Keller, and Brad Richardson.

Grabner’s tally was an excellent display of speed, he dipped his shoulder and released a backhand shot that had eyes, finding it’s way past Robin Lehner’s blocker side. Keller’s was a result of a defensive breakdown, as he had a semi-breakaway after an excellent pass from Jordan Oesterle. The third goal was a result of excellent net-front presence from Richardson, as he was able to tip a nice Jacob Chychrun shot through Lehner’s five hole.

There was hope in the second, as the captain, Jonathan Toews, tallied his seventh goal of the season to cut the Coyotes’ lead down to just two. The goal was a result of a well-placed shot from Dominik Kubalik that resulted in a perfect rebound for Toews to hammer home.

Finders keepers#Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/bTzxEOuQfU

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 13, 2019

However, the lead would be extended for the hometown team, this time by a familiar face. After a Coyotes’ face-off win, Nick Schmaltz walked to the slot and sniped a shot over Lehner’s left shoulder to give Arizona the 4–1 lead. 

The Blackhawks opened the scoring in the third period, however, it was too late. With right around seven minutes remaining, Dylan Strome tapped home an Alex DeBrincat shot to cut back into Arizona’s lead. The power play tally was Strome’s seventh of the season. 

Dylly Dylly!

Strome strikes on the power play. #CHIvsARI pic.twitter.com/F8L9pLcKPS

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 13, 2019

With two minutes remaining, the Coyotes added insult to injury. After a puck was dumped in, Christian Dvorak, the Chicagoland native, retrieved the puck behind Lehner. Erik Gustafsson was caught down low, leaving Keller wide open in the slot and he tucked a roof shot past Lehner to give the Coyotes the three-goal lead and the final score, 5–2. 

Three points

The Hawks looked terrible: There is no nice way to say it. The Hawks were badly outplayed. They just have not looked good recently. This team, earlier in the season, showed moments of brilliance. Now, this team is relying on Robin Lehner and Corey Crawford to keep them in games. They’ve done a great job doing that, but it hasn’t been enough to yield wins.

Injuries suck: You can tell that the Blackhawks miss Duncan Keith and Calvin de Haan. I’d even argue they miss the likes of Andrew Shaw. They need good players. In years’ past, circa 2015, this team had the depth to accommodate injuries. Now, this team is S.O.L without one or two players in the lineup. Did someone say tank?

Give me the top three: What does this mean? Well, it means if you’re going to change the franchise for the better, you need top 3 picks in the draft. Although no guarantees, these players are what it takes to change a franchise. I think Kirby Dach is a part of the long-term solution, as is Adam Boqvist, but the Hawks need a continuing influx of talent in order to fill the holes. With big contracts against their cap, that’s the only way to improve, young, cheap talent. 

The Blackhawks return to action on Saturday, paying a visit to the defending Stanley Cup champions. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CST.

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The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “JJ” get together for a pre-game Rinkcast just prior to the Blackhawks facing the Arizona Coyotes.

• The Blackhawks play a bunch of overtime and shootout games.
• Injuries to Keith, Shaw, and de Haan.
• Some big announcements regarding The-Rink
• Mario gives us another “award-winning” #Warpigs report.
• More on what the future holds with Jeremy Colliton, Corey Crawford, and Robin Lehner
• Why trading Robin Lehner is not only stupid but unlikely.
• We wrap up with the Blackhawks down 3–0 in the first period.
• We wrap with the Rinkrat PuckBag segment.

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

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The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “JJ” are back at it to discuss the Blackhawks’ spiral downward and glaring mistakes.

• Thank you for the new review, Darth Hawkey
• We have (not one) but TWO new chapters opening up.  Colorado and Columbus.
• We take a few minutes to address the Marc Crawford/Bill Peters situation.
• The Blackhawks lose badly to the Avs twice and the Blues last night
• What can the Blackhawks do as an organization to fix this endless loop of mediocrity?
• Who is untouchable?  Is anyone untouchable?
• We wrap with the Rinkrat PuckBag segment.

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

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Saad—Toews—Shaw

DeBrincat—Carpenter—Kane

Kubalik—Smith—Dach

Nylander—Kampf—Wedin

Murphy—Maatta

de Haan—Seabrook

Koekkoek—Gustafsson

Lehner

First period: The game got off to a rough start for the Blackhawks, with Jonathan Toews taking a penalty less than thirty seconds into the game on a slash on Joonas Donskoi. Zack Smith took a steal up ice in a two-on-one and fed it across to Brandon Saad who put it past Phillip Grubauer to make it 1—0 Blackhawks on a shorthanded goal.

Kneel. Before. Saad.

Good guys strike first. Stream: https://t.co/mRcXCKrtKj pic.twitter.com/nMDIhqn2RW

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) December 1, 2019

Then, a minute later, Saad took the puck into the zone on a pass from Patrick Kane and put it off of the post, beating Grubauer again. The Avs got a great chance to drive to the net, but Andrew Shaw came across and got his stick in the way, not allowing a shot on goal. Wedin got called for a holding call at the 7:22 mark of the period, putting the Blackhawks shorthanded yet again. The Avs struck gold on this one, with Nazem Kadri getting a pass in front that he was able to put past Robin Lehner to tie the game at 1—1. A few minutes later, the Avalanche picked apart the Blackhawks defense, with the puck eventually ending up on Kadri’s stick yet again, who made the score 2—1 Avalanche. Then, the Blackhawks absolutely imploded defensively, allowing Nathan MacKinnon to put a Mikko Rantanen pass past Lehner again, making it 3—1 Avalanche. The Blackhawks were just getting run around the ice for most of the rest of the period, not making great plays and playing some very sloppy hockey. Their best chance came from a Toews drive to the net in which he looked like he was shot out of a cannon to get into the offensive zone, getting a great shot off that was saved by Grubauer. Cale Makar ripped one off the pipe that beat Lehner at the 16:46 mark of the period that luckily didn’t go. DeBrincat missed one that got across to him in front of the net, and then got a hit from Samuel Girard that he took exception to, getting into a scrap and getting a couple of good rights in.

The Cat is out of the bag. pic.twitter.com/x22LS4sr5u

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) December 1, 2019

The Blackhawks got their first powerplay of the game when David Kampf was held in the back of the net. The situation got even more important when Graves of the Avalanche got a four minute penalty for high sticking Shaw and drawing blood. The Avalanche killed off the first of those penalties before the period ended with a 3—1 Avalanche lead. The Blackhawks still had over 2:30 left on the powerplay going into the second to try to make something happen.

Second period: The Blackhawks started off the period with over 2:30 of powerplay time left on the double minor penalty from the first period but got the puck taken away and cleared every time you turned around. Just after that was killed off, Joonas Donskoi took a pass from Ryan Graves just out of the box and put it past Lehner, making it 4—1 Avalanche early on in the second period. Then, at the 5:50 mark of the period, Robin Lehner was chased after Mikko Rantanen put the puck past him to make it 5—1 Avalanche. Lehner was not happy going off, as he shouldn’t have been and made sure that his bench knew as much.

Robin Lehner visibly frustrated after being pulled down 5-1 in Colorado pic.twitter.com/55KUFUm2Mf

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) December 1, 2019

The Avs kept pressing even after jumping out to such a big lead, with MacKinnon putting the puck out in front to Donskoi again, who got the puck past Crawford to make it 6—1 Avalanche. The Blackhawks were outhustled, outplayed, and positively outclassed by the Avalanche once again a few minutes later, when Tyson Jost went all the way by himself to make it 7—1 Avalanche. Really, if you missed this game, nothing good happened for the Blackhawks in the second period for the first eleven minutes. Dominik Kubalik wristed the puck five-hole on Grubauer to get the Blackhawks to within five goals, and get the score to 7—2.

Don't call it a comeback?

Would be pretty epic. Stream: https://t.co/mRcXCKrtKj pic.twitter.com/PoGag8TL6H

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) December 1, 2019

The Blackhawks took a tripping penalty at the 14:26 mark of the period to put them down a man yet again, and giving the Avs a chance to add to their lead. The Blackhawks killed that penalty off with relative ease, as Crawford only had to make one or two good stops. The period would mercifully end with the Avalanche jumping out to a seemingly insurmountable advantage, leading 7—2 going into the intermission.

Third period: The period started off with a lot more back and forth, which was encouraging because it meant that the Blackhawks were sharing possession better than they had in the second period. Alex Nylander drew a trip in the offensive zone to put the Blackhawks on the powerplay early on in the period. They got more chances, and were actually able to keep the puck in their offensive zone enough to get some good chances in front of Grubauer. The Avalanche did kill that off, but the Blackhawks were able to actually not allow any bad chances the other way. The Blackhawks got some good puck movement going, allowing for more scoring chances in the period than they had in the past two. Kane got a puck across to DeBrincat on a three-on-two rush into the zone, with DeBrincat getting a one-timer off on Grubauer, who made a great stop. Andrew Shaw got called for a trip at the 9:32 mark of the period, putting the Blackhawks up to kill off yet another penalty in this game. They killed it off, and didn’t give the Avs much of an opportunity to pad the stat sheet. Andrew Shaw then drew a penalty at the 13:05 mark of the period as he was tripped in the offensive zone, giving the Blackhawks a powerplay again. Pierre-Eduard Bellemare put the puck right off of the ice and into the stands, giving the Blackhawks a five-on-three penalty. They converted on the first of the two penalties, with Kane wristing the puck right through Grubauer’s five hole, and making the score 7—3 Avalanche.

If you're in the mood for silver linings, Patrick Kane just extended his points streak to 15 games. pic.twitter.com/ZY3PXaES3P

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) December 1, 2019

The Avs were able to kill off the second penalty without too much effort, not allowing very many shots on goal from the Blackhawks. The game would end with the Blackhawks losing big to the Avalanche by a final of 7—3.

The Blackhawks are back in action on Monday night against the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues at the United Center. That game will start at 7:30 pm Central on NHL Network and NBC Sports Chicago.

The post Blackhawks get left under a pile of goals, lose to Avs 7—3. appeared first on The Rink.

Corey Perry celebrated his 1,000th NHL game on Saturday in Dallas. The forward spent the majority of those 1,000 games in Anaheim with the Ducks but has rebounded this year with a change of scenery. 

Congratulations, Corey! #GoStars pic.twitter.com/HvrucYkL8z

— X – Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) November 24, 2019

The Blackhawks rolled out their lines and the lineup looked very similar to many of their last five games. The lines were as follows:

Saad – Toews – Nylander
DeBrincat – Strome – Kane
Kubalik – Kampf – Shaw
Smith – Dach – Carpenter

Keith – Gustafsson
de Haan – Seabrook
Maatta – Murphy

Lehner

First period

The early portion of the period was a lot of back and forth between the two teams, but not a lot of quality chances were generated. The best chance of the first ten minutes came from Corey Perry. On the night of his 1,000th game, he could have put the Stars ahead early. Instead, he just flat out missed on his attempt to bury a puck with Lehner out of position.

Although Perry could not bury his chance, the Stars still struck first. Around the 14-minute mark, the Stars won a key faceoff in the Blackhawks’ zone. John Klingberg, in his first game back from injury, wired a shot through traffic that was tipped in front by Roope Hintz and ultimately found its way behind Robin Lehner. 

Roope and Klinger were skating together a lot coming back from injury.

They combine for the first goal in their first game back. #CHIvsDAL | #GoStars pic.twitter.com/EYpp3x86BG

— X – Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) November 24, 2019

Although the Stars dominated the period, the Blackhawks found a way to capitalize on an A+ opportunity. On a play that started with Connor Murphy getting the puck up the boards, Patrick Kane tipped the pass further to Alex DeBrincat. “The Cat” led the charge up ice with Olli Maatta and had a two-on-one. DeBrincat and Maatta played catch, but the final move came from Maatta, getting his shot to squeak past Anton Khudobin to tie the game. The goal was the first as Blackhawk for Maatta.

Olli Määttä scores first goal of the night for the #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/fpJYpAECO1

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) November 24, 2019

Patrick Kane picked up the secondary assist, extending his point streak to 12 games. Kane has been sensational all season thus far. 

Despite how bad they played, the Blackhawks went into the first intermission tied at one. An excellent position to be in given how much the Stars dominated the first period. 

Second period

The period began with the Stars having a quality chance against Robin Lehner in the first minute. The Stars had a bit of a two-on-one. Jamie Benn, who coming into this game was riding a four-game point streak, failed to convert on the chance after the puck went off the toe of his stick.

The Blackhawks first excellent chance came via a power play in which DeBrincat was tripped by Blake Comeau to initiate the man advantage. The Blackhawks didn’t score on the power play, however, they dominated possession on the power play. They won every draw in the offensive zone, and only had to regroup once or twice before moving the puck around and getting shots on net. 

It’s safe to say if every Blackhawks power play looked that good all the time, they’d be much better statistically. 

On the other end of special teams, the Blackhawks killed off the first power play for the Stars in beautiful fashion. The Hawks killers swarmed the Stars and constantly applied pressure, leaving the Stars searching for answers as they were unable to generate any meaningful chances on their first man advantage of the evening. 

After the Hawks kill, the remaining five minutes of the period featured another Dallas Stars power play. However, seven seconds into the man advantage, Joe Pavelski was sent off for hitting David Kampf in the face. The roughing penalty resulted in four-on-four hockey for the remainder of the period. 

With ten seconds remaining, Jonathan Toews drew a penalty on Miro Heiskanen for holding. Toews had the puck for a good 20 seconds, skating circles around the Stars defenders without losing the puck. The penalty set up a four-on-three for 50 seconds. 

The teams entered the second intermission with about 48 seconds of four-on-three time remaining. The Blackhawks looked much better in the middle frame than they did in the opening frame, registering 13 shots during the period. 

Third period

The final frame began with an unsuccessful power play for the Blackhawks. Despite starting with the man advantage, they could not generate any meaningful offense. Instead, Dallas gets out of a sticky situation unharmed. 

About two and a half minutes into the period, Khudobin made the save of the game, completely doing the splits to make a save on Dominik Kubalik, who had a wide open cage. The Hawks had a few follow-up chances, but Khudobin was able to shut the door. 

Absolute ROBBERY by Dobby. #CHIvsDAL | #GoStars pic.twitter.com/UzLGBLC3rR

— X – Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) November 24, 2019

The best chance for the Stars in the period came on a power play after a David Kampf delay of game penalty. The Stars had a great sequence and nearly capitalized, but the Blackhawks penalty kill stood tall and Lehner made two excellent saves to keep the home team from taking the lead. 

With three minutes remaining, it appeared the Hawks had taken the lead in Dallas after a Dylan Strome deflection on a Maatta shot. However, the play was waved off immediately for a high stick and after review it was confirmed.

Dylan Strome's goal is disqualified due to having a high stick. #Blackhawks still tied 1-1 pic.twitter.com/SerEEw3sO2

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) November 24, 2019

The game indeed required overtime, and the Stars and Blackhawks entered overtime tied on the scoreboard and in almost every team statistic.

