7 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 20th straight road loss, including a chance to ‘come back hungry’ after All-Star break
CALGARY, Alberta — It’s hard to rip the Chicago Blackhawks for losing 1-0 Saturday to the Calgary Flames when they played some their best hockey in the last month.
It’s hard to praise them when their road winless streak ballooned to 20 games — within two games of the franchise record.
It’s hard to crow about “effort” when they’ve put up goose eggs in four of the last five road games (all losses).
The Hawks have more questions than answers after suffering their second straight shutout in their 50th game this season, their last before the NHL All-Star break.
Ask some players what word defines the Hawks after 50 games, and they’re hard-pressed to pin it down.
Taylor Raddysh: Change
“From the start of the year to now, there’s been so many different changes, and we’ve lost a lot of guys. We’ve had to change our identity as a team because of some of the guys we’ve lost and some high-end players that were going to help us a lot this year.
“I feel like with (the) people that have stepped in, and guys filling in new roles, there’s just so many words that can describe just the various things we’ve been throughout the year.”
Kevin Korchinski: Character
“We’ve got a lot of character in this room and we’ve got to keep working and keep improving and win each day. We’ve got guys in here that want to make a difference, want to win and we’ve got to let our actions do the talking.”
Luke Richardson: Persistence
“Last year I would have said ‘persistence,’ and I think we’re finding that now, but it took a little time. So I don’t know if I could sum that up for 50 games, but over the last 10 to 15, yeah, I would say that we’re a-dog-on-a-bone persistent, and we’re going to continue to work until we find our way out of this goal-scoring drought.”
Here are seven takeaways from the loss.
1. The post-break goal? Get a goal.
The Hawks have scored just six goals over the last six games, including none in the last two games.
Raddysh said, “It’s maybe in the back of our heads. We’re playing the right way. We’ve had a lot of Grade-A chances that just haven’t found the back of their net.”
The Hawks haven’t had a six-game stretch like that since, well, last season: they scored just six goals from Dec. 4-16, 2002. Before that, it was just four goals scored between Oct. 25-Nov. 9, 2006.
The futility Saturday was dire: the Hawks couldn’t convert any of 32 shots on goal, with a whopping nine high-danger chances.
“That’s obviously really frustrating when you do get looks and puck’s not going in,” Raddysh said. “It’s a good sign that (the chances are) there, but got to bear down on a couple of them.
“As a whole group, we’ve just got to find that extra little jump or step just to be able to bang one home and get one by the goalie.”
Players have been using that phrase “bear down” a lot lately.
Frankly, on Saturday, they looked like they were bearing down as much as they were capable of bearing down, and it still didn’t work. So what does “bearing down” even mean?
“It’s just simplifying,” Richardson said. “Simplifying and bearing down means just you’re making sure, you’re making sure you’re catching the puck, you’re making sure it doesn’t go over the blade of your stick and you lose it, and then you take one step and you shoot it.
“And you hit the net, you don’t miss the net.”
2. Saturday saw a renaissance Lukas Reichel.
Reichel had one sequence where he turned the puck back, took it to the net and fired off a nice backhander … but he couldn’t get by Flames goalie Jacob Markström.
Even more impressive was Reichel weaving through defenders on another prime chance. It looks like the old Reichel.
“He’s probably upset that he missed that chance in the first period, but he created that chance,” Richardson said. “I said, ‘You can’t get frustrated, you’ve realize you have enough skill to create that chance, that you’ll create it again and you’ve got to be confident that you’re going to bury it the next time.’”
3. Isaak Phillips had an offensive ‘whoa’ moment.
Similar to Reichel, Phillips blocked a shot and swiped the puck, taking it coast to coast for a prime chance.
Who knew he had that in him?
“I guess, yeah, actually I have” seen him play like that, Korchinski said of Phillips. “He’s a skilled and really smart hockey player and he can really move out there.”
Richardson added, “It’s a little tougher for a young D playing on his off side, figuring out his angles, but he had a really nice shot in the first period on net for a tip and a great break in the second period that almost got a goal.
