Hossa's 1000th Leads Blackhawks Past Senators

photo from ottawasun.com

Chicago sweeps the season series with Ottawa with that win last night, but they were lucky to do so. Goals from Toews, Versteeg and Hossa showed the kind of offence we're used to from the Blackhawks, but shoddy defence meant the game had to be decided in a shootout.

Gibson, Ducks Shut Out Blackhawks at Home

photo from suntimes.com

After a strong game against the Senators on Sunday, the Blackhawks seem right back where they started, their inability to score goals leading to a 1-0 shutout for Anaheim.

Blackhawks Solve Second Period Problem, Defeat Senators

photo from ottawacitizen.com

Yesterday, I recorded an episode of my podcast, Two For Slashing. In it, me and my cohost Aaron talked about how if the Blackhawks can't start putting in a full sixty minutes of hockey and scoring in the second period, they're going to run into problems. They appear to have heard us, scoring not only a second period goal against Ottawa, but two (and one of those was on the power play, another area the Blackhawks have been struggling in, going 7 for 35 in the past eight games)

Carcillo Out For Four Weeks After Collision With Oshie

photo from nhl.com

Last night, Daniel Carcillo took a hip check to the knee, and left the game. Joel Quennville has just announced he'll be out for four weeks. They have yet to call anyone up from Rockford, Chicago's AHL affliate.

Slow Second Period starting to be an Issue for the Blackhawks

photo from bleacherreport.com

As of last night, Chicago have scored nineteen goals against other teams; nine in the first period, nine in the third period, and one in overtime. Seven games in, they have yet to score a second period goal, and St. Louis took advantage of this to score two second period goals, and put the game out of reach for the Blackhawks.

Neal and Rinne shine in Blackhawks' First Regulation Loss

photo from ontheforecheck.com

The first twenty minutes of last night's game looked set to play out almost exactly like the last time Chicago played Nashville (a 2-1 OT win). It was a fast paced game at both ends, however, in a rare lapse for the Blackhawks, they came into the second period being outshot 14-6. They eventually evened the shots up near the end of the game (outshooting the Predators 17-6 in the third), but it seemed too little too late, as they couldn't score a third goal and force overtime.

Return to Form for Blackhawks

from blackhawkup.com

Antti Raanta started his season strong last night, with a 4-0 shutout against an admittedly struggling Philadelphia team. His performance seemed to light somewhat of a fire underneath the rest of the Blackhawks, who have been struggling as of late with the offensive side of the game, being held to one goal in regular in three of their four games prior to this one.

Crawford Injury Not the End of the World

photo from sports-kings.com

Twitter announced today that Chicago goalie Corey Crawford is out with a day-to-day upper body injury, confirmed by Coach Joel Quennville after teammate Patrick Sharp said he was just 'sick'.

A year ago, this would have been a problem.

Ugly Power Play Almost Topples Blackhawks

photo from sportsmockery.com

Last night, the Blackhawks were 0-for-5 in their power play. They spent most of the game outplaying and outshooting the other team (37-20 in favour of Chicago), and they had one regulation goal to show for it.

Sound familiar?