Overtime

The Blackhawks took possession first as Toews, Kane, and Keith took the ice first for the visitors. A Hawks turnover led to a Heiskanen breakaway, but Toews was able to break up the chance and force a turnover. 

An excellent individual effort from Patrick Kane nearly ended the game. Kane stole the puck from a Dallas defender and took off, creating a breakaway for himself. Unfortunately, Kane couldn’t capitalize. It hurt even worse because the Hawks were called for too many men on the ice after that chance. The Stars took their timeout before heading to the powerplay.

The Blackhawks killed the penalty, despite great chances by Dallas. Andrew Shaw had a semi breakaway just before time expired and looked to be tripped, instead, nothing was called and Shaw was furious. It appeared to be a penalty, but the game entered the shootout. 

Shootout

One shooter for Dallas, one goal. Joe Pavelski scored on the first shot of the overtime. Toews matched that by missing on his move to tuck the puck past Khudobin. 

The second Dallas shooter, Tyler Seguin, also scored. Both goals were five-hole on Lehner. Patrick Kane also missed on his chance and the Stars took the game in the shootout, 2–1. 

Quick hits

• Lehner looked good: Although he is not a shootout goalie, Lehner looked incredible during actual hockey play. He has continued to keep the Hawks in games and there is no denying that he may have been the best free-agent signing this past summer for any team in the league. The Stars had 15 high-danger chances in this game, 10 of them came in the first period. He only let one in. Yes ladies and gents, that’s really good. 
• Good penalty kill: The Blackhawks penalty kill looked sensational all night. The final powerplay in overtime allowed a lot of chances, but Lehner stood tall. If the kill can look like they did tonight all season, they will be in good shape going forward. 
• First one feels good: Olli Maatta scored his first goal as a Blackhawk tonight on a nice two-on-one with Alex DeBrincat. Maatta has improved every game with the Hawks and is proving to be a nice addition to this defensive group. Maatta also nearly had an assist on Strome’s high stick redirect goal. 

The Blackhawks will host this same Dallas Stars team on Tuesday, November 26 at the United Center. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. CST.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks fall 2–1 to Stars in shootout appeared first on The Rink.

The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “JJ” reconvene to discuss the Blackhawks’ recent success and their outstanding goaltending.

• Are the Blackhawks really that good, or is this just a brief spark?
• Adam Boqvist sent down to Rockford.
• Brian Campbell’s “One More Shift”.
• Praise for several Blackhawks players, including Kirby Dach.
• Mike Babcock is fired
• We wrap with the Rinkrat PuckBag segment.

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

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The Blackhawks lines and pairings were:

Brandon Saad — Jonathan Toews — Alexander Nylander
Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane
Dominik Kubalik — David Kampf — Andrew Shaw
Ryan Carpenter — Kirby Dach — Zack Smith

Duncan Keith — Erik Gustafsson
Calvin de Haan — Brent Seabrook
Olli Maatta — Connor Murphy

First period

The Blackhawk Express basically derailed at the start of this game. Action was fairly even in the early going, though it was evident that that Carolina came to play. The Blackhawks struggled to clear their end at times while, at the other end of the ice, the Canes seemed to have little difficult getting pucks out.

After an Erik Gustafsson blowout and turnover at the Carolina blueline, and an ensuing two-on-zero break on Lehner, Martin Necas put the Canes ahead 1–0 at 5:36, which was how the period would end. Shots were 13–4 Carolina for the period.

Second period

Bad fortune would continue for Chicago in the second period when Andrei Svechnikov caught Lehner unaware and beat him at just 53 seconds in with a quick, knuckle-balling shot from the right circle for a 2–0 Carolina lead.

The Hawks finally got something going when Dominik Kubalik and Andrew Shaw appeared ready to go on a two-on-zero themselves, but Kubalik was pulled down by Dougie Hamilton at 8:14. However, the two best scoring chances of the ensuing power play would be for the Canes’ Sebastian Aho, who got in on Lehner twice.

Sure enough, not too long after the Canes killed the penalty, Nino Niederreiter absolutely abused Gustafsson, beating him wide at center ice and flipping a puck up over Lehner in close at 11:54 to extend the gap to 3–0 Carolina.

Making matters potentially worse, Patrick Kane took a tripping call at 13:33. The Hawks were able to kill the penalty off, however. The period ended with the Canes up by three. Shots for the second were 14–8 Carolina.

Third period

The Blackhawks brought the pressure in the third with defensemen well up the ice—which finally paid off at 12:05 when Gustafsson gathered a pinpoint Patrick Kane pass right in front of Mrazek and buried it, cutting the score to 3–1.

Less than a minute later, Connor Murphy was the recipient of a Kane dish as he jumped into the slot. Murphy had all day and did not miss, bringing Chicago to within one at 3–2.

At this point, the building was jumping in anticipation of an epic comeback, shots were 20–6 Chicago for the period, but the Hawks simply were unable to solve Mrazek one more time. Head coach Jeremy Colliton pulled Lehner for an extra attacker late‚ but that turned into an Aho empty-net goal to make the final 4–2 Carolina.

The good

Not much. When you have Patrick Kane and enough other offensive talent—as the Hawks do—you can always mount a late comeback by pulling all the stops. But, this is a high-risk strategy that you should only utilize to get back into a game as Chicago did in the third.

The bad

It is fair to say the Hawks may have been reading their own press clippings a bit of late and did not come into the game with the requisite intensity needed against a quality foe like the Hurricanes.

The ugly

He may have scored a goal when defense did not matter, but Gustafsson continues to be a massive liability as a defender whenever he is on the ice. End of story.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks return to reality, fall to Carolina 4–2 appeared first on The Rink.

9 p.m. CST
T-Mobile Arena
TV/Radio: NBCSN/WGN

Projected starting goaltenders

Chicago — Corey Crawford (2–4–2, .905 save percentage, 3.27 goals against average)
Vegas — Marc-Andre Fleury (9–4–1, .920 save percentage, 2.52 goals against average)

Team statistics

Power play
Chicago (14.5%, 23rd)
Vegas (21.2%, 12th)

Penalty kill
Chicago (81.1%, 17th)
Vegas (87.7%, Third)

Shots for/against
Chicago (30.8, 20th; 36.8, 30th)
Vegas (33.4, 10th; 32.3, 11th)

Shooting percentage
Chicago (8.60%)
Vegas (8.50%)

Face off percentage
Chicago (48.6%, 24th)
Vegas (48.9%, 23rd)

Average height and weight
Chicago — 6-foot-1, 196 pounds
Vegas — 6-foot-2, 202 pounds

Projected lines and pairings

Chicago Blackhawks

Brandon Saad — Jonathan Toews —  Alexander Nylander
Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane
Dominik Kubalik — David Kampf — Andrew Shaw
Ryan Carpenter — Kirby Dach — Zack Smith

Duncan Keith —  Erik Gustafsson
Calvin de Haan — Brent Seabrook
Olli Maatta — Adam Boqvist

Vegas Golden Knights

       Brayden McNabb — Nate Schmidt
Shea Theodore — Nicolas Hague
Jon Merrill — Nick Holden

Analysis

In the Blackhawks’ victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team went back to the free-wheeling style from last season. The move to change offensive styles is directly related to the team’s lack of offensive production this season. Patrick Kane has gone from under producing on offense to one of the hottest players in the NHL in the last 10 days. Kane has 10 points in his last five games including three against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

While the style change yielded five goals from the offense, it also yielded a team-high 57 shots against goaltender Robin Lehner. Luckily for the Blackhawks, one of the strengths of this team has been the play of their goaltenders, particularly Lehner, who matched a career-high 53 saves against the Maple Leafs. The last time he faced over 50 shots was in 2013 against the New York Islanders. In addition to matching his career-high in saves, Lehner also became the first goaltender since Nikolai Khabibulin to record 50-plus saves in a game. Khabibulin accomplished his feat of 56 saves in 2007 against the Detroit Red Wings. Head coach Jeremy Colliton will go with Corey Crawford, though, against the struggling Vegas Golden Knights.

The Golden Knights are returning home after suffering an overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday. With the loss to Detroit, the Golden Knights finished off their four-game road trip with three straight losses. The issue plaguing the Golden Knights is third-period penalties, which have helped opponents outscore Vegas 16–15 in the third period. While yielding third-period goals is an issue, the Golden Knights also have trouble scoring third-period goals. One goal has been scored in the third period by the Golden Knights in their last four games.

If the Golden Knights want to right the ship against the Blackhawks, they need to get more productions from Mark Stone and Paul Stastny. Leading scorer Stone is pointless in his last four games, while Stastny is pointless in his last six games.

Can the free-wheeling offense of the Blackhawks yield another victory or will the Golden Knights solve their period woes at home?

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And, be sure to look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game right here on The-Rink.com.

The post Preview/Game thread: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Vegas Golden Knights appeared first on The Rink.

To be fair (and honest), the Hawks are coming off a couple of their stronger outings this season. Last night in Pittsburgh, Chicago gave a fairly solid effort, but in the end hung Corey Crawford out to dry one time too many, blowing a lead then falling and losing the second point in the Gary Bettman Marketing Gimmick known as “the shootout.”

The game may also go down in history for NBCSN color man Ed Olczyk’s summarization of the talents of Erik Gustafsson: “his strength is not defense.”

Robin Lehner would take the net for Chicago Sunday night for the first time in 3 games, 190 feet from ex-Winnipeg Jet Michael “Don’t Call Me Hutchence” Hutchinson for Toronto.

The Hawks’ lines and pairings were:

Brandon Saad — Jonathan Toews — Alexander Nylander
Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane
Zack Smith — David Kampf — Dominik Kubalik
Drake Caggiula — Kirby Dach — Andrew Shaw

Duncan Keith — Adam Boqvist
Calvin de Haan — Brent Seabrook
Olli Maatta — Erik Gustafsson

FIRST PERIOD

Call it old time hockey or Meatball Stuff, but :32 in to the game, Jonathan Toews did what an NHL captain does, by going hard after Toronto defenseman Jake Muzzin who had taken a big time run at a defenseless Brandon Saad, dropping Saad hard to the ice behind the Toronto net. The refs stepped in quickly and Muzzin took a two-minute minor, with Toews getting an extra two minutes, resulting in a Toronto power play, which the Hawks successfully killed.

At 5:18, Patrick Kane capitalized on an odd bounce and Cody Ceci involuntary redirect to put the Hawks out in front 1-0. Alex DeBrincat got the assist.

The action was fairly fast and furious throughout the first 11-12 minutes or so, with Dominik Kubalik just missing an opportunity to put the Hawks up 2-0, when he hit a post on a wide open side of the net.

At 12:00 in, Calvin DeHaan corraled a Muzzin turnover and blasted it off Hutchinson’s pads. Kirby Dach swooped in on the fat rebound and did not miss. 2-0 Chicago.

Just ten—ten—seconds later, with the Leafs in full disarray, Kane stepped out between the circles and delivered arguably the league’s best backhand into the top of the Leaf net. 3-0 Hawks.

The Leafs started coming on around the 15 minute mark but Lehner delivered some big saves to protect the Hawk lead. Former Hawk property Justin Holl took a badly called penalty at about the 17 minute mark, which the refs then, in classic NHL fashion, immediately “made good” with a slashing call on Dylan Strome. Three seconds later, Auston Matthews won a draw clean to William Nylander who beat Lehner. 3-1 Chicago.

Muzzin then took a tripping penalty at 17:17, giving the Hawks a 4-on-3. Sure enough, Toews immediately capitalized on a tic tac toe passing play. 4-1 Chicago at 17:28 and that was how the period would end—leaving NBCSN viewers to wonder just how “Gizmo” would break this one down between periods. Shots were 15-12 Toronto.

SECOND PERIOD

This period was a bit more tightly checked but about 6-7 minutes in, the Hawks started getting a little sloppy wth the puck, leading to turnovers and prime scoring chances for Toronto. Fortunately, Lehner repeatedly rose to the challenge.

Morgan Reilly took a hooking penalty at 8:01, putting Chicago back on the man advantage, which the Leafs easily killed. Ceci then took a hooking penalty at 13:08. This also was killed off by Toronto, although the Hawks launched several shots on goal on this power play.

Strome took another penalty at 17:05, and Toronto quickly won a face-off and set up shop. But the Hawks did their job and eventually killed it off. The period ended scoreless. Shots were 16-15 for Toronto.

THIRD PERIOD

A weak Erik Gustafsson turnover along the wall led to another William Nylander tally for the Leafs at 2:27. 4-2 Chicago

Alex Nylander took a high-sticking penalty at 3:55, giving Toronto even more life. However, Auston Matthews evened it out by high-sticking Calvin deHaan a minute later.

Toronto continued to keep pressure on Lehner (which he was more than up to), surpassing 40 shots midway through the third.

Gustafsson took a penalty at 12:37, leading, sure enough, to the Leafs third goal that appeared to injure Lehner in the collarbone or neck area. Lehner remained in the game, which was a good thing because it appeared the Hawks would need him with just a 4-3 lead.

However, after the Hawks converged on a loose puck in front of a down and out Lehner, Toews and Saad combined on a high speed goal, putting Chicago ahead 5-3 at 16:26.

Toronto then pulled Hutchinson, followed by a Zack Smith hooking call at 18:23. Lehner continued to stand tall under withering pressure, until Andreas Jonsson broke the spell at 19:18. 5-4 Chicago. The Hawks withstood the Leafs attack over the remaining seconds, sealing the win.

THE GOOD

Kane (2G) and the Kane/Strome/DeBrincat line. Dach, Toews, Saad, Lehner (especially) and Calvin deHaan all had nice games.

THE BAD

The Hawks continue an ongoing theme of poor puck management that they have gotten away with of late due to superior goaltending.

THE UGLY

57 Toronto shots on goal. Consider also that the Hawks are getting excellent play from deHaan and solid play from Olli Maatta. You want 2 “forwards” in your six-man defense rotation because . . . “pointz?” Careful what you wish for.

All we have on this one. Please comment below.

The post Recap: Blackhawks outlast Leafs, 5-4 in regulation appeared first on The Rink.

