5 things we learned from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 5-2 loss to the Panthers, including some ex-Hawks thriving in Florida and some puzzling penalties
A 5-2 loss to the Eastern Conference-leading Florida Panthers shouldn’t have been too surprising for the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Panthers have big hitters and fast, skilled forwards who can stretch a defense, and they did a lot of that during the Sunday matinee at the United Center.
However, Patrick Kane’s sharp-angled goal with 32 seconds left in the first period was a lift, and the Hawks entered the third period down just 2-1.
But MacKenzie Weegar’s goal 50 seconds into the third didn’t help the Hawks’ cause, and they had just five shots on goal in the period, though Caleb Jones scored his second goal of the season.
Two empty-netters by the Panthers padded the score.
“No one likes to lose, whether you’re playing Monopoly or hockey,” Hawks defenseman Calvin de Haan said. “We were competitive for most of the game tonight. They just scored on a couple chances. I don’t think we played that bad.”
Regardless of how pretty or ugly the score looked, there’s no way to beautify seven straight losses at home.
“We’re trying to win games, obviously,” coach Derek King said. “We don’t come out here going, ‘Ah, let’s pack it in, move on, move on.’ We’re trying, we’re competing. It doesn’t always go our way.
“The fans have been good, trying to keep us in it. We’ll figure this out and get through it.”
Getting through it may be a moot point.
The Hawks knew going into this six-game homestand that they faced a tall order to remain in the playoff picture, and they’ve started it 0-2-1.
The likely consequence of big losses? Fire sale.
The likely consequence of close losses? Fire sale.
Knowing the stakes may be a factor in the Hawks’ recent performances, King said.
“This part of the season, knowing where we’re at, the uncertainty of where we’re going to finish or uncertainty who’s going to be doing what around here, I think it wears on guys mentally,” King said. “We just try to keep them motivated and keep their spirits up and just keep trying to do things that (are) going to help us win a hockey game.”
Here are five things we learned before and after Sunday’s game.
1. The Blackhawks are puzzled about penalties.
It’s easy to slip into homerism when assessing the validity of penalties, but one call and one no-call were head-scratchers because the plays were so similar.
In the second period, de Haan was tagged with a two-minute minor for interference for a collision with Mason Marchment that caused Marchment’s head to rear backward.
Sam Reinhart wasn’t given an instigator penalty for his fight with de Haan afterward. Both were given five-minute majors.
In the third period, Connor Murphy hit Marchment as Marchment raised his stick and appeared to cross-check Murphy in the head, but no penalty was called.
“I just stepped up to make a hit and just got a stick across the ear,” Murphy said. “That’s all I can really say I felt happened.”
Both de Haan and Murphy were careful with their words after the game.
“I didn’t really think my hit was worthy of a penalty either,” de Haan said. “I kind of just glided into him for the most part. He’s a big guy and he can take (it).”
De Haan said he asked the referees about it, but “they kind of just looked at me.”
“The game happens so quick, it’s hard for those guys to do their job too, right?” he said. “The game’s never been faster. It’s tough. It’s tough for those guys too, and they’ve got to rely on their instincts too.”
Murphy expressed similar sentiments.
“The refs have a hard job,” he said. “I’m not going to comment on my opinion because I don’t know if that really matters in the scheme of this after the game.”
2. The Panthers are doing just fine without Joel Quenneville.
Heading into Sunday’s game, the Panthers led the NHL in goals per game (4.10) and five-on-five goals ratio (1.52). Only the Colorado Avalanche, at 36-9-4 (.776), have a better points percentage than the Panthers’ 35-10-5 (.750).
But that doesn’t mean the team doesn’t bear the scars of Quenneville’s exit.
Quenneville is one of the former Hawks who faced the fallout from the team’s handling of former prospect Kyle Beach’s 2010 sexual assault complaint against then-video coach Brad Aldrich, and Quenneville resigned from the Panthers on Oct. 28.
“Yeah, it was extremely difficult,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “We battled through the transition together and have been able to show some maturity as a group and not let those things affect us and move forward.
“If you lose a coach of Joel’s stature, it’s always tough. What he’s done the last couple years, how he’s built the culture of this team and got us in this position, so to lose him was tough.
“But we managed to get through it together, and again, being a rookie coach having the leadership group that we have (including Joe Thornton, Patric Hornqvist, Aaron Ekblad and Aleksander Barkov) ... it really helped the transition and made it pretty smooth.”
Brunette said he still keeps tabs with Quenneville.
