Grieving Blackhawks Fall Flat Before Christmas

photo from cbc.ca

The Blackhawks rallied for Clint Reif on Sunday night, but the emotions of the last few days look to have caught up with them, as a slow and painful first period resulted in three goals for Winnipeg, and a new goaltender for Chicago.


The Blackhawks got outshot, outscored and thoroughly outplayed in the first period of last night's game, and they spent the rest of the game unable to catch up. Michael Hutchinson has now allowed one goal against the Blackhawks in seventy two shots, as they finally found their legs in the second and third, and eventually outshot the Jets 39 to 26. It was a mostly flat effort though, with turnovers all over the ice, and half hearted pass attempts.

Corey Crawford has been solid for the Blackhawks this season, who even after last night's game is fourth in the league in GAA, and ninth in save percentage, but last night he allowed three goals on thirteen shots, and was pulled with four minutes left in the first period. Antti Raanta played well in relief, only allowing one more goal, on the power play (only the ninth PPG allowed by the Blackhawks in ninety seven attempts; they're the only team in the NHL not to have hit double digits in goals allowed while shorthanded), but Chicago was unable to score more than one goal, and when Raanta was pulled with almost five minutes left in the game, the Jets sealed the win with an empty netter. It's only the third time this season the Blackhawks have lost a game by more than one goal, and only the second time they've allowed four or more goals without the empty netter (the other a 5-4 shootout win in Ottawa).

The problems with last night's game starts with the stars. Toews, Keith, Kane and Sharp all seemed to keep getting caught a step behind the play, and left it up to guys like Kruger and Smith, who both had pretty decent games, but couldn't do enough to create a goal. It wasn't helped by Quenneville being forced to roll five defencemen after Rozsival left the game with a lower body injury, and Daniel Carcillo being benched for much of the game, only playing seven minutes after dropping the gloves with Jay Harrison midway through the first.

Overall, it was a sloppy game with an underlying cause, and hopefully the next three days will allow the team to get their heads on straight, and come back against the Avalanche after Christmas ready to win.

My Three Stars of the Game

3. Andrew Ladd. The ex-Blackhawk had two assists last night, and as usual was a huge physical presence for the Jets, throwing hits left, right and centre. He finished the game a plus two, and had one shot on goal.

2. Blake Wheeler. Wheeler put the game out of reach with his empty netter, and assisted on the eventual game winner in the first period.

1. Mathieu Perreault. Perreault opened the scoring in the first period, and added a power play tally in the second, becoming only the ninth player to score on the Blackhawks while on the man advantage this season.

Next game: December 27th, vs. Avalanche