6:00 p.m. CST
United Center
TV/Radio: NBCSN/WGN

Projected starting goaltenders

Chicago — Robin Lehner (3–3–2, .935 save percentage, 2.33 goals-against average)
Toronto — Michael Hutchinson (0–3–1, .885 save percentage, 4.25 goals-against average)

Team statistics

Power play
Chicago (14.0%, 25th)
Toronto (16.4%, 21st)

Penalty kill
Chicago (81.1%, 17th)
Toronto (76.9%, 24th)

Shots for/against
Chicago
-30.6, 21st
-35.5, 30th
Toronto
-32.3, 13th
-33.0, 23rd

Shooting percentage
Chicago (6.28%, 29th)
Toronto (8.84%, 13th)

Face-off percentage
Chicago (48.3%, 25th)
Toronto (53.1%, third)

Average height and weight
Chicago — 6-foot-1, 196 pounds
Toronto — 6-foot-1, 200 pounds

Projected lines and pairings

Chicago Blackhawks

Brandon Saad — Jonathan Toews — Alexander Nylander
Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane
Dominik Kubalik — David Kampf — Kirby Dach
Drake Caggiula — Ryan Carpenter — Andrew Shaw

Duncan Keith — Adam Boqvist
Calvin de Haan — Brent Seabrook
Olli Maatta — Erik Gustafsson

Toronto Maple Leafs

Andreas Johnsson – Auston Matthews – William Nylander
Trevor Moore – John Tavares – Kasperi Kapanen
Ilya Mikheyev – Alexander Kerfoot – Jason Spezza
Dmytro Timashov – Nick Shore – Frederik Gauthier

Morgan Rielly – Cody Ceci
Jake Muzzin – Tyson Barrie
Travis Dermott – Justin Holl

Analysis

No rest for the wicked for either team.  Both lost last night in shootouts and are looking for rebound wins.  The Leafs came back and tied the Flyers but ultimately weren’t able to hold on in the shootout.  The Blackhawks jumped out to a 2–0 lead and were not able to hang on against the Penguins.  For what seems like the twenty-fifth time this season, the Blackhawks failed their goaltender.  They were, however, able to grab that coveted “loser point”.

With all the hype surrounding the Leafs and their offensive circus of high paid players, they sit at eighth overall and second in the Atlantic division.  If you count OT losses as standings losses (we do), the Leafs are a .500 team.  Statistically, they sit in the middle or bottom third of the league in most categories.  Where they do excel most is faceoff percentage and puck possession metrics.  Basically, if they win the faceoff, they will generate some lethal offense.  They are, though, without one of their top scorers, in Mitch Marner.  He was injured last night at the opening faceoff of the second period and was forced to leave the game  Coach Mike Babcock said that he will undergo an MRI today to determine the extent of the injury.

The key for the Blackhawks will be to hanging onto puck possession long enough to keep John Tavares, Auston Matthews, and William Nylander out of Robin Lehner‘s face, which is a problem they have faced in just about every game this season.  The Blackhawks will also have a prime opportunity to take advantage of another Leafs shortcoming, their backup goaltender.  While Frederik Andersen has been outstanding early on this season, Michael Hutchinson has been abjectly awful this season.  That said, Hutchinson has always had Chicago’s number, beating them several times with the Winnipeg Jets and going 3–1–1 with a .961 save percentage and one shutout in six career games. This could be the slump buster that Hutchinson needs.

Will the Blackhawks finally break the Hutchinson jinx or will the Leafs simply overwhelm a tired and struggling team?

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And, be sure to look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game right here on The-Rink.com.

The post Preview/Game thread Chicago Blackhawks vs Toronto Maple Leafs appeared first on The Rink.

The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “JJ” reconvene with Facebook/Twitter sensation Christian Deme, aka StacheESQ, to discuss the Blackhawks plummeting hopes.

• The Blackhawks are 4-7-3 after losing to the San Jose Sharks, Tuesday night.
• Blackhawks traded Brendan Perlini, recalled Adam Boqvist and re-assigned Dennis Gilbert
• If not for Robin Lehner, could the Blackhawks be winless? Also, thoughts on Crawford
• An extended conversation about just what is wrong with this Blackhawks team and franchise.
• We wrap with the Rinkrat PuckBag segment.

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

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The Rinkcast is brought to you by the Overtime Podcast Network

The post Blackhawks Rinkcast – Season 3, Episode 4 – Is the Stache the answer? appeared first on The Rink.

Jeremy Colliton went with Robin Lehner again in net for tonight’s matchup. The lineup remained the same as well. The lines and pairings were as follows:

Brandon Saad — Jonathan Toews — Alexander Nylander

Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane

Dominik Kubalik — David Kampf — Kirby Dach

Drake Caggiula — Ryan Carpenter — Andrew Shaw

Duncan Keith — Adam Boqvist

Calvin de Haan — Brent Seabrook

Olli Maatta — Erik Gustafsson

First period

The Blackhawks struggled to gain any momentum in the offensive zone in the opening period, which is a consistent theme. San Jose had too many rushes up the ice, but Chicago defended them fairly well and Robin Lehner bailed them out when he had to.

About halfway through the period, Noah Gregor was called for hooking and the Blackhawks went on the power play. Once again, they had trouble sustaining time in the zone and the Sharks cleared the puck repeatedly. Both units only recorded on shot in total on that man advantage.

Chicago found themselves chasing after the puck for the remainder of the period, and that caused them to get into some penalty trouble. Duncan Keith was called for hooking with just over two minutes left. Robin Lehner made a few great saves, but the pressure continued to overwhelm the Blackhawks as Brandon Saad sat for hooking with 33 seconds left in the period. Luckily, they killed off what they needed to in order to leave the period unscathed.

The Sharks dominated the Blackhawks in shots on goal 14-3, reflective of what was a dominant possession period for the home team.

Second period

More of the same transferred over from the first 20 minutes to the beginning of the second. Shortly after Chicago killed the two penalties, every player watched as the puck moved freely in San Jose’s zone. Joe Thornton slipped a pass to Timo Meier, who spun and simply threw the puck on net. Patrick Marleau was left all alone to the right of Lehner with Brent Seabrook directly behind him, and he directed the shot into the net to give the Sharks the lead just 1:39 into the period.

How does Patrick Marleau celebrate a milestone? He scores a goal, of course. #SJSharks pic.twitter.com/6uSCoZRH4J

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) November 6, 2019

After going without a shot for the last 15 minutes of the game, the Blackhawks finally recorded their first shot on goal of the second period with 8:47 left. Patrick Kane took advantage of a chance to shoot the puck off a rare defensive breakdown by the Sharks in this game. That would only be their fourth shot of the game up until that point.

San Jose had chance after chance, while the Blackhawks had only recorded one shot in the middle frame. It looked like they would get some more offensive opportunities with a power play, but nothing was clicking. Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon cleared the puck around the boards and it hopped right over Adam Boqvist’s stick at the blueline. Evander Kane was able to get a step on him and Dominik Kubalik and shoot right through Lehner’s five hole for the shorthanded goal.

The Blackhawks finally maintained a bit of pressure after that goal, but Martin Jones stopped everything that was thrown his way. San Jose led the visitors 2-0 in goals and 26-8 in shots on goal through 40 minutes of play.

Third period

Once again, the Blackhawks failed to start on time at the beginning of the period. They sat back on too many of San Jose’s plays and were reluctant to find their way into the offensive zone, playing the dump and chase game.

That cost them just under five minutes into the third frame. After Robin Lehner played the puck towards the boards for Chicago to clear out, the Sharks went to work down low. Tomas Hertl skated around behind the goal while holding onto the puck and Duncan Keith right on his tail, slashing away at the puck to try and set it free. Hertl kept possession, eventually maneuvering to the faceoff dot to the right of Lehner and simply throwing the puck on net. It slipped right through a hole on Lehner’s glove side and put the Sharks up 3-0.

Andrew Shaw then committed a penalty, high-sticking on Erik Karlsson, which the Blackhawks killed off with some good defensive work. Chicago got another power play chance of their own when Patrick Kane was high-sticked, but nothing seemed to be working on either unit.

In the last seven minutes or so, the Blackhawks began a push for more scoring chances, something they lacked for the first 50 minutes of the game. All of this pressure paid off when they had a solid defensive zone exit and a smooth entry into the offensive zone. A few great passes between Brandon Saad, Jonathan Toews, and Andrew Shaw led to some open ice. Shaw sent a cross-ice pass to Toews while Saad drove toward the net and redirected the puck home off Toews’ pass, cutting the Sharks lead to 3-1.

Just over a minute later, the Blackhawks opted for six skaters on the ice and the net empty. Jonathan Toews won a faceoff against Logan Couture and passed back to Duncan Keith. Patrick Kane exchanged two quick passes with Keith, who looked for a lane and took a chance with a slapshot. It found its way through bodies in front of Martin Jones and into the back of the net. All of a sudden the Blackhawks were a goal away from tying the game.

Duncan Keith with a slapper! pic.twitter.com/CJbfh6IsZp

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) November 6, 2019

But all hopes of a comeback were short-lived when Timo Meier wristed a shot into the empty net to give the Sharks some cushion thirty seconds later, extending their lead to 4-2. Even though the Blackhawks outshot the Sharks 13-6 in the final 20 minutes, it wasn’t enough of a push to get at least a point. Final shots on goal were 32-21 in favor of San Jose.

Pluses

• The penalty kill continues to be one of the biggest bright spots for the Blackhawks. They went 3-for-3 on the PK in this outing, and killed 15 out of 16 on the four-game road trip. For a team that seems to have a lot of defensive issues, it’s great to see one thing working right for them, even if the best penalty killers are the goalies more often than not.

Minuses

• When this team is off their game, it’s not even by a little bit. They’re either on or off, nothing in between. This game showcased just that, as they only had eight shots and 17 shot attempts through the first two periods of the game. The Blackhawks did push back a bit in the third period, but that’s not enough. They need to consistently play a full 60 minutes night in and night out if they seriously want a chance at winning hockey games.
• After a good game in Anaheim on Sunday, the top six went completely missing in this matchup, outside of Brandon Saad’s goal. In fact, only the fourth line of Caggiula-Carpenter-Shaw posted positive possession numbers, and it was easy to spot with the eye test, too. They have to be better than that, and they all know it.

The Blackhawks will return home on Thursday night to take on the Vancouver Canucks. Puck dropped is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CST.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks break down, fall to Sharks 4-2 appeared first on The Rink.

9:00 p.m. CST
SAP Center
TV/Radio: NBCSN/WGN

Probable starters
Chicago — Robin Lehner (2–2–2, .938 save percentage, 2.26 goals-against average)
San Jose — Martin Jones (2-7-1, .887 save percentage, 3.52 goals-against average)

Team statistics

Power play
Chicago (12.8%, 28th)
San Jose (22.0%, 13th)

Penalty kill
Chicago (79.1%, 21st)
San Jose (89.6%, First)

Shots for/against
Chicago
-30.8, 19th
-35.9, 30th

San Jose
-32.7, 17th
-32.7, 22nd

Shooting percentage
Chicago (7.8%)
San Jose  (8.3%)

Face-off percentage
Chicago (48.7%, 22nd)
San Jose (51.5%, seventh)

Average height and weight
Chicago — 6-foot-1, 196 pounds
San Jose — 6-foot-1, 203 pounds

Projected lines and pairings

Chicago Blackhawks

Brandon Saad — Jonathan Toews — Alexander Nylander
Alex DeBrincat — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane
Dominik Kubalik — David Kampf — Kirby Dach
Drake Caggiula — Ryan Carpenter — Andrew Shaw

Duncan Keith — Adam Boqvist
Calvin de Haan — Brent Seabrook
Olli Maatta — Erik Gustafsson

San Jose Sharks

Evander Kane — Logan Couture — Kevin Labanc
Timo Meier — Tomas Hertl —  Barclay Goodrow
Marcus Sorensen — Joe Thornton — Patrick Marleau
Lean Bergmann — Noah Gregor — Lukas Radil

Marc-Edouard Vlasic — Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon — Erik Karlsson
Radim Simek — Mario Ferraro

Analysis

The Blackhawks are riding high after their victory over the Anaheim Ducks, which appears to be the first victory in the new youth movement era.  In their victory, Jonathan Toews hooked up with Patrick Kane on the overtime winner. The team also saw the first NHL goal for young phenom Adam Boqvist, giving the rookie his first professional goal and his first NHL goal within mere days. it is pretty clear why fans expect big things from the young future star.

The bigger star from the Blackhawks last game was goalie Robin Lehner. Lehner put up another impressive outing in Sunday night’s game against the Los Angeles Kings. Despite facing the most shots in the NHL, on average, Lehner continues to boast the leagues third best save percentage. He attributed that to playing behind a young porous defense during his time in Buffalo in the post game scrum. He will have to continue to play at high level against their opponent tonight, the San Jose Sharks.

The San Jose Sharks are coming off a a 5-2 loss against the upstart Vancouver Canucks, and are struggling much like the Blackhawks. Age, inconsistency, and poor goaltending appear to be the biggest issues plaguing the Sharks. The average age of the Sharks is 29.2 years, which is a full two years older than  NHL average. In addition to being long in the tooth, the goalie tandem of Martin Jones and Aaron Dell rank in the bottom 15 of NHL goaltenders this season.

While the Sharks have some glaring weaknesses, they also have some positives. Brent Burns ranks in the top 30 offensive players with 14 total points, and Evander Kane is 14th in the NHL with eight goals. This is the second meeting this season between the Blackhawks and the Sharks.  The first meeting ended in a 5—4 overtime win for the Sharks, at the United Center, which means that the Blackhawks are looking to avenge earlier loss while the Sharks are to get back on a winning track.

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And, be sure to look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game by Juliana Nikac right here on The-Rink.com.

The post Preview/Game thread Chicago Blackhawks at San Jose Sharks appeared first on The Rink.

The lines on Tuesday were as follows:

Kane — Toews — Caggiula
Kubalik — Kampf — Nylander
Shaw — Dach — Saad
DeBrincat — Carpenter — Strome

Keith — de Haan
Koekkoek — Maatta
Gilbert — Gustafsson

Lehner

First period

The period started off at a very fast pace with both teams getting some chances that were all stopped by the respective teams’ goaltenders. There were a lot of chances that the Predators were able to take all the way in on net and get some chances on Lehner, who proved up to the task.

The Blackhawks managed to get a couple of three-on-ones on Pekka Rinne, but were not able to get much on the chances, save for an Alex DeBrincat wrister that Rinne had to be quick to kick the toe out to stop. Colton Sissons got a breakaway on Lehner after he blocked an Erik Gustafsson shot, but he missed the net completely.

The Predators showed off some quickness after that shot, getting a few more good chances in on net before the Blackhawks could clear their zone. Rinne did a great job of keeping the puck away from the Blackhawks as they came into the zone by playing it himself before they could get in on the attack.

The Blackhawks got their first power play on a Mikael Granlund cross check on Alex Nylander, trying to make something happen for the first time in five games. Chicago got two or three good chances, but could not generate much of anything against the Predators’ lackluster penalty kill. Toews rang a hard wrister off of the post on a good feed from David Kampf about half a minute later, but then the Ryan Johansen line came on strong right after. They peppered the Blackhawk net with shots, forcing Lehner to make a huge, lunging kick save to stop the best chance of the bunch. Johansen missed a shot that he tried to pull to the forehand, causing him to take too much time and allowing Lehner to get back into position and make the stop.

