5 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-3 shootout loss, including another big night for Nick Foligno’s line
Tuesday’s game at the United Center started off well enough for the Chicago Blackhawks.
Nick Foligno gave them a 1-0 lead 5 minutes, 57 seconds into the game, battling through traffic to punch in a goal from the doorstep.
But whenever the Hawks are playing with house money, the question is will they fold.
Entering Tuesday, the Hawks (3-6-0) and Seattle Kraken (4-5-3) were the only teams with losing records when scoring first. And it looked like the Hawks were in store for a repeat when the Nashville Predators’ Luke Evangelista and Mark Jankowski scored 26 seconds apart early in the second period.
Foligno described the feeling: “We’re up 1-0 and now we’re down 2-1, just bang-bang.”
If the Hawks were going to fall into the “Here we go again” trap, as coach Luke Richardson has lamented, that would have been the time.
But Foligno’s line with Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson stopped the bleeding and turned the Predators’ top line featuring Ryan O’Reilly into the hunted.
Dickinson answered Jankowski’s goal 32 seconds later, and Foligno scored his second goal 2:12 after that.
O’Reilly got a bit of payback for the three goals allowed to Foligno’s line while he was on the ice when he knotted the score at 3-3 on a power-play goal with 7:01 left in the period — and with Foligno and company on the ice.
It was enough to push the game to overtime after a scoreless third period. And the O’Reilly line got the final say during the shootout.
O’Reilly, Filip Forsberg and Gustav Nyquist all scored against Arvid Söderblom, and Connor Bedard had the Hawks’ only shootout goal against Juuse Saros.
The Hawks got a point for the 4-3 shootout loss, but they squandered an opportunity.
“I’m not trying to be down on us,” Foligno said. “It’s just that in order to move the needle to where we need it, we’ve got to show sustained flashes. We’ve got to show that we can do that the whole game. Even a whole period right now is what we need.
“I liked some of our game, but we have lapses in our mentality where we’re just not as tenacious as we need to be and that’s when teams pounce. … Yeah, we can look at it (as) ‘Hey, we got a point tonight,’ but you don’t want to let these ones slip away when you have a chance to be in this game.”
Put another way, the consistency isn’t there yet.
Richardson called it “a scrambly, sloppy game” and said the Hawks need to learn to “control that momentum just by playing our system.”
“I don’t think we stuck to it too much,” he said. “We didn’t really support the puck a lot. And so a lot of plays turn into turnovers.”
The Hawks committed 23 turnovers to the Predators’ nine.
Here are five takeaways from the loss.
1. Nick Foligno’s line dominated — just like before.
Anderson’s, Dickinson’s and Foligno’s jersey numbers — 15, 16 and 17 — were appropriate because they were as perfectly aligned as you could expect.
Just as it did Nov. 24 against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dickinson’s hat trick night, the line accounted for three goals: two by Foligno and one by Dickinson.
“We’re really understanding of our strengths as a line,” Foligno said. “You see it. We understand where to put the puck for each other to have success, we understand how to support each other and then the plays come because of that. Then you’re able to use your skill on those opportunities that you have.
“I love playing with (those) two guys. Dicky’s continuing to have a great year, and Andy as he’s come up has been a big influence on our club.”
Richardson trusted them against the Forsberg-O’Reilly-Nyquist line — not an easy ask — and head to head they came out on top.
“They’re not trying to beat someone one on one,” Richardson said. ”They’re using each other and laying pucks in like they do at the beginning of the game and forechecking and making the other team turn the puck over.
“So they’re hard to play against and they have the ability to score when the other team maybe gets a little bit loose or turns the puck over. We need four lines doing that.”
2. Does Arvid Söderblom have a rebound problem?
The NHL doesn’t track rebound goals, but all three Predators scores Tuesday easily would be classified as rebounds: Evangelista’s off Tyson Barrie’s high-slot shot, Jankowski’s off the rush and O’Reilly’s backhander off Forsberg’s shot.
When asked if those are on the goalie, defenseman Seth Jones cut the question short.
“Everyone,” he said. “No, when the goalie makes the first save, we’ve got to get sticks.”
Jones broke down O’Reilly’s goal.
“So that hits Sody in the blocker off my pants and then around the guy’s tape,” he said. “And we’ve got to get sticks around, we’ve got to do a better job. We’ve talked about that as defensemen and especially on the PK, when pucks are floating around the crease, around that slot area, we’ve got to get on sticks, get under sticks and get clears.”
Richardson said he doesn’t think it’s a vulnerability particular to Söderblom.
“He’s big and he’s a blocker and I thought he actually covered the puck quicker tonight than he did earlier in the year,” Richardson said. ”But we’ve also got to do a better job, like the penalty-killing goal — that’s our job. … I don’t know if it hit Seth or not, but Dicky’s got the back door. He’s right there. He’s got to have it.”
Richardson called Jankowski’s goal “an unlucky bounce” off Connor Murphy’s stick.
“But (Kevin) Korchinski’s on the back door,” he said. “He’s there. His stick’s there. So we’ve got to just be a little harder and more desperate in the blue paint with our sticks, and that’s at both ends of the rink.”
3. Connor Bedard knows he needs to manage his frustrations.
Equipment manager Troy Parchman might need to deliver last rites to any stick Bedard is going to use in a game.
Bedard has demonstrated on more than one occasion that when he’s frustrated, no stick of his is safe.
“Everyone has their moments of frustration,” he said before the game. “We’re competitive athletes and that’s going to happen. But for sure you don’t want to show too much. It’s something maybe the last few games I could get better at.
“When I was really young, I remember being a bit of a baby if things weren’t going in on the ice. But I was really young, so my parents just said, ‘Stop.’
“Everyone has their moments where they get mad. It’s a hard sport and a competitive sport and you’re going to have your emotions. It’s a good thing if you can control it in the right way.”
4. Seth Jones had a productive night, but one thing was missing.
Jones had two assists and a well-timed slide technique that broke up a dangerous two-on-one, but he wasn’t satisfied with his night.
“I thought it was pretty solid tonight,” he said. “Just tried to join the rush when I can, (but) the points have kind of been a struggle. And I still can’t put the puck in the net, which is getting quite frustrating.
“But just trying to do what I can. We’re playing a lot of D-zone as of late, so just trying to be solid there and help out on breakouts and be clean to the neutral zone. And when I get a chance to jump, be there and be the actual attacker.”
5. Lukas Reichel adjusted to the fourth line.
After being a healthy scratch Sunday in Minnesota, Reichel rejoined the lineup on the fourth line. He played 12 minutes, 21 seconds — including 46 seconds on the power play — and took one shot.
But for Richardson, it’s not about the stats, it’s about the push.
“There was definitely steps,” he said. “There was urgency in his game. ... He almost scored by taking it hard to the net.”
By the third period, Reichel seemed settled in and had more jump, especially in the offensive zone.
“I was going to think about throwing him a shift with (Philipp Kurashev) and Connor in the third,” Richardson said, “but just the way the game went in the third” there wasn’t an opportunity that made sense.
He said Reichel needs to focus on the big picture and on skating well on and off the puck.
“If he can do that and start to add to it little by little without being risky and turning pucks over, that’s a good sign,” Richardson said.
