You can see the Chicago Blackhawks’ progression in Thursday night’s 4-3 shootout win against the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena.
The Hawks failed to meet their opponents’ level from the outset.
Then, when the Blackhawks did find early some early success, the Caps would push back and the Hawks would fold.
Thursday was an example of when the Hawks struck first, the opponent made its push but the Hawks struck back.
In this case, it came in the form of Seth Jones’ game-tying goal in the third period and Patrick Kane’s shootout winner.
“I thought our first period was good,” Jones said. “It’s something that we’ve been wanting to improve on is getting the first goal of the game and get off on a good start. I thought we did that.
“And then I thought throughout the game we had some ups and downs like any other game, but we stuck it, we were resilient in the way we wanted to play and it took us to the very end to get a win.”
Alex DeBrincat noticed some of that same-pushback Sunday against the San Jose Sharks despite a 2-0 loss.
“The Sharks game I thought we played decent, too,” he said. “Kinger (coach Derek King) said it after the game, that was probably one of our best games. Just didn’t go in.
“So it’s nice to get in the win column again and hopefully build off of that.”
Here are five takeaways from Thursday’s game.
1. It sounds cliché, but the Blackhawks let the game come to them.
You may call it dumbed-down, but the Hawks may call it “simplified.”
What they weren’t going to do against the high-octane Capitals was try to get into a shootout.
Besides, the Hawks lately have found that just settling in, defending their zone and cutting out mistakes have worked well.
“It’s the way the game is now,” DeBrincat said. “I feel like every team plays good defensively so you’ve got to kind of match that. Can’t be running and gunning.
“You’ve just got to bury your chances when you get them and try to play in the offensive zone.”
Some transition opportunities have naturally evolved from that strategy. And when they did get some zone time going, they tried to create havoc around the net and not leave themselves vulnerable to pucks turned over at the blue line.
“We have to manage the puck, that’s the biggest thing with our team,” King said. “We can’t afford to turn pucks over against a lot of these teams because they’re good teams. We saw Edmonton, we saw Calgary, all these top teams, you cannot give them opportunity and that’s what we did tonight.
“We played a nice, simple game. When we didn’t have a play, we put it in behind them.”
Said Jones: “We always talk about greasy road wins. The crowd’s not on our side, we have to create our own energy and you don’t do that by turning pucks over and giving them odd-man rushes.
“So I thought we did a great job of kind of taking the crowd out of it in the first, sticking to our game, keeping it low eventful. That’s just giving ourselves a chance.”
2. Dominik Kubalík broke out of his slump — can some of his fellow forwards do the same?
Kubalík’s goal drought lasted 15 games, but he ended it in the second period with a power-play goal, his first marker since Oct. 24.
Kubalík had just talked about his dry spell after morning skate: “Obviously it’s a little frustrating but that’s just the way it is. You’ve just got to battle through and create your own luck to be in the good areas, keep shooting, be around the net where those dirty goals are scored.”
Kubalík’s goal also livened up a listless power play.
He drew a roughing penalty against Nic Dowd for the Hawks’ first power-play opportunity. The Capitals pressed the Hawks in the neutral zone but they quickly turned it back and DeBrincat passed between two defenders to a streaking Kubalík, who lifted the puck over Vitek Vaněček.
“It’s awesome,” DeBrincat said. “It’s a nice shot. Seen them before. But it’s good to see it from him. Hopefully he can build off of that.”
Kirby Dach, on the other hand, passed up an opportunity to break his own 14-game drought to set up Dylan Strome for a tip-in, but Martin Fehérváry tied up Strome’s stick.
“I might have to whip him with a hose,” King said. “Sometimes it’s just a thing, right? Especially, it depends, he’s looking for guys, he had that open net and it wasn’t a bad play. I don’t think it was a bad play, it would’ve been a tap-in for Stromer but the defender made a good play.
“We’ll just keep beating it in (Dach), shoot.”
Jonathan Toews, meanwhile, has yet to find the back of the net in 21 games.