Then, a minute later, after a barrage of shots and so many great stops from Lehner, the Predators finally got through the defense, with Nick Bonino putting in a backhander off of a rebound, making it 1–0 Predators. The Blackhawks did come right back, though, throwing some hard shots in on Rinne, but getting outshot 19–6 will normally put you behind, and it did. After one period, it was 1–0 Predators.

What an incredible desperation save by Robin Lehner. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/bKiCbCMHOX

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) October 30, 2019

Second period

Just half a minute into the period, Dante Fabbro tripped Dylan Strome, giving the Blackhawks another chance to convert on the power play, which really needed to get something going. But, they did not do anything on the opportunity and were not able to generate hardly any shots on goal either. A short while later, Duncan Keith got called for a trip, which put the Blackhawks on the penalty kill for the first time in the game. Lehner made some more big stops to keep the puck out of the net, and to help the team kill off the penalty with few real scares.

The Predators kept the pressure on, though, with Bonino potting his second of the night off of a rebound, making it 2–0 Nashville. Same as the first period, the Blackhawks came back with a couple of good shots on goal that were good chances. After some back and forth for both sides with little to show for it, Lehner made an insane series of stops just before the five-minute mark, singlehandedly keeping the Blackhawks in the game.

The Predators did not let up, continuing to show off their speed and skill by passing the puck all around and skating all over the Blackhawks’ offensive zone. At the 17:50 mark of the period, Slater Koekkoek got called for a hooking penalty, putting the Blackhawks down a man again. Kampf and Brandon Saad both got a couple good chances in at the end of the period, but they did not amount to anything, as the period ended at a score of 2–0 Predators.

Third period

The first few minutes were physical if not overly productive. Both teams dished out some hits and received some in return, with the shots taken not presenting much of a challenge to either goaltender.

Then, guess who? Bonino struck for the third time in the game, capping off the hat trick and making the score 3–0 Predators by camping out in front of the net as he did on the first couple of goals.

The Predators continued to clog up the middle of the ice, not allowing the Blackhawks to have any easy entries into the offensive zone. Chicago did not have many good passes to get into the zone, having to try to poke it past the defense and chase it instead of dumping and chasing as they would like to do.

The Blackhawks were finally moving the puck well when Koekkoek got his stick up too high on Matt Duchene, putting the penalty killers back out on the ice to try to prevent another goal from going in. They managed to kill it off, thanks to some stellar stops from Lehner, and managed to get a great opportunity after on a beautiful pass from DeBrincat out in front to Strome, who missed the mark on his shot.

Then, the Blackhawks got another penalty to kill off, with Kane taking a hooking penalty and then out of frustration getting upset with the official, giving the Predators a four-minute power play. One minute in, however, the Predators’ Johansen took a hooking penalty on Andrew Shaw to make it a two-minute four-on-four opportunity. Not too much happened there, and afterwards it was still up to the Blackhawks to kill off the rest of Kane’s double minor, which they were able to do.

Keith brought on a couple of great shots on Rinne, but no one was able to get a stick on the rebounds, allowing Rinne to glove the puck. Other than Strome’s chance, the Blackhawks were not able to do much to put any pressure on Rinne and come very close to scoring. The game ended in a 3–0 Predators win.

The Blackhawks look to rebound against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night. That one is a real late-night game due to playing in the Pacific time zone, with a 9:30 p.m. puck drop. The game can be seen on NBC Sports Chicago.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks get played like a fiddle against Nashville appeared first on The Rink.

Four or five years ago, tonight’s matchup between the Blackhawks and the Kings would have featured two dynastic NHL powerhouses at the top of their games. Tonight, it featured two sub-.500 teams struggling to score and establish any kind of consistency.

Prior to the game on the NBCSN warmup, Hawk color man Ed Olczyk pronounced that the Kings are “in a rebuild.” Well, perhaps the same should be said of the Blackhawks.

Robin Lehner, who has clearly been the better of the Hawks’ two goalies early this season, took the net for Chicago, facing Jack Campbell for the Kings.

Of note, veteran defenseman Brent Seabrook was a healthy scratch—something to watch as the season progresses.

The Hawks’ lines and pairings were:

Drake Caggiula — Jonathan Toews — Patrick Kane
Dominik Kubalik — David Kampf — Alexander Nylander
Brandon Saad — Kirby Dach — Andrew Shaw
Dylan Strome — Ryan Carpenter — Alex DeBrincat

Duncan Keith — Calvin de Haan
Olli Maatta — Dennis Gilbert
Slater Koekkoek — Erik Gustafsson

First period

If Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton was trying to send a message to Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome by demoting them to the fourth line, it seems to have worked—Strome took a DeBrincat set-up off transition and buried it from the slot at just 2:33 into the contest, making the score 1–0 Chicago.

The Kings then took a minor penalty at 3:36, which Chicago failed to capitalize on.

Broken record time (and prepare for more of it): The Kings’ bigger forwards had a target on 18-year-old Kirby Dach’s back from the get-go. Overall, the early going featured a fair amount of banging, with Drake Caggiula and (go figure) Andrew Shaw running around quite a bit for the Hawks.

Calvin de Haan took an unintentional delay of game at 10:56, giving the Kings their first power play of the night. After extended LA offensive zone pressure, Lehner made back-to-back strong saves at 11:43. But, King left wing Ilya Kovalchuk evened it up with a tripping penalty 195 feet from his own net at 12:14, which eventually turned into a brief Blackhawk man advantage that was then killed off by LA.

The Hawks mounted another flurry late in the period led by Jonathan Toews and Brandon Saad, but the period ended with the Hawks up by one. Shots were 12–11 Chicago.

Second period

The Hawks struck early again, with David Kampf corralling a pass from a falling Alex Nylander and putting it past Campbell at 2:26 for a 2–0 Chicago lead.

Shaw took a holding the stick minor at 5:24, putting LA on the man advantage, which the Hawks killed with Lehner strong on a few late King chances.

Nylander and Dominik Kubalik had a nice two-on-one opportunity at 9:46 that Nylander could not squeak through Campbell’s pads.

There was a bit of controversy when Saad was caught in the face by the follow-through of an LA player’s stick after taking a shot. Saad fell to the ice, but play continued until the refs blew it dow with the Hawks offside at 15:19. The Hawks cashed in just seconds later when DeBrincat picked up a puck behind the LA net and fed Strome again in the slot, which Strome held on to long enough to draw Campbell down then converted up high at 15:55, extending Chicago’s lead to 3–0.

Strome and DeBrincat clicked yet again at 19:52, this time with Strome feeding DeBrincat out front to make it 4–0 Hawks, which was how the period would end. The Kings outshot Chicago 12–8 in the frame.

Third period

Strome almost made it three goals for the night at 2:35 when he got in behind the King defense. But Campbell was up to the challenge to deny the hat-trick bid.

The Kings finally solved Lehner at 3:35 on a Sean Walker blast from the right circle to cut the score to 4–1.

Toews took a hooking minor at 12:18 which the Hawks effectively killed. DeBrincat and Strome again almost converted a two-on-one at 16:00, but to no avail. But, at 17:43, Drake “Caligula” Caggiula finally broke the Cat-Strome spell and tipped a puck home, making it 5–1 Chicago, which would prove to be the final score.

The good

The Strome, Ryan Carpenter, DeBrincat line. Crazy good. Three goals, seven points. Lehner was also very strong (38 saves, .974 save percentage). Nylander made plays all over the ice.

The bad

Hard to find on a night like this against a really bad Kings team. So, yeah, the Kings. Well, the Hawks were yet again outshot, 39–26.

The ugly

The guys in black, again.

All we have on this one. Comment below.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks down Kings 5–1 appeared first on The Rink.

6:00 p.m. CDT
United Center
TV/Radio: NBCSN/WGN

Projected starting goaltenders

Chicago — Robin Lehner (1–1–2, .922 save percentage, 2.44 goals-against average)
LA Kings — Jack Campbell (2–2–0, .897 save percentage, 2.76 goals-against average)

Team statistics

Power play
Chicago (10.3%, 26th)
LA Kings (9.5%, 28th)

Penalty kill
Chicago (70.4%, 28th)
LA Kings (72.5%, 25th)

Shots for/against
Chicago
32.2, 12th
32.2, 10th
LA Kings
37.1, first
28.5, second

Shooting percentage
Chicago (6.9%, 30th)
LA Kings (7.35%, 28th)

Face-off percentage
Chicago (49.9%, 18th)
LA Kings (51.4%, eighth)

Average height and weight
Chicago — 6-foot-1, 196 pounds
Los Angeles — 6-foot-1, 203 pounds

Projected lines and pairings

Chicago Blackhawks

Alex DeBrincat — Jonathan Toews — Patrick Kane
Dominik Kubalik — David Kampf — Alexander Nylander
Brandon Saad — Kirby Dach — Andrew Shaw
Dylan Strome — Ryan Carpenter — Drake Caggiula

Duncan Keith — Calvin de Haan
Olli Maatta — Dennis Gilbert
Slater Koekkoek — Erik Gustafsson

Los Angeles Kings

Alex Iafallo – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown
Jeff Carter – Blake Lizotte – Tyler Toffoli
Ilya Kovalchuk – Adrian Kempe – Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford – Michael Amadio – Austin Wagner

Ben Hutton – Drew Doughty
Alec Martinez – Sean Walker
Kurtis MacDermid – Matt Roy

Analysis

After laying a big fat goose-egg in Carolina, yesterday, the Blackhawks lick their wounds and try to get themselves a win against the equally struggling LA Kings for the Hockey Fights Cancer event, tonight at the United Center. Head coach Jeremy Colliton shook up the lines against the Hurricanes but it did little good. As a result, fans will immediately notice that assistant captain Brent Seabook is a healthy scratch for the contest. The active franchise leader in games played (1091) has only been a healthy scratch only one other time in his Blackhawks career.

The last time Brent Seabrook was a healthy scratch, I was 27 years and 364 days old. He also has yet to reply to my ‘How are you doing?’ text, which he CLEARLY read as this picture shows.#Blackhawks #NHL https://t.co/zJaFXCHlGW

— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) October 27, 2019

Additionally, winger Drake Caggiula will draw back into the lineup after sitting in Carolina in favor of veteran Zack Smith. With $10.125 million of players sitting in the press box, the Blackhawks are running out of time to get this year’s ball rolling. While their goals against are in the top third of the NHL, they are dead last in goals for. Part of this is bad puck-luck but a portion of this can be attributed to their anemic power play, which is a dreadful 10.3% (3-for-29).

Birthday boy Brandon Saad has been one of the best overall players for the Blackhawks this season and looks to have a big night to celebrate the big two-seven.

The Kings are coming off a terrible 5–1 loss to the one team in the central division that might be worse than the Blackhawks, the Minnesota Wild.  Minnesota was only 3–7–0 coming into last night’s game, yet the Kings came in and gave up four unanswered goals to lose despite leading in shots on goal and dominating the faceoff circle.

This matchup defies logic. The Kings are first overall in shots-on-net per game and second overall in fewest shots given up per game, yet they are only 4–7–0 on the season. Special teams will be an interesting part of tonight’s game, as both teams show up in the bottom third of the league on both the power play and penalty kill.

Both goalies, Robin Lehner and Jack Campbell, have played better than their “starting” counterparts in the opportunities given. Lehner boasts a 92.2 save percentage, while Campbell has a below league average 89.7 save percentage but has a respectable goals-against average of only 2.77.

Individually, Kings’ center Anze Kopitar needs just one point for 900 in his career and wing Ilya Kovalchuk is just one game behind Pavel Bure for fourth overall in games played by a Russian born player.

Will this game be a battle of attrition with both teams struggling to score or a wild west type shootout where 10-plus goals are put up on the board?

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And, be sure to look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game by John Jaeckel right here on The-Rink.com.

Additional special game notes:
The Chicago Blackhawks and the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation are hosting “Hockey Fights Cancer” night this evening. During warmups, players will wear newly-designed “Hockey Fights Cancer” jerseys, which will each be autographed and auctioned off online to benefit various local cancer-related organizations through the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation. Coaches and broadcasters will wear purple ties, which will also be included in the auction accompanied by an autographed photo.

The auction will begin on Sunday, Oct. 27 and run through Monday, Nov. 4 at noon. Interested fans can visit Blackhawks.com/HockeyFightsCancer for more information. Through the team’s partnership with Make-A-Wish Illinois and Bear Necessities, five local children battling cancer will accompany the Blackhawks starting lineup on the blue line for the National Anthem

Additionally, Benoit Savard, a 12-year-old from Lévis, Québec, who is battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, will perform the ceremonial puck drop prior to the game as part of his Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada experience.

The post Preview/Game thread Chicago Blackhawks vs. Los Angeles Kings appeared first on The Rink.

The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” is joined again by staff writers Ray Napientek and Juliana Nikac to talk about the current state of the Blackhawks.

• The Blackhawks are 2-4-2 after losing to the Flyers, Thursday night.
• Kirby Dach recalled from Rockford and played 3 games thus far.
• Connor Murphy injured against the Vegas Golden Knights
• Aleksi Saarela sent to Florida for Ian McCoshen
• Mario Tirabassi gives us another award-winning #Warpigs report.
• Gate, Ray and Juliana discuss the last 6 games and the state of the Blackhawks.
• We also discuss Corey Crawford, Robin Lehner, Brendan Perlini, Brandon Saad, and much more
• We wrap with the Rinkrat PuckBag segment where we discuss #HongKongClassic jerseys.

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

Also, please help spread the word to more #RinkRats and visit our sponsor www.PUCKHCKY.com. Use the discount code “THERINK” for 10% off all orders.

The Rinkcast is brought to you by the Overtime Podcast Network

The post Blackhawks Rinkcast – Season 3, Episode 3 – The more things change, the more they stay the same appeared first on The Rink.

While there are positives (Dominik Kubalik, Robin Lehner, the return of the “real” Brandon Saad and the possibility of an improved defense—if everyone can get and stay healthy), there are some obvious issues, not least of which is a puzzling weakness in scoring goals (30th in the league). Sure, it is only after six games. And you have to take both of those points together in order to really understand what is going on.

While most fans probably expect that the Hawks will fight for every point in every game in order to make the playoffs, the truth is, despite an almost universal belief that Stan Bowman had a good and productive offseason—the Hawks came into the season with more questions than answers.

So, if you are wondering, for example, why Dylan Strome is being “experimented” with at wing, why the lines really are not clicking, etc., understand the Blackhawks are trying some things out to see how they will work—at the risk of losing points.

Some assume that because he was drafted third overall this past June, 18-year-old Kirby Dach playing second line center in the NHL is “perfectly natural.” Well, it is on a rebuilding team, not so much on a contending team. By the way, the Hawks were absolutely destroyed in the face off dot (34%) yet again last night—and at the risk of re-litigating the stupid “face offs don’t matter” argument, they do, especially if you project yourself as a puck-possession team. But I digress. The good news there is Dach’s percentage (40%) was not the team’s worst. The bad news? 40%.

