3 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 3rd straight loss, including a rough goalie debut for Anton Khudobin

The Chicago Blackhawks lost to the Washington Capitals 6-1 on Thursday at Capital One Arena.

It took a third-period goal by Nikita Zaitsev, his first as a Hawk, to avoid a second straight shutout following Monday’s 5-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

The Hawks had been game against their betters in the league earlier this month, but it looks as if the roster’s shortcomings after a trade-deadline fire sale have caught up with them during a three-game losing streak.

Goalie Anton Khudobin made his Hawks debut, but it was one he probably would prefer to forget. Khudobin gave up the game’s first two goals 18 seconds apart midway through the first period with the opening goal a mental error.

Khudobin held the puck off to the side while looking for a teammate. But he appeared to panic as Capitals defenders closed in, and he turned it over directly to Conor Sheary for basically an empty-netter.

The Caps won the next faceoff and after the puck got knocked loose, Anthony Mantha snapped it home from the slot.

“It was a tough start,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “Doby had a tough puck pay there and not the way he wanted probably to start, but I thought he battled the rest of the way and had some good stops.

”Unfortunately the other team got some momentum there and they got one off the faceoff. Not much Doby could do on that.”

The Hawks also lost top-line forward Philipp Kurashev to an injury about a minute into the game.

”The guys were just a little bit gassed after losing Kurashev early,” Richardson said.

Nic Dowd padded the lead to 3-0 at 1:27 of the second period. Niklas Backstrom pushed it to 4-0 on the power play on a pass from former Hawk Dylan Strome that settled right at the doorstep.

John Carlson added another power-play goal 1:04 into the third for a 5-0 lead, then Zaitsev answered from the point at 3:08. Alex Ovechkin scored his 41st of the season with 5:04 left.

Khudobin had 22 saves while Darcy Kuemper had 27 for the Capitals. The Hawks went 0-for-5 on the power play.

Here are three takeaways from the loss.

1. Philipp Kurashev’s injury deals another blow to the Hawks offense.

Kurashev played just 1 minute, 4 seconds and left after a collision with Capitals forward Tom Wilson during Kurashev’s second shift.

The Hawks didn’t elaborate on his injury.

“We’ll have to check tomorrow but he was pretty sore tonight,” Richardson told reporters in Washingon. “We’ll have to figure out that and let the doctors check him after he settles down tonight.”

Kurashev centered the top line with Lukas Reichel and Andreas Athanasiou on his flanks, and the Hawks rotated forwards with Reichel and Athanasiou in his absence.

Even though the Hawks aren’t playing for anything but development, coaches want to see Kurashev get stronger on the puck and build chemistry with Reichel, so it would be a setback if he misses time.

In other injury news, forward Colin Blackwell’s sports hernia surgery Wednesday in New York was successful, according to a team release. The Hawks plan to keep him out of hockey activities for 12 weeks.

2. Anton Khudobin looked a bit rusty, to put it kindly.

Petr Mrázek has been a scratch since suffering a groin injury against the Boston Bruins on March 14, and Alex Stalock was due for a rest after following up relief duty against the Bruins with three straight starts, so Khudobin got the nod Thursday.

The former Dallas Stars goalie hadn’t appeared in a game since Jan. 15, 2022, when the Tampa Bay Lightning hosted the Stars.

Making his Hawks season debut, he looked like he had had a year-plus layoff.

After the Capitals dumped the puck, Khudobin retrieved it to his left, above the goal line. But he looked like he didn’t know where to go next and double-clutched his pass attempt to Joey Anderson. Sheary snagged the dribbler and had an open net for the opening goal.

Khudobin dropped to the ice and buried his head. It was just a dreadful decision however you slice it.

Even if Khudobin had put any mustard on his pass attempt to Anderson, Aliaksei Protas was ready to pounce on it anyway. Same result.

To add insult to insult, Khudobin gave up a short-range goal to Mantha 18 seconds later.

Obviously, Khudobin is serving his role helping the rebuild-focused Hawks play out the string, but no veteran of 13 years wants to be embarrassed.

3. It wasn’t a great night defensively for Seth Jones and Caleb Jones.

The brothers were on the ice for three Capitals goals, including the capper in which Seth was powerless to slow down Ovechkin on a breakaway.

Caleb, trailing on the play, tried to sweep away the puck in frustration but whiffed.

Despite a poor showing on the box score, they have been quietly adding to the offense.

The Joneses have been paired together since Feb. 27 and have helped generate seven 5-on-5 goals (and given up six) in the 12 games leading up to Thursday.

The Jones-Jones pairing leads the Hawks with 3.04 expected goals for per 60 minutes (minimum 100 minutes), according to naturalstattrick.com. But they’re also fifth in expected goals against (3.04), with the top of the list belonging to Seth Jones and now-former Hawk Jake McCabe at 2.03 — no surprise there.

Caleb’s partnership with McCabe produced the team’s best 5-on-5 goals share (53.9%). Seth’s best goal-for percentage (and second best on the team) has been with Caleb (50%).

Defense aside, the Seth Jones-McCabe pairing helped produce a team-high 25 goals in nearly 528 minutes in 5-on-5. The Jones brothers helped generate nine goals (fourth highest) in 220 minutes.