“Obviously you’ve got to score goals to win games,” Dach said before the game. “Not only myself but our whole team is a little bit snake-bitten right now.”
King ruminated on what could become the slump-breaker.
“Guys that are just naturally skilled or are good goal scorers, you don’t lose it,” he said after morning skate. “The only thing you lose is that confidence, so the big thing for that is try to be composed, don’t put pressure on yourself and just play.
“But usually it takes a defenseman shooting the puck and it hits you in the butt or off your head or shoulder — it’s like a crazy goal that goes in — and then all of a sudden you just take a deep breath and you’re like, ‘Alright, I’m on the scoresheet.’ That’s the biggest thing, just getting on the scoresheet helps so much.”
Kubalík said players don’t spend time commiserating about their offensive woes.
Still, the Hawks need someone besides DeBrincat, Brandon Hagel and Kane to put up goals — they have 12, seven and six, respectively, and no other Hawk has more than three. In fact, Kane hasn’t scored in the last five games.
“I would be lying to you if I said it doesn’t suck, but it does,” Dach said. “You want to go out there and score goals. That’s what we’re all paid to do.”
3. Josiah Slavin finally got his shot and it paid off.
The Hawks signed their 2018 seventh-rounder to a two-year entry level deal in March.
When the Hawks called up Slavin and sent Philipp Kurashev to Rockford on Monday, King called him a hard worker whom the team wanted to reward.
But it was the Hawks who reaped the dividends of giving Slavin his first career start.
Slavin raced into the zone and dangled through defenders, then wheeled around and found a trailing Jones, who fired from the slot to tie the game 3-3 in the third period and force overtime.
“It was a great play by (Slavin) to kind of drive it down, stop up, push everyone down low into the slot, then I came off the bench and I definitely went and saw a lane,” Jones said. “I was calling for it, and he put it right on my tape and I just wanted to finish it.”
Slavin seemed to take it stride.
“I didn’t really have much going to the net, so I thought I’d peel back and as soon as I did I saw him jumping up in the play and he was wide open, so it was an easy pass to make,” he said.
Slavin’s parents, Bob and Wendi, wife Cali, sister-in-law Kylie Slavin and trainer Tim Naiman were there to support him.
King said Slavin’s parents should be proud, and King raved about the performance of Slavin’s fourth line with Ryan Carpenter and Mike Hardman.
“That line was good,” King said. “I just told them make sure you get that puck down in that end, and they did. … And then we’d throw out Kane, DeBrincat or Dacher and these guys and give them opportunity in the offensive zone. So they did their job to a ‘T.’”
As for Slavin in particular, Jones said, “He looks extremely comfortable out there. Big body down the middle, was making plays out of our own end, skating through the neutral zone with speed and creating offensively. He set up Hardy a couple times off the rush for some great chances.
“I thought he looked great. He didn’t look out of place at all and definitely helped us get the win tonight.”
4. Settling for less than ‘perfect’ can work out perfectly.
The Hawks had three goals in regulation, their most since four against the Seattle Kraken at the start of the previous road trip.
Against the Capitals, the Hawks’ goals presented themselves on breakouts, but they had plenty of other good looks throughout the game.
And when they did get them, they didn’t get fancy.
Scoring has been a double-edged sword: The Hawks want to maximize their opportunities by setting them up the right way, but you can pass it around too much and see your window close as the puck leaves the zone.
King said he doesn’t want the team to sit back too much — waiting on the right lane to open up — and play more aggressive.
“I’ve seen it happen a lot down in the minors, where guys are gripping it a little bit,” King said. “You don’t expect to see it at this level, but you do.”
“You kind of get in the situations where you’re gripping the stick a little bit too tight or trying to set up the perfect backdoor play where you go through the seams two or three times, where maybe the simple shot from the point or the half-wall or putting in a greasy one would help us get things rolling,” Dach said. “When you get in slumps like this it’s never a bad idea just to shoot the puck.”
5. Who knew Derek King was going for style points with the win?
King was sporting a gray plaid sport jacket with a light blue dress shirt and win-color tied.