Hence the title of this blog. Now, some of you will say, “Okay, enough already, JJ, we get it, the Hawks are rebuilding.” To which I respond, “Okay, so then do not expect much, especially not right now and maybe all year.”

Honestly, I believe the Hawks, as they have tried and basically failed at the last few seasons, are trying to engineer lightning in a bottle over the course of 82 games. If—IF—Dach matures through on the job training (like Alex DeBrincat did two years ago and Saad did in 2013), IF Calvin de Haan and Connor Murphy and everyone else can get and stay healthy, IF Strome can adjust to wing, IF we get more good Alex Nylander than bad Alex Nylander, IF Lehner continues to look like an elite (or near elite) netminder, then perhaps the playoffs will be a real possibility.

But, we are working through the IFs right now; answers to be determined.

All I have for now. Comment below.

The post ANALYSIS: Adjust your Blackhawks expectations appeared first on The Rink.

The only major change to the line combinations was the insertion of Slater Koekkoek for Connor Murphy on defense. 

DeBrincat — Toews — Caggiula

Shaw — Strome — Kane

Saad — Kampf — Kubalik

Smith — Carpenter — Nylander

Keith — de Haan

Maatta — Seabrook

Koekkoek — Gustafsson

Lehner

First period

The first period started off pretty well for the home team. The Blackhawks were flying around early, and two excellent scoring chances for Dominik Kubalik and Andrew Shaw came via cross-ice passes from Brandon Saad and Jonathan Toews. 

Just over six minutes into the period, it appeared the Flyers took the early lead after an excellent tip from Kevin Hayes, who beat Robin Lehner five hole. However, excellent eyes from the Chicago video coaches spotted Hayes offsides before the puck entered the zone. After official review, the goal was deemed no good and the score remained deadlocked at 0–0.

Unfortunately not long after the no goal, the Blackhawks were caught in a bad situation after a pinch by Duncan Keith. The puck was poked ahead by Travis Konecny and created a two-on-one. The play could have easily been a free breakaway for the two Flyers’ forwards if not for Calvin de Haan’s hustle. Once de Haan committed to Konecny, Konecny found Oskar Lindblom wide open and he put the puck top shelf to give the Flyers the 1–0 lead.

Top cheese and no review necessary. #PHIvsCHI | #FlyOrDie pic.twitter.com/DFcGTdO0fK

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 25, 2019

Late in the period, the Toews line had arguably the best passing sequence this team has had all season, but unfortunately an Alex DeBrincat one-timer from the slot was denied by Brian Elliott. 

The Blackhawks entered the first intermission down 1–0 to the Flyers despite outshooting the Flyers 7–5 in the opening frame.

Second period

The beginning of the middle frame did not start well for the Blackhawks. Not even a minute in, Travis Sanhiem setup Claude Giroux in front of Lehner and the elite goal scorer quickly put the Flyers up 2–0 early on a redirect.

G breaks through. #PHIvsCHI | #FlyOrDie pic.twitter.com/IO1aJhk7i5

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 25, 2019

The best chance for the Blackhawks in the early portion of the period was generated by the Kampf line, which has undoubtedly been the best line of the season. Kubalik charged up the ice and found Saad crashing the net. Unfortunately, Saad’s shot went wide and the opportunity was wasted. 

The Blackhawks’ power play was certainly still a huge problem during the second period. The Blackhawks could not get anything going with the man advantage, allowing the Flyers to hang on to their two-goal lead.

Chicago entered the second intermission only registering one shot on net the entire period. The Blackhawks offense reverted to their ways the fans witnessed in the first few games this season. The Flyers completely dominated the period and left the Blackhawks in a bad spot entering the third period.

Third period

The third period began surprisingly well for the Blackhawks. The team had tons of momentum coming out of the intermission and finally found a sense of urgency. That exact energy led to the Blackhawks being rewarded.

Just a minute into the period, Andrew Shaw was on the left wing and received the puck after Kirby Dach won a board battle at center ice. Shaw found an open Saad at the blue line for an excellent opportunity. Saad was in all alone against Elliott and, with a nifty backhand-forehand move, Saad found the back of the net to cut the Flyers’ lead in half at 2–1.

Kneel before Saad! @NHLBlackhawks are on the board! #AuthenticFan pic.twitter.com/TxEKDT8fvd

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) October 25, 2019

However, the Flyers responded. Four minutes later, Hayes found himself on a breakaway after beating Brent Seabrook up ice. Hayes buried the puck behind Lehner and once again gave the Flyers a two-goal lead at 3–1. The play was a tough break for the Blackhawks as they looked to regain momentum.

RARE TONIGHT: A Philly goal that *wasn’t* overturned. #PHIvsCHI | #FlyOrDie pic.twitter.com/4Vaau0cYIk

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 25, 2019

Two minutes later, it appeared that Joel Farabee registered the first goal of his young career. However, the Blackhawks challenged again. For the second time in this game, Hayes was offside on a potential goal for the Flyers. The lead remained at two for the visitors.

The Blackhawks finally found some momentum and were controlling play for most of the period. However, with just over three minutes remaining, Erik Gustafsson turned the puck over in the defensive zone and it ended up on the stick of James Van Riemsdyk. Van Riemsdyk found himself on a breakaway and completely fooled Lehner with a nifty move to give the Flyers the 4–1 lead late in the third.

He’s back. #PHIvsCHI | #FlyOrDie pic.twitter.com/ioYJRQQEEt

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) October 25, 2019

The Blackhawks were unable to generate anything else the remainder of the period, and ultimately fell to the Flyers by a 4–1 final. 

Quick hits

• Where is the energy? The Blackhawks simply did not show up in the first two periods. They look lazy, tired and pathetic. Eight shots on goal through two periods is not a recipe for winning hockey games in the NHL. They finally showed up in the third period, but it was too late.
• Saadfather: Brandon Saad continues to look like one of the best players night in and night out. He is playing with that same energy and relentlessness that made a deadly force before being traded to Columbus. Now in his third season since returning from Columbus, he is finally starting to look like his old self. He could be on pace for a career year if his play remains at this level. It also does not hurt that the only goal of the night came via Saad and it was a beauty.
• Missing the Murph: It is interesting to say, but the Blackhawks miss Connor Murphy on the back end. John Dietz tweeted the Blackhawks’ goals against average with and without Murphy. It is 4.4 to 2.2, respectively. That is a big difference and it especially helps that he and Duncan Keith had become a formidable top pair. Now, the depth is not as strong with Calvin de Haan playing on the top pairing.

The Blackhawks will fly to Raleigh, North Carolina, to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday. The game will be the first of back-to-back games for the Blackhawks. Puck drop is scheduled for 12 p.m. CDT.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks refuse to show up, lose to Flyers 4–1 appeared first on The Rink.

Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton kept the lines just as they were on Sunday’s game. He opted to go with Robin Lehner in net instead of Corey Crawford this time around.

These were the Blackhawks’ lines:

Alex DeBrincat — Jonathan Toews — Andrew Shaw

Dylan Strome — Kirby Dach — Patrick Kane

Brandon Saad — David Kampf — Dominik Kubalik

Drake Caggiula — Ryan Carpenter — Alexander Nylander

Duncan Keith — Connor Murphy

Olli Maatta — Brent Seabrook

Calvin de Haan — Erik Gustafsson

First period

The first ten minutes of the game were relatively boring. Through the first 8:12, however, the Blackhawks outshot Vegas 8–1 and led them in shot attempts as well. Each team took penalties and not a whole lot of action occurred on either power play. There were some changes for the Blackhawks’ power play though, as Alexander Nylander was shifted to the first unit and Dylan Strome was shifted to the second.

What wasn’t boring was Kirby Dach’s play in that first period. At one point, he tried to dance around a defender and drive toward the net. That didn’t work, but he did create a great chance for Patrick Kane that Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury robbed.

With less than five minutes to go in the frame, Olli Maatta entered the zone, passed the puck back and forth with Dylan Strome, and circled around the board. From the right above the right faceoff dot, Maatta snapped the puck toward the net and it bounced off of Dach’s knee and into the net. Of course, that would be the 18-year-old’s first career NHL goal. It wasn’t pretty, but the celly was awesome.

Kirby Dach scores his first NHL goal and the #Blackhawks lead 1-0 pic.twitter.com/aAVO9DHes4

— Juliana Nikac (@juliananikac) October 23, 2019

Robin Lehner then had to bail the Blackhawks out on the second line’s next shift, as Kirby Dach failed to chase after a puck that dropped in the defensive zone and then gave it away just a few seconds later. Luckily, the Blackhawks entered the first intermission with a 1–0 lead and a 12–8 shot advantage over the Golden Knights.

Second period

Kirby Dach almost had another goal just minutes into the second period after he was left wide open yet again at the side of the net. Patrick Kane tried to slip a pass across to him, but Marc-Andre Fleury got the pad on it and deflected it away.

That trend of Fleury stopping ridiculous chances continued throughout the next 17 minutes or so. He made a huge save on the power play after Jonathan Toews backhanded a no-look pass to Alex DeBrincat, somehow getting across the crease to stop the impending shot. Fleury also stopped a great chance from Brandon Saad, who was buzzing in the offensive zone on the penalty kill.

Of course, Robin Lehner made a big save of his own on William Carrier after he buzzed by both Duncan Keith and Connor Murphy along the boards.

Lehner with his own big save. pic.twitter.com/1pHdNbNjna

— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) October 23, 2019

It seemed as if the Blackhawks would end the second on the power play after Deryk Engelland threw Alex DeBrincat to the ice, but an errant high-stick from Jonathan Toews in the last minute of play negated that.

The Blackhawks held onto their 1–0 lead going into the second intermission with a 24–17 edge in shots over the visitors.

Third period

Somehow, the Blackhawks killed off the Toews double-minor to begin the final 20 minutes of regulation. From here on out, it was basically all Vegas.

Despite Marc-Andre Fleury being the primary generator of highlight-reel saves for the first two periods, Robin Lehner was the one standing on his head in the third. The Golden Knights outshot the Blackhawks 15-8 this period and generated two thirds of the shot attempts, as well.

With Fleury pulled and six skaters on for the Golden Knights, Mark Stone did what Mark Stone does best and sent a cross-ice pass to defenseman Nick Holden. His one-timer squeaked through the stick and five-hole of Lehner and Vegas tied the game with a minute and a half to go.

At the end of regulation, the Blackhawks and Golden Knights had 32 shots apiece.

Overtime

Outside of Jonathan Toews winning the faceoff to begin overtime, nothing went right for the Blackhawks during these five minutes. Vegas had possession the majority of the time. Then, Toews got called for tripping with less than two minutes to go even though Shea Theodore simply tripped over his own man.

Robin Lehner made a plethora of great saves, including the spectacular two-pad stop on Max Pacioretty that could’ve been the game-winning goal.

But it wasn’t, so we moved on to the shootout.

Shootout

Jonathan Toews opened the scoring with a great wrist shot over Fleury, but that’s the only puck he would allow past him for the rest of the shootout. Lehner stopped former Blackhawk Brandon Pirri, but couldn’t save Jonathan Marchessault‘s wrist shot or Shea Theodore’s backhander.

So, the Blackhawks fell to the Golden Knights 2-1 but picked up a point in the standings. They fell to 2-3-2 on the season and are now 0-5-2 against Vegas all time.

Pluses

• Brandon Saad has been an absolute menace for the Blackhawks to start the season. His intensity is sky-high and he’s everywhere at once when he’s on the ice. That shift by him on the penalty kill in the second period was ridiculous. If only his puck luck was as good as his work ethic.
• Other than the game-tying goal he let in, Robin Lehner was fantastic tonight. He’s been great in every game he’s played in, and it’s clear that he should be the starter. This is no slight to Corey Crawford, but the 28-year-old Lehner should be getting more time in net over the soon-to-be-35-year-old, especially given what he’s been through injury-wise over the last few years. This is basically a callout to Jeremy Colliton to let Lehner start more games.
• Kirby Dach had a fantastic night outside of one not-so-great shift. There’s a great amount of talent in this kid, and he’s been fun to watch over the last two games. He was easily one of the best offensive players for the Blackhawks tonight. If he continues to play the well, he’s going to make it difficult for management to decide if they want to send him back to Saskatoon or keep him in the show.

Minuses

• Connor Murphy didn’t play a single minute of the third period or overtime, and we found out after the game that he’ll be sidelined with a groin injury for a couple of weeks. That’s really tough news for the Blackhawks, as it seemed that their defense has finally gotten into a good groove and hasn’t been utterly abysmal for a few games. The only plus side is they have a large crop of defensemen they can call up from Rockford. It’s rough that Murphy keeps getting hurt, but that’s how sports go sometimes.

The Blackhawks will face the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. CDT.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks edged by Golden Knights in shootout 2–1 appeared first on The Rink.

7:30 p.m. CDT

United Center

TV/Radio: NBCSN/WGN

Projected starters

Chicago — Robin Lehner (1–0–1, .931 save percentage, 2.46 goals against average)

Vegas – Marc-Andre Fleury (6–2–0, .934 save percentage, 2.18 goals against average)

Team statistics

Power play
Chicago (16.7%, T-21st)
Vegas (28.6% Fifth)

Penalty kill
Chicago (66.7%, 29th)
Vegas (90.0%, Fourth)

Shorts for/against
Chicago (33.7, T-eighth; 33.7, Sixth)
Vegas (35.0, Fourth; 33.8, Fifth)

Shooting percentage
Chicago (8.9%)
Vegas (9.8%)

Face off percentage
Chicago (49.8%, 17th)
Vegas  (48.3%, 22nd)

Average height and weight
Chicago – 6-foot-1, 198 pounds
Vegas – 6-foot-2, 201 pounds

Projected lines and pairings

Chicago Blackhawks

Alex DeBrincat – Jonathan Toews – Andrew Shaw

  Dylan Strome – Kirby Dach – Patrick Kane

Brandon Saad – David Kampf – Dominik Kubalik

 Drake Caggiula – Ryan Carpenter – Alexander Nylander

Duncan Keith – Connor Murphy

Olli Maatta – Brent Seabrook

Calvin de Haan – Erik Gustafsson

Vegas Golden Knights

Jonathan Marchessault – William Karlsson — Reilly Smith

Max Pacioretty – Paul Stastny – Mark Stone

Brandon Pirri – Cody Eakin – Cody Glass

William Carrier – Tomas Nosek – Ryan Reaves

Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore

Jon Merrill – Nick Holden

Jake Bischoff – Deryk Engelland

Analysis

In arguably the Blackhawks’ best game of the season, the team fell to the Washington Capitals Sunday night. Despite the loss, there were many positives from the game. The newest additions for the Blackhawks shone brightly. Kirby Dach made his NHL debut against Washington. Dach was the third overall pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft and had a solid opening night centering the second line featuring Dylan Strome and Patrick Kane.

