Chicago Blackhawks fall prey to keep-away strategy in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Stars. 7 takeaways from Dallas.
DALLAS — The Chicago Blackhawks could focus on the positives.
Tyler Johnson flirted with a hat trick, Jason Dickinson had a goal and an assist in his return to Dallas and the Hawks rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period.
Or the Hawks could focus on the negatives.
They blew an early two-goal lead, Roope Hintz completed a hat trick and the Hawks never got a shot on goal during overtime of Friday’s 5-4 loss to the Stars.
“It’s partly the other team’s a good team and they come at you,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “But partly we let them have a little room too.
“It’s just got to be focus and desire to play the same way for 60 minutes,” he said. “And it’s hard but you’ve got to keep reminding them and these are good examples. We got a point out of it tonight, but if we could play like we did in the third period and the start of the first, you’re looking at two points a lot of times in this league.
“So we’ve got to spell that out and make sure it sinks in.”
For Dickinson, it was a night of mixed feelings.
He had another strong performance, assisting on Johnson’s first goal and sparking the rally with a third-period goal.
“Great pass by Gutty (Cole Guttman) to find me there,” Dickinson said. “And then T.J. driving the net for the first goal, I get a secondary (assist).”
Dickinson took time to take in the atmosphere at American Airlines Center, a sellout crowd of 18,532.
“I’m used to hearing the chant on my side, but I loved playing here,” he said. “Feels like home still and still hearing them chant the “Stars” during the anthem, it gives me a little something extra.”
Here are seven takeaways from the loss.
1. The Stars played keep-away in overtime.
Dallas would backtrack, looking for the right rush opportunity, circle around and do it all over again.
It was as if they were out there to get in a workout — and not exactly scintillating to watch.
“That’s how you should play,” Johnson said pointedly. “I know they brought 3-on-3 to try to be exciting and everything, but through all the history that I’ve played in 3-on-3, it is possession. The more you can wear a team down, catch guys tired, that’s when you get your odd-man opportunities.
“You really shouldn’t just take shots to take shots. Three-on-three hockey, what everyone wants it to be, if you want to win it, you can’t really play that way. They did what they needed to do to win.”
It worked. Hintz scored his third goal of the game on a tip-in with 7.9 seconds left.
“It’s tough,” Richardson said. “That’s a big team that’s strong on pucks and they have good speed, so that’s pretty lethal when there’s a lot of room out there three-on-three.”
Dickinson felt the Hawks had defended well and kept the Stars to the outside till the end.
“We could’ve taken a page out of their book when we did have the puck, we could have held onto it a little bit longer and created more extended possession time ourselves,” he said.
2. What about a format change?
Some in the NHL aren’t fond of the tactic the Stars used, and it’s not fan friendly. But what can you do about it?
Implement a rule stating teams would have to stay in the offensive zone? Give the NHL a shot clock like the NBA?
“I don’t have an answer for that,” Johnson said, “because you can’t have the guys playing overtime forever with the schedule and everything. If you did a five-on-five OT, you’re not going to get a lot of goals. You could go directly to a shootout, but I don’t think a shootout should determine a lot of points either.”
Dickinson said he wouldn’t change the format either.
“Because you change it one way and teams find another way to counter it,” he said. “So we’ve got the devil that we know, right?”
3. Lately, the Hawks have a knack for scoring first.
Johnson scored his eighth goal of the season 7 minutes, 56 seconds into the game, assisted by Anthony Beauvillier and Dickinson.
It represented the 19th time the Hawks have scored the opening goal — 11 in December alone — but they have just a 7-10-2 record in those games (.368).
(By the way, Connor Bedard is tied with Sidney Crosby with six game-opening goals.)
Johnson said it comes down to structure and discipline.
“We have the lead but instead of not necessarily sitting back and protecting — I don’t think that’s ever good — but making those right decisions of not doing those hope plays, not doing those plays of ‘this might work, this might not,’ ” he said. “When you have the lead, you have to make the for-sure play, the simple play.
“Sometimes it’s not sexy, sometimes it’s not going to create anything, but at least you’re not going to have something go against you. We’re just taking too many chances.”
Richardson said it’s the growing pains of what the Hawks are building.
“Do we have as much depth as some teams? Maybe not,” he said. “But our focus (should be) keeping that game plan going like we talked about earlier, playing that 60 minutes. …
“We’ll live with the mistakes if we’re playing aggressive. It’s us, not backing up, (but) it’s maybe losing a little bit of focus on how we got those good starts and letting the other team have a chance to get back in the game. So it’s something to learn from.”
4. Doubling down on Dallas.
The Hawks stayed in Dallas for a second straight game — 7 p.m. Sunday, NBCSCH — a rare scheduling quirk that’s more akin to a baseball series.
“It’s a little different but it’s good,” Bedard said. “We haven’t played these guys yet (before Friday), so it’s always fun coming to new buildings for myself and playing new teams.”
Taylor Raddysh said to the best of his recollection he had never played such a schedule, with one exception.
“I know the COVID year with the NHL you played two games just to try to limit the traveling,” he said. “It’s kind of nice you get to play one game and stay in the city. … You don’t have to worry about traveling and tiredness.”
You would think Dickinson, who called American Airlines Center home for six seasons, would love it.
“It’s got its pros and cons, just like anything,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to settle into a city and not be constantly on a plane and traveling because it does take a toll on you.
“But we’ll see how the rivalry is for the Sunday game — that’s the problem right there. Either the game gets really jacked up and really intense because of tonight, or it ends up flat and the fans aren’t interested. They’re like, ‘Oh, we already saw them play Friday,’ and it’s not as exciting of a game.”
Dickinson said he hopes “it’s a bit more of a dogfight on Sunday.”
5. The injury bug bites again.
Raddysh left after his second shift early in the first period and didn’t return. The Hawks on Saturday placed him on injured reserve with a left groin strain and called up Boris Katchouk.
The Hawks are still waiting for Joey Anderson, Seth Jones and Andreas Athanasiou to return from IR.
6. Jarred Tinordi was a liability.
Tinordi had a minus-3 rating, but that’s just a hint at the kind of night he had.
His first-period interference penalty gave the Stars their power play, which led to their first goal, which gave them momentum as they rattled off three more scores.
Tinordi was on the ice for all three, getting turnstiled by Jamie Benn on the last one. Tinordi was riding pine after that point.
“It was just not his night,” Richardson said. “He’s a battler for us. He knows he probably didn’t have a good night. He’s a veteran guy, he doesn’t have to be told those little things. …
“We can work with a player trying and when there’s mistakes and you can correct those. It’s when people give up on themselves and I know there’s no give-up in him.”
7. This movie should be titled ‘Gone in 30 seconds,’
Midway through the second period, Joe Pavelski and Hintz scored 20 seconds apart.
It was the fourth time the Hawks coughed up two opponent goals within 30 seconds.
Here’s a breakdown of each occurrence.
Friday at Dallas: 20 seconds, Pavelski and Hintz
Dec. 14 at Seattle: 21 seconds, Jared McCann and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
Dec. 23 at St. Louis: 23 seconds, Jake Neighbours and Jordan Kyrou
Dec. 5 vs. Nashville: 26 seconds, Luke Evangelista and Mark Jankowski
All resulted in losses.
“The second period, we just had too much D-zone time,” Richardson said. “We just backed off for some reason. We just played a little bit more defensive, meaning not attacking them, even in the D-zone.
“It’s a big team that can skate so that’s not a good recipe for us.”