“And he was physical out there.”
4. Jason Dickinson remembered his growing pains.
Reichel said that when he was scratched and had to watch games, Dickinson’s game — his puck handling and other nuances — stood out.
“He’s smart,” Reichel said.
Dickinson said he talks to Reichel and other young Hawks about the finer points because he’s been where Reichel has been: struggling to find his game.
“It was not easy for me early as a young guy,” Dickinson told the Tribune. “I had to ask older guys and had to watch film and had to watch from above to learn the subtle arts of it.”
For example, he learned about “adjusting your feet to make it look like you’re going one way and using your upper body to kind of disconnect from your lower body so that you’re giving false information.”
It comes with practice, more practice, and experience in games.
“The more it feels comfortable, the more you’re going to see it quickly on the ice,” Dickinson said.
Then recognition kicks in.
“I’ve seen this puck in this situation before,” Dickinson said. “I expect the pressure to be like this. So I know how to manipulate it because I’ve seen it so many times. That’s kind of the way I’ve learned how guys operate.”
But to get really good at it, you have to endure the trial and error process, which includes some barking from the veterans.
“You might fail a couple times and you’re going to get yelled at and guys are going to get mad at you, but you keep doing it, you’re going to start to see the little things that you didn’t see before.”
An example of Dickinson putting those nuances to work came on his Jan. 9 goal against the Edmonton Oilers.
He snuck up on two Oilers and stole the puck in the neutral zone, then toe-dragged while waiting for Darnell Nurse to drop into a slide technique — before Nurse started his slide — before he shot.
“It’s little things like that,” Dickinson said of the play. “You start to realize defensive positions, how they’re coming at you, and you start to see that it’s going to end up being similar to what you saw before.”
5. Defending (is) their style of play.
If we’re being honest, the Hawks have been composed of a lot of castoffs from playoff-caliber teams. And several of those castoffs are injured, so the Hawks are deploying the backups to the castoffs.
Some are call-ups from Rockford, looking to get experience, or waiver claims, looking to keep a job.
So bottom line, there’s not a ton of speed and offensive wizardry. In fact, you could argue much of the offensive talent is on the defensive side, including rookies Korchinski and Alex Vlasic.
“We’re a team that has to work and play on the defensive side of the puck,” Richardson said. “If we go on the offense and go in a track meet back and forth, I don’t think we’re the fastest team in the league and I don’t think we’re the most experienced team in the league to do that.
“We don’t want to put Petr Mrázek under that kind of duress where he has to make game-breaking saves every shift. We have to limit that and keep chugging away on offense.”
Chugging away includes creating more havoc around the net to get a greasy goal.
Richardson held up Joey Anderson’s goal against the Seattle Kraken Wednesday as an example.
“We obviously had a nice goal … with (defenseman) Seth (Jones) shooting the puck and Anderson going to the net. It’s going to be chemistry like that.”
6. Give ‘em a break.
Dickinsons said it’s hard to turn off his hockey brain, even during the All-Star break.
“It’s gotten better with age and learning myself and knowing I can turn my brain off a little bit from everything that’s going on,” he said.
It helps that he and his wife, Alandra, have plans.
“This year we’re just going to head down to Arizona for a few days, just get away with a little one and kind of reset. Try to reset mentally as well as physically.”
Korchinski has plans too.
“I’m actually going to Hawaii,” he said. “My girlfriend’s out there; she goes to school there. The break is going to be good for us to refresh our minds, our bodies, and come back hungry.”
7. Last laugh: That’s vintage Richardson.
Richardson knew exactly how he was going to do during the All-Star break before the question was even finished.
“Exercise and wine,” he said. “I’m not kidding, I’m going to Napa Valley and I’m gonna exercise.”
You might recall that early this month, when the Hawks had eight forwards and a defenseman on injured reserve, “exercise and wine” was Richardson’s preferred coping mechanism.
That has “catchphrase” written all over it. Richardson added on Saturday, “You can make that T-shirt up any time you want.”