Another star that shone brightly was winger Dominik Kubalík with 10 shots on goal and 14 shot attempts. Kubalik looks like a solid addition for the Blackhawks this season and the line of he, David Kampf and Brandon Saad continue to be the most dynamic line for the Blackhawks this far. But, not to be overshadowed, was the play of the fourth line, consisting of Drake Caggiula, Ryan Carpenter and Alexander Nylander, which produced two goals and four points in the 5–3 loss. Nylander has points in his last two games.

While offense does not seem to be an issue, the defense continues to be problematic, but there are still two additional areas of concern: The penalty kill and power play. Head coach Jeremy Colliton and his staff need to shore up these areas in their next contest because the Vegas Golden Knights excel on special teams.

The Knights, despite losing their last contest, have four wins in their last five games heading into tonight’s game. The hottest player on the Golden Knights is veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who leads the NHL with six wins and is 4–1 in his last five starts.

In addition to having the hottest goaltender in the league, the Knights also have hot forwards Reilly Smith and Mark Stone. Smith has seven goals and an assist while Stone has six goals and six assists this season for 12 points so far this season. The Blackhawks better be ready to weather another offensive onslaught. Can the Blackhawks shore up their special teams in this matchup?

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And, be sure to look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game on The-Rink.com.

The post Preview/Game thread: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Vegas Golden Knights appeared first on The Rink.

Dave Bolland standing with the Blackhawks starters while being honored for his One More Shift. (Photo by Chase Agnello-Dean/NHLI via Getty Images)

Prior to Friday’s game, the Blackhawks honored two-time Stanley Cup Champion and former Chicago Blackhawks forward Dave Bolland for his One More Shift. Bolland received a warm welcome from the home town faithful at the United Center.

A loud and well-deserved ovation for the return of Coyotes legend Dave Bolland. pic.twitter.com/0LogK0XTKc

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) October 19, 2019

The famous saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” was in order for head coach Jeremy Colliton ahead of the game. The only lineup change made was at goalie, as Robin Lehner was starting in goal:

DeBrincat – Toews – Caggiula

Shaw – Strome – Kane

Saad – Kampf – Kubalik

Smith – Carpenter – Nylander

Keith – Murphy

Maatta – Seabrook

de Haan – Gustafsson

Lehner

First period

After everyone settled into their seats, the third line did what they have done best throughout this young season: be a force to be reckoned with. Roughly fourty seconds into the period, Brandon Saad and Dominik Kubalik started a rush up ice with Saad dishing over to Kubalik. After the Czech winger crossed the opposing blue line, he dipped his shoulder and fed a pass to Saad in front. Unfortunately, the bid was denied.

Early in the opening frame, the Blue Jackets did a good job of controlling the pace of play. They generated numerous quality scoring chances early, including on the power play, but Robin Lehner stood tall. 

After very little action to touch on, the Blackhawks struck first. Calvin de Haan fed a pass up the left wing boards to Alex DeBrincat in the Blackhawks’ zone. DeBrincat subsequently fired a pass off the glass and down the ice. The feed perfectly found Drake Caggiula at the opposing blue line, waiting for the dish. Caggiula skated in on the two-on-two and wired a perfect shot to the top right corner of the net for his first goal of the season.

Drake Caggiula's first goal of the year is NICE

Stream the game here: https://t.co/heSdrKpFnT pic.twitter.com/4UMWQE1ceq

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) October 19, 2019

After the impressive tally by Caggiula, the Blackhawks took their lead into the first intermission, despite being outshot by the Blue Jackets 15–10 and badly out possessed. 

Second period

The middle frame against Columbus felt awfully familiar. The Blackhawks seemed to come out flat, unlike they did against Edmonton. The game Monday finally seemed like the Blackhawks improved in the middle frame. They didn’t play bad, but they were still outshot and out possessed.

The best chance of the early minutes came from Chicago. Calvin de Haan found the puck behind the net and dished it out in front to Patrick Kane. Kane was able to get a good shot off, but Columbus goaltender Elvis Merzlikins made an excellent save on the play.

About five and a half minutes into the period, the Blue Jackets’ top center took over. Pierre-Luc Dubois was fighting for the puck against the Blackhawks’ top pairing and was able to wiggle his way around Connor Murphy for the loose puck. Upon gaining possession, Dubois out-waited Robin Lehner, forcing him out of position, and fired a bad angle shot into the back of the wide open net. The game-tying goal felt inevitable after Columbus had dominated possession.

The Blackhawks’ best chance of the period came about a minute after the Dubois goal. Merzlikins attempted to move the puck up ice but the pass was picked off by Andrew Shaw. Shaw found Kane down low to Merzlikins’ right side as he waited for one of his linemates to get open. Dylan Strome ended up being open back door, but could not connect on the one-timer that would have given Chicago the lead.

The Blackhawks survived the middle frame without yielding any more damage. Columbus outshot Chicago once again in the period and was the better possession team again. 

Third period

The opening minutes of the third period did not look great for the Blackhawks. They looked sluggish and behind in comparison to their opponent. Around three minutes into the period, a Blackhawks turnover led to a Columbus rush up the ice. Defenseman Markus Nutivaara fired a shot on net and followed his own rebound. The rebound shot wasn’t as strong as the first, but he got just enough on the puck to float it into the back of the net and give the visitors the 2–1 lead.

https://twitter.com/NHL_fi/status/1185518584627367937

Following the goal, the Blackhawks found more of a pep in their step. They seemed to turn it on after going down a goal in the third period. With about 12 minutes remaining, the Blackhawks had an important power play but nearly cost themselves. Nick Foligno had a shorthanded breakaway and the puck squeaked through Lehner. However, the whistle had already been blown before the puck trickled out from under Lehner and into the back of the net. Chicago lived to see another day.

The reason that power play was so important is because about forty seconds later, Gustafsson set up at the point on that power play and found Patrick Kane at his usual right wing spot on the man advantage. Kane gifted a perfect pass across the ice to DeBrincat, who was set up at the left wing face-off dot. DeBrincat wasted no time, one-timing the puck into the back of the net to tie the game at two-a-piece. 

pic.twitter.com/oApg048srb

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) October 19, 2019

For the remainder of the third, the Blackhawks penalty kill stood tall and Lehner looked good. The Blackhawks were able to generate a power play themselves, thanks to Ryan Carpenter, but they could not capitalize on the opportunity. The game required overtime to determine a winner at 1901 W. Madison St. 

Overtime

Columbus won the opening face-off of the extra frame and proceeded up ice. Despite having possession for the first forty seconds, the visitors could not do anything with the opportunity. 

Instead, the dynamic Kane-Toews duo proceeded up the ice with Toews feeding Kane as the trigger man. Kane put a shot on net, that ultimately hit Toews’ shin pad, and it found its way into the back of the net to secure the Blackhawks 3–2 victory. 

Jonathan Toews overtime winner for his first goal of the season. He’ll take it. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/Cwjr2pASuC

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) October 19, 2019

Quick Hits

• Day late, but not a dollar short: The Blackhawks lacked meaningful energy until the Blue Jackets took the 2–1 lead early in the third period. After that, the Blackhawks were by far the better team. However, one player’s energy that stuck out was Alex Nylander. He was constantly back checking and was almost always one of the first player up ice when he was out there. Other players had great energy too, but you could see Nylander embracing the fourth line role and making the most of it. 
• Is he a backup?: Robin Lehner, the “backup” goalie, looked sensational for the Blackhawks on Friday night. Despite giving up two goals, he made many big saves throughout the game, especially early in the first when the Blue Jackets were badly outplaying the Blackhawks. If the Crawford/Lehner duo look like they did on Monday and Friday, respectively, then the Blackhawks have something they can be proud of in net.
• Top shelf/top line: The Blackhawks “first line” was responsible for all three goals Friday night, as Alex DeBrincat scored on the power play and both Drake Caggiula and Jonathan Toews registered their first goals of the season. If the top line can get going and the second line follows suit, then the offense will continue to look like it did last season and, potentially, even better.

The Blackhawks will remain home as they wait for the Washington Capitals. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. CDT on Sunday, October 20.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks come from behind, beat Blue Jackets in overtime appeared first on The Rink.

7:30 p.m. CDT
United Center
TV/Radio: NBCSN/WGN

Chicago — Robin Lehner (0–0–1, .909 save percentage, 2.96 goals-against average)
Columbus — Elvis Merzlikins (1–0–1, .825 save percentage, 7.00 goals-against average)

Team statistics

Power play
Chicago (22.2%, 13th)
Columbus (16.7%, 23rd)

Penalty kill
Chicago (61.5%, 30th)
Columbus (73.7%, 22nd)

Shorts for/against
Chicago (31.3, 14th; 33.3, Ninth)
Columbus (33.3, Ninth; 29.0, 27th)

Shooting percentage
Chicago (9.6%)
Columbus (7.0%)

Face-off percentage
Chicago (47.8%, 24th)
Columbus  (47.7%, 27th)

Average height and weight
Chicago — 6-foot-1, 198 pounds
Columbus — 6-foot-1, 198 pounds

Projected lines and pairings

Chicago Blackhawks

Alex DeBrincat — Jonathan Toews — Drake Caggiula

Andrew Shaw — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane

Brandon Saad — David Kampf — Dominik Kubalik

Zack Smith — Ryan Carpenter — Alexander Nylander

Duncan Keith — Connor Murphy

Olli Maatta — Brent Seabrook

Calvin de Haan — Erik Gustafsson

Columbus Blue Jackets

Gustav Nyquist — Pierre-Luc Dubois— Cam Atkinson

Nick Foligno  — Alexander Wennberg — Oliver Bjorkstrand

Alexandre Texier —  Boone Jenner— Emil Bemstrom

Sonny Milano — Riley Nash — Jakob Lilja

Zachary Werenski — Seth Jones

Ryan Murray — Markus Nutivaara

Vladislav Gavrikov— David Savard

Analysis:

The Chicago Blackhawks finally notched their first win of the season against the Edmonton Oilers, Monday night, and played its first full solid game of the season. They were solid in all three phases of the game despite not getting many minutes out of their fourth line composed of Alex Nylander, Zack Smith, and Ryan Carpenter. Both Nylander and Carpenter played less than 10 minutes in the contest. If the Blackhawks want to have continued success, they need more contribution from all four lines.

In tonight’s matchup, the Blackhawks are making one significant change to their lineup, which is replacing Corey Crawford with Robin Lehner. Lehner was impressive in his only start this season and is looking to continue the Blackhawks winning away against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Blue Jackets are coming into the United Center riding a two-game winning streak and one forward Sonny Milano highlight-reel goal. Despite the losses of Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky in free agency, the Blue Jackets, led by head coach John Tortorella, are looking to prove their critics wrong. The Jackets have defeated the lowly Dallas Stars and the Carolina Hurricanes in their last two wins.

With the Blackhawks having discovered their winning formula, the real question is can they sustain it?

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And, be sure to look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game on The-Rink.com.

The post Preview/Game Thread: Columbus Blue Jackets vs Chicago Blackhawks appeared first on The Rink.

Connor Hellebuyck took the net for the Jets. Defenseman Calvin de Haan also made his Blackhawk regular season debut in this game.

Blackhawks lines and pairings

Alex DeBrincat — Jonathan Toews — Drake Caggiula

Andrew Shaw — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane

Brandon Saad — David Kampf — Dominik Kubalik

Brendan Perlini — Zack Smith — Ryan Carpenter

Duncan Keith — Connor Murphy

Olli Maatta — Brent Seabrook

Calvin DeHaan — Erik Gustafsson

First period

Lehner was tested early and made a couple of nifty pad saves on the Jets’ first two chances.

Zack Smith took the first penalty of the game on a trip at 3:18. But, it was the Hawks who would capitalize, with newcomer Ryan Carpenter gathering a puck deep in his end and motoring past two flat-footed Jets to create a two-on-one with Brandon Saad. Carpenter then deftly fed Saad for the go ahead at 4:02, 1–0 Chicago.

Were it not for some stellar goaltending by Hellebuyck, the Hawks could have registered one or two more goals on the penalty kill, with ensuing shorthanded chances by Jonathan Toews and Connor Murphy.

Adam Lowry took the first Winnipeg penalty at 11:00. After Lehner made a quality stop on a shorthanded shot from the slot by Kyle Connor, Brent Seabrook blasted home a rebound from the right hashmark at 12:37, putting Chicago up 2–0.

That was the lead the Hawks would take into the dressing room after arguably their best period of hockey in the early part of the season. Shots were 13–10 Chicago.

Second period

Blake Wheeler took an offensive zone penalty at just 48 seconds in, giving Chicago an early man advantage that Winnipeg would effectively kill.

At 5:27, Duncan Keith went to the box for slashing. The Jets converted at 7:05 when Nikolaj Ehlers buried a one-timer past a screened Lehner, cutting the score to 2–1 Chicago.

Chicago subsequently drew another penalty after Erik Gustafsson was manhandled and stripped behind his own net by Patrik Laine, setting up a sustained bout of Winnipeg pressure, that culminated in Dylan Strome getting two minutes for slashing at 8:30. The Hawks succeeded in killing off the penalty, however.

The Jets dialed up the pressure during the latter part of the period, forcing Lehner to make several key stops, including a nice post-to-post robbery of Jack Roslovic at 14:20. The Hawk netminder repeated the act at 18:20 on a wide open Mark Scheifele at the doorstep. The Jets outshot the Hawks 11–6 in the second, which ended at 2–1 Chicago.

Third period

The first part of the period saw back and forth action with neither team generating much pressure. The Hawks mounted some nice pressure a couple of times around the middle of the period, but came away with nothing.

At 11:44, the Hawks got lazy on defense and Connor came free from around the back of the net to find a waiting Andrew Copp for a tap in, tying the game at 2–2.

Saad took a penalty at 14:48, putting the Hawks in a bit of a hole in terms of retaking the lead in regulation. But, Chicago was able to kill the penalty, and then mount some five-on-five pressure over the final few minutes of regular time. Still, the game was tied at the end of regulation. Shots were 10–9 Winnipeg for the third and 31–28 through regulation.

Overtime

Forty-seven seconds in, and at the end of the Hawks’ first shift, Wheeler found Scheifele at the left circle, and the big Jet forward blasted it past Lehner’s glove for the 3–2 Winnipeg game-winner. The Hawks got their first point of the season, and now sit at 0–2–1.

The good

Lehner was mostly very good and really the only goal you could put on him was the third and deciding tally. That said, a lot of goalies do not stop that shot, and Lehner deserved a better outcome in his Hawk debut after making several quality saves throughout the night. Carpenter, Murphy and Saad all had good nights for the Hawks.

The bad

The Hawk defense, while better, was again lackadaisical at really bad times. For a “man-to-man” defense, this team does not press the issue and engage nearly enough.