“What we say stays between me and him,” Brunette said. “He’s been supportive and I know he really misses the game.”
3. If Kirby Dach hopes to be like Aleksander Barkov one day, here’s what he needs to do.
Last month, Dach acknowledged it has been “an up-and-down three years,” but the No. 3 pick in the 2019 draft still aspires to model his game on other big centers such as the Panthers’ Barkov and the Anaheim Ducks’ Ryan Getzlaf, to whom Dach drew pre-draft comparisons.
“Those guys are so good at every little part of the game,” Dach said at the time.
It was one of those little details that haunted Dach on Sunday.
His stick appeared to tip Carter Verhaeghe’s pass to Weegar, and his stick was the culprit again when Weegar’s shot flipped by Marc-André Fleury’s glove.
Before the game, Brunette said Dach has the “whole package” but suggested he needs more polishing.
“He takes the puck up the middle of the ice, his length, his reach, his hands, very Barky-like,” Brunette said. “With Barkov nobody really sees how good he is without the puck and defensively — he’s as good as there is in the league — and he’s just relentless on pucks.
“If Kirby can follow that lead, I think he’ll be a heck of a player in this league.”
Dach has had his struggles being a consistent offensive threat, with faceoffs and in other areas. So is emulating Barkov, who had the primary assist on Brandon Montour’s second-period goal, an attainable goal?
“Anything is attainable for this kid,” King said. “If he decides to continue to be a better person, a better player, on and off the ice and work on everything he needs to work on and do the right things and be patient with the process, he could be a top player like that.
“Is he going to be exactly like him? I don’t know. That’s pretty tough. I thought I was going to be Wayne Gretzky when I was 12 years old, but that didn’t pan out, did it? But he could get himself to a status where this guy is a legit hockey player.”
King said he believes Dach is giving in to self-imposed pressure.
“Yeah, he’s in a rush,” King said. “He wants it now. Sometimes it takes a little while. That’s our job to keep him focused and keep him on the right path. We will. He’ll get there.”
4. Should the Blackhawks front office regret letting some ex-Hawks fly to South Florida?
Three former Hawks took the ice Sunday: Gustav Forsling, Anthony Duclair and Lucas Carlsson.
Duclair’s Chicago tenure was brief, but in Forsling’s case, the Hawks traded for him in 2015 and sent Adam Clendening to the Vancouver Canucks.
Forsling totaled eight goals and 19 assists for the Hawks while splitting three seasons between Chicago and Rockford before the Hawks traded him to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2019 in a deal that brought de Haan to Chicago.
Brunette, an ex-Hawk himself, said about Forsling before the game: “(We) picked him up on waivers (in January 2021) and there was a lot of familiarity with him, coaching staff knew him, had him in Chicago, and he fit like a glove. They knew his strengths, they knew his weaknesses and he’s been outstanding.
“I know for the Blackhawks he’s been good at different times. He’s been in my mind one of the most underrated defensemen in the league.”
Forsling has two goals and 19 assists this season and is tied for eighth among defensemen with a plus-24.
The Hawks shipped Carlsson and Lucas Wallmark to Florida in the April 2021 deal that brought Riley Stillman, Henrik Borgström and Brett Connolly to Chicago.
Wallmark is playing in Russia now, and Carlsson has two goals and six assists in 27 games for the Panthers. He and Forsling were the starting defensive pairing Sunday.
King said defensemen’s development is often rushed or abandoned too quickly.
“Goalies don’t figure the game out until their mid- to late 20s, and then all of a sudden they’re superstars. Defensemen are right behind them,” King said. “They don’t mature in this league until they’re a little older, and you have to have patience.
“If you don’t, this is what happens. You get rid of some guys that are pretty good hockey players at the time, and they’re only going to get better.”
5. Andrew Brunette hasn’t forgotten what could’ve been.
It’s one thing to leave a team. It’s another to leave a season before it wins the Stanley Cup.
When Brunette was still playing, he signed with the Hawks for the 2011-12 season with hopes of helping the 2010 champions reach the Cup Final again. But the Hawks lost in the first round to the Phoenix Coyotes.
“It was disappointing,” Brunette said. “It was the last year of my career and I was hoping to win a Stanley Cup. They won one the next year.”
But Brunette said he was fortunate to go through that experience with some all-time Hawks greats.
“The success they had, I’m not surprised, being around those guys,” he said. “It was a great city to play hockey in and a great building to be able to say I was playing for the home team.”