Not exactly Hawks colors, but it got the job done on the bench.
“It was a distraction for their team, they kept looking at my jacket when they were skating by,” he said. “All the coaches had jackets similar to this, so we might have to wear them the whole trip.”
Here is more game coverage.
The Chicago Blackhawks rallied to tie the game in the third period and went on to beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 in a shootout Thursday at Capital One Arena.
Patrick Kane scored the eventual game-winner with the only shootout goal.
Alex Ovechkin couldn’t put the puck past Marc-André Fleury, sealing the win for the Hawks.
“That’s a good hockey team,” Hawks coach Derek King said of the Capitals, who lead the Metropolitan Division. “Big, fast, skilled. It was a challenge for us, and they tilted the ice here and there, but we stuck to our game plan. We just played as simple as we could.
“We still made some mistakes where I would’ve liked to see pucks go in a little deeper but stayed in the fight, and it was a challenge for us and they rose to the occasion.”
Dominik Kubalik broke a 15-game scoring drought and ended the Hawks’ six-game streak without a power-play goal.
Alex DeBrincat assisted on the goal along with Kirby Dach, dishing to Kubalik on a breakaway after the Hawks turned the puck back in the neutral zone.
“(It wasn’t) really set up (as a traditional power-play goal), but we’ll take ‘em any way they come and hopefully we can build on that,” DeBrincat said.
After opening the scoring in the first period and taking a second lead in the second, the Hawks came from behind to tie it on Seth Jones’ third-period goal, set up by Josiah Slavin.
The assist was the first career point for Slavin, who made his NHL debut playing on the fourth line with Mike Hardman and Ryan Carpenter.
“It was exciting,” Slavin said. “Glad we got the win, and it was good to get the first one out of the way for sure.”
Asked if someone saved the puck for him, he said, “I think so.”
Added King: “As you saw, Slavs, this is what he does, He’s a big body, he protects pucks and he can make plays. He skates well and I really liked his performance.
“His parents should be very happy, very proud of their son today.”
Coming into Thursday night’s matchup, the Capitals scored at least four goals in the last four games and in five of the last six. But the Hawks seemed intent on playing keep-away from the high-powered Caps skaters — at least in the first period.
The Hawks displayed disciplined puck management — with no giveaways in the first — kept rushes and premium shots to a minimum and patiently waited for opportunities.
Yet some the offensive opportunities still were there.
Slavin set up Hardman nicely on a 2-on-1, but Hardman missed wide.
But DeBrincat cashed in on a give-and-go with Kane, dragging the puck around Vitek Vanecek for his 13th goal. Kane has assisted on seven of them. Jones also was credited with an assist.
Whatever momentum the Hawks built at the break quickly was erased by the Capitals.
Dowd was the beneficiary of a 3-on-2 with Carl Hagelin and Garnet Hathaway, scoring 1 minute, 10 seconds into the second period.
Midway through the second, Dach passed across the crease to Dylan Strome on a rush, but Martin Fehervary tied up Strome’s stick and his tip-in went wide. But Dach passed up a prime shot to pass back to Strome.
The Capitals weren’t going away, however, ramping up the activity around Fleury’s net, and it finally caught up to the Hawks.
Later in the second, Evgeny Kuznetsov poked in Ovechkin’s ricochet off Henrik Borgstrom’s skate to tie it 2-2.
The Capitals took their first lead 57 seconds into the third on Hathaway’s goal.
Nic Dowd took the puck away Jones in the Captials zone and fed Hathaway on a breakaway, and Hathaway put it past Fleury.
Fleury and Vanecek each made 25 saves.
Meanwhile, Connor Murphy left after Alex Ovechkin plowed him headfirst into the boards 21 seconds into the second period.
King didn’t have an update after the game.
“I’m going to have to talk with our trainers (and doctors) here and we just have to see where we’re at,” King said.
5 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-3 win against the Washington Capitals | Sports Source link 5 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-3 win against the Washington Capitals | Sports
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