The ugly

The Hawks laid an egg in the second period—they are not good enough as a team to give less than a 60-minute effort. It is a shame because they had a terrific start and a very good first period.

All for now. Comment below.

The post RECAP: Jets beat Blackhawks 3–2 in OT appeared first on The Rink.

6 p.m. CDT

United Center

TV/Radio: NBCSN/WGN

Projected starters

Chicago — Robin Lehner  (2018–19 statistics — 23–13–5, .930 save percentage, 2.13 goals against average)

Winnipeg — Connor Hellebuyck (2–1–0, .927 save percentage, 2.68 goals against average)

Team statistics

Power play
Chicago (25%, 12th)
Winnipeg (9.1%, 25th)

Penalty kill
Chicago (50.0%, 30th)
Winnipeg (77.8%, 17th)

Shorts for/against
Chicago (30.5, 21st; 36.0, fifth)
Winnipeg (33.4, 10th; 36.4 third)

Shooting percentage
Chicago (11.5%)
San Jose  (10.8%)

Face off percentage
Chicago (46.9%, 31st)
Winnipeg  (50.0%, 14th)

Average height and weight
Chicago — 6-foot-1, 198 pounds
Winnipeg — 6-foot-2, 203 pounds

Projected lines and pairings

Chicago Blackhawks

Alex DeBrincat — Jonathan Toews — Drake Caggiula

 Andrew Shaw — Dylan Strome — Patrick Kane

Brandon Saad — David Kampf — Dominik Kubalik

Alexander Nylander — Zack Smith — Ryan Carpenter

Duncan Keith — Connor Murphy

Olli Maatta — Brent Seabrook

Slater Koekkoek — Erik Gustafsson

Winnipeg Jets

Patrik Laine — Mark Scheifele — Blake Wheeler

Kyle Connor— Andrew Copp — Nikolaj Ehlers

Mathieu Perreault — Jack Roslovic — Mason Appleton

Gabriel Bourque — Adam Lowry — Mark Letestu

Josh Morrissey — Neal Pionk

Ville Heinola — Tucker Poolman

Anthony Bitetto — Dmitry Kulikov

Analysis

The Blackhawks fell to 0–2 on the season with a heartbreaking loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. For the second consecutive game, the Blackhawks have been let down by a poor defense and a 30th-ranked penalty kill.

Following the two losses, head coach Jeremy Colliton is shaking up his lines. After going to the Yahtzee shaker, Colliton has broken up lines one, three and four in search of consistent play. He only left the third line intact from Thursday’s season opener. The third line of Saad, Kampf and Kubalik showed that they can dominate shifts and generate high danger scoring chances. Kubalik had a very impressive game and was noticeable on the ice. In addition to changing the lines, Colliton is also making a change in net, as Robin Lehner will get his first start in net. The Vezina Trophy finalist was brought in on a one-year contract to split time with Crawford this season.

Lehner’s debut comes tonight against the Winnipeg Jets. Lehner is likely to face a lot of pucks in this game because the Blackhawks yield a high number of shots and Jets produce a high number of shots. Their top line of Laine, Scheifele and Wheeler have generated 23 of the Jets’ 45 points this season. While the Jets are riding high on a three-game winning streak, they do have their own set of problems. Winnipeg has suffered significant losses on their blue line from last season via free agency, trades and former Blackhawk Dustin Byfuglien’s absence from the lineup. This has led to their young and inexperienced blue line to surrender a significant number of shots.

This game figures to have more shots than the song “Shots” by LMFAO featuring Lil Jon. Will the Blackhawks get their first win?

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And, be sure to look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game tomorrow morning on The-Rink.com.

The post Preview/Game thread: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Winnipeg Jets appeared first on The Rink.

The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “Double J” are joined by staff member and Chicago Steel head writer  Ray Napientek to talk about the first two games of the Blackhawks regular season.

• The Blackhawks lay an egg in Prague.
• Some roster moves happen, including Carl Dahlstrom moving to balmy Winnipeg.
• Mario Tirabassi gives us another award winning #Warpigs report.
• The three old guys talk about the Blackhawks loss to San Jose.
• We also discuss Corey Crawford, Robin Lehner, Brendan Perlini, Erik Gustafsson, Dominik Kubalik and much more
• We wrap with Rinkrat PuckBag segment.

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

Also, Please help spread the word to more #RinkRats and visit our sponsor www.PUCKHCKY.com. Use the discount code “THERINK” for 10% off all orders.

The Rinkcast is brought to you by the Overtime Podcast Network

The post Blackhawks Rinkcast – Season 3, Episode 2 – The regular season begins appeared first on The Rink.

It was clear to most that Stan Bowman was envisioning a future goaltending battery of Lehner and Collin Delia. Many fans and media members, though, continue to hang on to the delusion that Corey Crawford is ageless and unaffected by at least two major concussions. As a result (and to my surprise), there have been mentions of potentially extending Crawford when his contract is up July 1, 2020.

This would prove to be a huge mistake.

I should not have to preface this, but I have been a huge Crawford apologist for years. Ever since he arrived on the scene in 2010–11, I was a vocal leader of the Crawford support group and fought the good fight for No. 50. I felt like he never truly got the recognition he deserved, even after winning two Stanley Cup championships. People would poke holes in his accomplishments because Scott Darling, Ray Emery and Antti Raanta played well behind him. While Raanta has been a good NHL starter, none of those backups were able to go on and accomplish what Crawford has done with the Blackhawks.

This was because Crawford was quite simply a better goalie.

I love the guy, but this is the time to start planning for life without him as the Blackhawks’ primary starting goalie.

No smart general manager commits to a 35-year-old athlete with a history of serious head injuries, especially when they just signed a younger (and better) player. This would just be nostalgia clouding basic common sense. I have seen people attempt to bring up that Tim Thomas had success at a later age. Thomas was an anomaly. You are better off betting that lightning will strike the same tree twice.

Thomas did not even make the Bruins full time until he was 31 years of age. His last truly successful year was in 2011–12 when he was 38 years old. He burned hot and bright for seven seasons, but faded away quickly. Crawford, on the other hand, took over the Blackhawks crease at 25 years of age, which means he has six more seasons of wear and tear on top of his concussion problems.

No goalie in the modern NHL has been re-signed at the age of 35 and had long term success. It just does not happen. While Crawford had a decent season last year, until he was injured again, his statistics were considerably lower than the “top 10” goalie that everyone remembers. He was playing behind a very porous defense, but his even strength save percentage (.913) was the lowest of his career and his overall save percentage (.908) was below league average. It could be argued that he will start a steep decline in ability soon, if he has not begun already.

There is this strange “walking on eggshells” mentality surrounding Crawford that also complicates the situation. We have heard things like “I have not talked to Corey about the goaltending situation,” which is highly unusual. Each of the past two summers, it has been widely reported that no one from the organization, short of Jimmy Waite, has had any contact with Crawford. He just simply disappears. He was a guest at the 2018 fan convention, but that was largely a public relations stunt to keep fans from mass panic since he had not been seen nor heard from for the equivalent of a full-term pregnancy. I cannot put my finger on the issue, specifically, but this is not normal behavior between an organization and one of their alleged leaders.

Seriously, though, who is running this Mickey Mouse operation? Corey Crawford or Stan Bowman?

Shifting gears, Bowman just signed a very successful, considerably younger goalie to a $5 million contract in July and (despite the nonsense the public has been spoon fed) it was not to be Corey Crawford’s backup. Lehner is in Chicago to audition for the starting spot next fall and he deserves every chance to seize the opportunity. Like Crawford, he did not blossom until his mid-20s, which means he is in the prime of his career rather than riding off into the sunset. Lehner proved that he could be an NHL starter in Buffalo, and followed it up by proving he could be a top-tier level netminder with the Islanders last season. He has that Scott Darling “feel good” comeback story and comes with a high pedigree. He is primed and ready for the Chicago spotlight. This is not some unproven fringe AHL kid. This guy has 275 NHL games and 101 wins to his credit. Why is everyone completely dismissing this? The only two possibilities are ignorance or denial.

Also lost in this whole situation is my guy, Collin Delia. There is no question that he is ready to be, at minimum, an NHL backup. He is young, affordable and now long overdue. Is he ready to be a full-time starter? Probably not. He has paid his AHL penance and deserves an honest shot at being and NHL player for a full season, though. If not, then send him somewhere that he can get an honest shot, instead of this shroud of uncertainty. Wasting this kid’s potential because the organization cannot make up their mind is borderline criminal.

In short, unless Robin Lehner spirals into some kind of Anton Forsberg–type downfall, Stan Bowman needs to find a way to extend Lehner before he hits free agency and start preparing everyone for a Lehner-Delia duo to start the 2020–21 season. Corey Crawford has been a warrior and will go down as a Blackhawks legend, but his expiration date has been approaching for quite some time.

The post ANALYSIS: Time for the Blackhawks to focus on the Robin Lehner era appeared first on The Rink.

On the 21st night of September, the lines for the matchup were as follows:

Nylander – Toews – Kane

DeBrincat – Strome – Shaw

Saad – Wedin – Kubalik

Smith – Carpenter – Caggiula

Keith – Gustafsson

Maatta – Seabrook

Murphy – Koekkoek

Lehner

First period:

With only a few regulars in the Bruins’ lineup, the Blackhawks took over early into the first few minutes of the game. Three minutes into the contest, Brandon Saad drew a hooking call and the power play came up with some good opportunities, including a goal. Dylan Strome buried a puck Alex DeBrincat put on net and the home team opened the scoring.

ORDER UP: One greasy power play goal #CHIvsBOS pic.twitter.com/851AP1vgZF

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) September 22, 2019

Just a few minutes later, newcomer Robin Lehner made a spectacular save on a two on one to preserve the Blackhawks’ lead. The Bruins picked up their pace after that stop and had a few good scoring opportunities in the first period.

Midway through the frame, Bruins goaltender Maxime Lagace came streaking out of his net as Patrick Kane went after the puck, taking a great scoring chance away from the Blackhawks. The home team had another great scoring chance when Slater Koekkoek flipped a shot from a tough angle. Somehow, the it did not cross the goal line before a Bruin defender cleared the puck away to keep it a one goal game.

The Blackhawks took their 1–0 lead with a 13–10 shot advantage into the first intermission at the United Center.

Second period:

The beginning of the second frame started just as the first did: a lot of good chances for the Blackhawks but nothing to show for them. The Bruins took advantage and found some quality zone time, but Lehner kept the home team afloat.

About four minutes into the period, the visitors hard work paid off, earning a penalty shot after a flurry of saves by Lehner and Connor Murphy covering his hand over the puck. Ryan Fitzgerald showed off some skill, placing a perfect shot just to the right of Lehner to tie the game at 1–1.

On their second power play of the game, the Blackhawks had a few good chances, most notably a tip in attempt by Kane that barely missed the net. Despite being unsuccessful this time around, the power play looks just as good as it did for much of the second half of last season.

However, Boston dominated most of the middle frame of this contest, forcing Lehner to make a surplus of great stops to keep the home team in the game. He held his own and looked much like the goaltender fans have expected him to be.

Late in the frame, the Blackhawks’ third line went to work in the offensive zone. Brandon Saad moved the puck along the boards and passed it back to Anton Wedin behind the net. Wedin then flipped it back to Saad, who slipped it behind Lagace to put Chicago ahead 2–1.

Give and GOAL!#KneelBeforeSaad pic.twitter.com/oeEHceQTWf

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) September 22, 2019

Despite getting outshot 17–13 in the second period, the Blackhawks headed into the second intermission with a one goal lead.

Third period:

The ice remained tilted in favor of the Boston Bruins to begin the third period as the game opened up and the Blackhawks took their first penalty of the game. All the momentum was stifled by the home team’s successful efforts with a man down, including forcing the visitors to ice the puck on their own power play.

Play slowed in the middle of the period with neither team allowing much past the neutral zone. The Blackhawks picked up their pace around the 11 minute mark, forcing the new Boston netminder, Kyle Keyser, to stop some grade A scoring chances.

The Blackhawks had an opportunity to take the lead on their third power play of the game. After a couple of good scoring opportunities, Boston rushed up the ice shorthanded with Erik Gustafsson defending and Par Lindholm tied up the game 2–2.

With nothing else happening in the final minutes of regulation, the Blackhawks and Bruins headed into overtime.

Overtime:

To begin the overtime period, the Blackhawks rolled out the usual trio of Kane, Jonathan Toews and Gustafsson. On a partial two on one, Kane had a prime scoring chance but could not get the shot off due to a stick check by Anders Bjork.

Both teams had multiple chances to end the game, but Keyser and Lehner both made spectacular saves. Of course, the game winning goal had to be a weird one. Murphy one timed a puck that Keyser stopped with his shoulder, but the puck took a weird bounce off Kane’s chin. He found it heading toward the net and shoved it just enough for it to cross the goal line.

The Blackhawks won the game 3–2 and earned their second victory of the preseason.

Quick hits:

• How Swede it could be: Alexander Nylander has seriously impressed throughout camp on the top line with Kane and Toews. He had a few great chances in this preseason contest and continues to make his case for being on the opening night roster. Wedin also showed off during this game, assisting on the second Blackhawks goal and getting an opportunity on the penalty kill next to Toews. He could be another option at center on the third line.
• Steady Lehnny: After a shaky first appearance in the preseason, Lehner bounced back with a fantastic showing against Boston tonight. He stopped 39 shots and faced 34 scoring chances. He moved well in his crease and made some spectacular stops throughout the game. Lehner remained poised in net and looked like himself. Safe to say, Chicago probably does not have to worry about him moving forward.

The Blackhawks remain in Chicago to play the Washington Capitals on Wednesday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and can be seen on NBCSCH+.

The post RECAP: Blackhawks defeat Bruins in overtime 3–2 appeared first on The Rink.

Debricant-Strome-Shaw
Caggiula-Entwistle-Smith
Kubalik-Nilsson-Perlini
Fortin-Johnson-Wedin
Dahlstrom-Murphy
Holm-Koekkoek
Carlsson-Krys-Beaudin

First period:
The Wings dominated the first period with physicality and many shots. New Blackhawks goalie Robin Lehner was tested early and often. The defense did Lehner no favors early, allowing a three on one chance in the opening minutes of the game.

Detroit would get the lone tally on a shot from Matt Puempel that Lehner would have liked to have back. Aside from Lehner not allowing more goals, there was nothing really positive for the Blackhawks in the first. The score was 1–0 Red Wings and the shots were 12–5 in favor of Detroit.

Second period:
The second period was better for the Blackhawks. After their lackluster first period, up was the only direction to take for this team. The Blackhawks did face a huge scare to start the second. Alex DeBrincat had went knee to knee with a Wings players in the first period. He would return to bench later in the second period.

The Blackhawks would finally get on the board when Andrew Shaw won a board battle and fed Dylan Strome. Strome made a beautiful pass to Philip Holm, who sniped home the equalizer.

In our best Eddie voice, Philip Holm went “RIGHT DOWN MAIN STREET”! pic.twitter.com/hFcbSGHJai

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) September 18, 2019

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The good feelings from the Holm goal would be short lived. Matthew Ford would beat Lehner on a fluky goal to re-establish the lead for Detroit at 2–1.

Lehner would be removed close to the 30 minute mark. Kevin Lankinen replaced Lehner and was not eased into the game. He faced several high danger chance right off the bat. The Wings would increase their lead to 3–1 on goal late in the period from Chris Terry.

However, the Blackhawks answered back with a goal from Dominik Kubalik.

Consider us big Domink Kubalik fans pic.twitter.com/B16i72mhBb

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) September 18, 2019

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The second period ended with the Red Wings up 3–2.

Third period:
The Hawks would tie the game on a power play goal early in the period. Kubalik was assisted by Holm on the goal. The shot was a laser past Detroit goalie Calvin Pickard.

Dominik Kubalik is firing lasers tonight! Goal #2 ties the game at 3! pic.twitter.com/BDFYVbQQxu

— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) September 18, 2019

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Lankien was tested a couple of times in the third. He looked very good in net, but allowed a late third period goal. To be fair, he had faced 20 shots in 29 minutes of play before allowing the power play goal from Michael Rasmussen.

An empty goal with less than one minute remaining left in intermission sealed it for the Red Wings. The goal was scored by Luke Glendening.

When the final seconds ticked off the clock, Detroit had earned a 5–3 victory.

Quick hits:

A defensive challenger: Philip Holm has been impressive during camp. After a disastrous first period, he responded with a better second period. He tallied the first Blackhawks goal. He also had the assist on the second Kubalik goal.

Dominik who?: Dominik Kubalik looks like he could be a useful player for the team this season. He had two goals on the night.

The Blackhawks’ next game will be on Wednesday, as they host the Red Wings in Chicago. It can be seen on NBCSCH+ and puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The post Chicago Blackhawks fall to the Detroit Red Wings 5–3 appeared first on The Rink.

And now is when decisions that look good on paper transition toward being put to test on ice.

To my eye, it is not just a matter of additions and subtractions, however. It is also Jeremy Colliton’s first full season as Blackhawk head coach—with his imprimateur on an unusually eventful offseason—and his first training camp and preseason slate.

Broadly speaking, the Blackhawks expended a lot of energy (and resources) this summer trying to accomplish two things.

First, they clearly wanted to become better defensively, especially in their own end, with the additions of Olli Maatta and Calvin deHaan. Both players are young, yet experienced; both are definitely defense-minded blueliners. Both battled injury last year. Both, to varying degrees, should probably be considered reasonable bets to improve the Hawks’ defensive play to some degree.

How much is an important question, because storied veterans Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith are both, also to varying degrees, on the downsides of their careers and abilities: Seabrook clearly more so than Keith. Erstwhile “fourth forward” Erik Gustafsson showed some marginal improvement defensively late last season after being put on a leash somewhat by Colliton—which also corresponded, not surprisingly, with a brief dip in his offensive output. Which Gustafsson will we see in 2019–20? Hard to say, but it is probably a safe bet his defensive reliability will continue to be an “adventure” (putting it charitably) this season.

Connor Murphy, for all that he is and is not, sort of falls in line with Maatta and deHaan, and may be more part of the solution than the problem this year.

Add in Carl “Don’t call me Calle” Dahlstrom and Slater Koekkoek—and possibly even 2018 first round selections Adam Boqvist or Nicolas Beaudin in their professional rookie seasons—and it is fair to say Colliton has more pieces around which to fashion pairings that will, at minimum, block more shots, win more 50–50 pucks in the defensive zone and provide more responsible coverage. While still generating that transition and push up the ice that drove a very good offensive year for Chicago last year.

The other thing the Hawk brass seemed to want to achieve this summer was to get a lot tougher to play against.

Now, let’s not kid ourselves: seemingly every summer, there has been a Lance Bouma or two brought in to add some more “jam,” with typically crappy results. So, how is this summer any different?

Hard to say, but looking more closely at Ryan Carpenter (UFA acquisition), Andrew Shaw and Zack Smith (trades), a pattern emerges. All can play center or wing, a couple of them (at least) are pretty good faceoff options (an underappreciated part of being a good defensive team), all can kill penalties, all have a bit of nasty to their games.

All of which, on paper, adds some elements the Hawks sorely needed last year. But again, as with deHaan and Maatta, the question is “how much.”

Shaw and Smith have battled injuries. Reports out of Ottawa are that Smith has lost a step the last couple of years. Regardless, when the option for bottom-six and penalty-killing forward roles have been either proven has-beens or developing players better suited to top-six roles in Rockford, Bowman’s summer additions should provide some improvement in subtle, yet important, ways.

So all that provides at least some reason for encouragement.

The other thing that the Hawks apparently set out to do was meaningfully reinforce the goalie position—in a way that few expected (but we predicted might happen here at The-Rink).

The addition of Robin Lehner matters this year to the extent that Corey Crawford cannot play due to injury, or if Lehner simply outplays him (also a possibility). In our opinion here at The-Rink, all things considered and in spite of the “smooth it over” rhetoric of the Hawk front office, Lehner will probably have to prove he is not ready to take over the Hawk No. 1 goalie job long-term.

Sure, the “best one-two punch in the league” narrative sounds great, and may publicly placate Crawford and his camp and those fans who thought “Crow” was going to keep “bouncing back” from concussions and play until he is 45, but this season, especially if the Hawks are still giving up 40–45 shots most nights, it may not matter.

The other thing to consider is that you cannot assume anything going into this season, based on last season.

For example, you cannot assume that Dylan Sikura will not start scoring some goals and end up as an actual offensive weapon this year. Or, you cannot assume that Kirby Dach will not play more than nine games in Chicago and provide some kind of additional contribution, which would be great.

But, you also cannot assume either of the above will happen, or that Jonathan Toews might not regress from a statistical upward deviation in production last season or that Dylan Strome will not either.

You cannot assume relative team health or, on the other hand, a season wracked by injuries.

The truth is, while the Hawks continued a now three-to-four-season-long nosedive defensively, they excelled last year offensively.

But, because the defensive trend is longer term, it is safe to assume that is more the norm (setting aside the offseason changes), while the offensive uptick was likely more of an exception.

Time and, at minimum, 82 games will tell.

But where does that leave this team in April 2020?

Hard to say because, unfortunately, the Hawks also play in what is, top to bottom, arguably the best division in hockey. That said, the first three teams in the division will likely be some combination of St. Louis, Dallas, Winnipeg, Nashville or Colorado. It is hard to envision this (albeit somewhat improved) Hawk team edging in to that conversation and finishing as one of the top three teams in the Central Division. The other Central teams are just too good, younger and either bigger, faster or both.

So then the target becomes one of two wild card spots. And this is where the Hawks’ improvement over the offseason puts them—in the playoff conversation, potentially in contention for a spot. And even if the Hawks finished say, ninth in the conference and a point or two out of playoff contention, it would be measurable improvement over last year, when they were never realistically in playoff contention, in spite of a lot of breathless hype for about six weeks or so.

But, let’s say the Hawks make the playoffs. They are still going to win a lot of overtime three-on-three games and will probably have a good power play in the regular season. But, if they have to rely too heavily on those factors for points to get them into the playoffs, they likely will not last long once there, as those factors matter less or not at all in the postseason. And remember, the wildcards have to face the division winners in the first round.

Safe to say then, with some margin for error, the Hawks end up this season somewhere between a strong, improved ninth or 10th in the conference and losing in the first round of the playoffs in five or six games.

Likely improved, but, again, how much?

What must happen:

Team defense and penalty kill must improve, a lot. If not, it would not matter if your “one-two punch” was Ken Dryden and Dominik Hasek, the team will struggle to improve over the last two seasons’ miserable performances.

What cannot happen:

Regressions by and/or significant injuries to Toews, Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat or (less so) Strome.

What should happen:

If Gustafsson wants to appear in the playoffs in a Hawk sweater, and if the Hawks want to extend his contract after this season, he needs to show he can become a consistently better player defensively—even if his numbers suffer somewhat offensively as a result.

What does not have to happen:

Although the annual pressure to elevate rookies or prospects to the Hawk lineup is as strong as ever, there is no rush to insert Adam Boqvist or Kirby Dach this year.

If Dach or Boqvist are measurably better in all phases of the game than the players the Hawks have, then this is truly a rebuilding season. And where either or both players play this year should not be dictated by what fans or team pr would like to see, but purely by what is best for the development of two 18- and 19-year-old kids.

All we have for now. Comment below.

The post Examining the goods: What to expect from the 2019–20 Blackhawks appeared first on The Rink.

The-Rink.com co-hosts “Gatekeeper” and “JJ” rush to the The-Rink podcast studio to discuss the big trade today, the Andrew Shaw trade, and the UFA signings on July 1st.

• Now that the Andrew Shaw trade has marinated, what do we think?  You might be surprised…or not.
• What happened with the Blackhawks and Henri Jokiharju?
• Is this trade as bad as first thought?  Can Alex Nylander help the Blackhawks?
• Following JJ’s revelation that the Blackhawks might swing big on the goalie market they did just that.
• A hearty thank you to the Rink fans and our amazing staff for a great year.
• We are only scratching the surface.  Many good things and guests to come!!!!

Please subscribe, rate this episode, and even write us a review. Reviews will be read on the air.

Also, Please help spread the word to more #RinkRats and visit our sponsor www.PUCKHCKY.com. Use the discount code “THERINK” for 10% off all orders.

The Rinkcast is brought to you by the Overtime Podcast Network

The post Blackhawks Rinkcast – Episode 55 – UFA/Nylander Trade Reactions appeared first on The Rink.

Goalie Robin Lehner has signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Blackhawks. Lehner reportedly turned down a two-year deal at $5 million per year with the Islanders.

Robin Lehner, who turned down NYI’s offer of 2 years at 5 million per, is going to Chicago for 1 Year at the same amount. #signingseason

— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) July 1, 2019

Lehner had a career year with the Islanders this past season. He won 25 games and posted a 2.13 goals against average, and a .930 save percentage. Those numbers earned him a Venzina Trophy nomination. In addition to being a Vezina finalist, Lehner and teammate Thomas Greiss won the Jennings Trophy, having allowed the fewest goals in the NHL last season.

The Lehner signing helps a goaltending situation that saw Corey Crawford miss significant time for the second straight year. Lehner also fills the role that recently departed Cam Ward played last season.

The post BREAKING: Blackhawks sign Robin Lehner appeared first on The Rink.

Join your fellow Rinkrats below to discuss what the Blackhawks accomplished (or didn’t accomplish) this year as the market opened.

Player	Pos	Previous Team	Age	Ht / Wt	Term/Dollars	Notes
Ryan Carpenter	C		28	6' 194 lbs	3 yrs/$3M	---
David Kampf	C		24	6'2" 194 lbs	2 yrs/$2M	---
Robin Lehner	G		27	6’4” 240 lbs	1 yr/$5M	---

These are Blackhawks trades relevant to this offseason

Ryan Carpenter

David Kampf

Robin Lehner

The post Blackhawks 2019 Real-Time Free Agency Ticker appeared first on The Rink.

7:30pm CST
United Center
TV/Radio: WGN

PROJECTED STARTERS

Chicago – Cam Ward (7–8–4, SV%: .884, GAA: 3.99)
New York – Robin Lehner (15–7–3, SV%: .930, GAA: 2.02)

TEAM STATISTICS

Power Play
Chicago (19.2%, 19th)
New York (16.9%, 24th)

Penalty Kill
Chicago (73.8%, 31st)
New York (79.7%, 18th)

Shorts for/against
Chicago (31.2, 18th; 35.0, 30th)
New York (28.1, 29th; 30.3, 9th)

Shooting %
Chicago (9.8%, 15th)
New York (10.6%, 8th)

Faceoff %
Chicago (49.9%, T-16th)
New York (48.3%, T-23rd)

Avg. height/weight
Chicago 6’1”, 197lbs
New York 6’2” 209lbs

PROJECTED LINES/PAIRINGS

Chicago Blackhawks

Drake Caggiula–Jonathan Toews–Patrick Kane

Alex DeBrincat–Dylan Strome–Dominik Kahun

Brandon Saad–David Kampf–Marcus Kruger

Chris Kunitz–Artem Anisimov–John Hayden

Duncan Keith–Brent Seabrook

Henri Jokiharju–Connor Murphy

Slater Koekkoek–Erik Gustafsson

New York Islanders

Anders Lee–Brock Nelson–Jordan Eberle

Anthony Beauvillier–Mathew Barzal–Josh Bailey

Michael Dal Colle–Valtteri Filppula–Leo Komarov

Matt Martin–Casey Cizikas–Cal Clutterbuck

Nick Leddy–Johnny Boychuk

Adam Pelech–Ryan Pulock

Devon Toews–Scott Mayfield

Analysis

The Blackhawks enter Tuesday’s game after a huge win over the Washington Capitals, 8-5, at the United Center. The top players for the Blackhawks came to play, as their top 5 goal scorers (Kane, Toews, DeBrincat, Saad, Strome) all scored in the impressive win over the defending champs. There’s no doubt that the game was tough. Collin Delia, although sensational, faced 39 shots. This has been right in line with the average number of shots that the young goaltender has seen since being recalled. It’s difficult to stop every puck when you face 40 shots per game. Impressively, Delia still has a save percentage north of .920 (albeit a 3.00 GAA) which sheds light on how good he has been given how bad the defense has been (30th in the league in shots on goal against).

Patrick Kane looks to continue his hot streak after taking home the NHL Third Star of the Week honors. Kane has 20 points in the month of January and 10 points in his last three games. The Blackhawks will enter the All Star break (and their mandatory week-long break) after Tuesday’s game, returning to action on Friday, February 1st in Buffalo, New York to take on the Sabres.

Since their last meeting with the Blackhawks on January 3rd, the Islanders have been the hottest team in hockey. The Islanders are 8-2 in the month of January, thanks to great depth scoring and quality goal-tending. The tandem of Robin Lehner and Thomas Greiss have been sensational behind Barry Trotz’s defensive scheme and eight (yes, you read that right) players with ten goals or more.

The Islanders look to maintain their lead on the Metropolitan division with their ninth win in the first month of 2019. It’s a tight race at the top of the “Metro” with the Islanders, Capitals, Blue Jackets and Penguins all within four points of each other in the Eastern Conference standings. The Islanders will also enter their mandatory break after Tuesday’s game, returning on Friday, February 1st to take on the NHL’s best, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in the Big Apple.

Comment below in our live game thread tonight!

And look for the internet’s most robust recap of the game tomorrow morning on the-rink.com.

The post Preview/Game Thread: Blackhawks vs. Islanders appeared first on The Rink.