NEWSLETTER
After two terrible starts in a row, the Blackhawks wanted to come out better and perform well in their final two home games. Well… Andreas Athanasiou took a penalty at 5:25 into the game and Filip Forsberg scored for the Preds 18 seconds into the power play. So, yeah, not ideal. Kiefer Sherwood scored with 57 seconds left in the period when Arvid Söderblom failed to secure a rebound and the loose change got deposited behind him. The Hawks were credited with six shots on net in the first period; Nashville scored twice on 12 shots.
The Blackhawks gave up two more goals in the first half of the second period — a second for Forsberg and a power play goal to Jason Zucker — and the refund policy on tickets was becoming a legitimate question for some who came out.
Chicago did get on the board late in the second during a 5-on-3 advantage, but Forsberg completed his hat trick early in the third period to push the lead right back to four.
Star 1: Ethan Del Mastro
When almost nothing goes right for most of the first two periods and the team is getting buried, the guy who made his NHL debut gets one of the game’s three stars from me. Automatic. Lead pipe lock. And Del Mastro, as promised, went sans bucket for the rookie lap.
But… then the game started and I watched him skate on the Blackhawks’ “third” pair with Connor Murphy. And they looked pretty good. And physical. In fact, they were the Blackhawks’ best defensive pair thru two periods according to Natural Stat Trick. These numbers are even with the Hawks getting out-shot 27-19 thru 40 minutes.
If you’re looking for a silver lining to the dumpster fire performance by the team as a whole tonight, Del Mastro being the latest player to come up from Rockford and not only look comfortable, but perform well should be encouraging. We’ve seen in-season improvements from Wyatt Kaiser, Lukas Reichel and extremely positive returns from Del Mastro this evening. As more of the talented prospects the Hawks are collecting make their way into the pro ranks, the development taking place in Rockford will be increasingly important.
Star 2: Philipp Kurashev
I want Kurashev to get to 20 goals this season, I really do. He scored his 18th of the year during a 5-on-3 power play in the second period to get the Blackhawks on the board. He also had a nice first pass to start a sequence that ended with Kevin Lankinen making a ridiculous save to keep Tyler Johnson from scoring a second goal for the Hawks with 13 seconds left in the middle stanza. Connor Bedard with the lovely assist.
Star 3: Connor Bedard
With his assist on Kurashev’s power play goal, Bedard reached 60 points in the season. He’s the seventh Blackhawks’ rookie to reach that benchmark and the first since Artemi Panarin in 2015-16. The other five: Steve Larmer (#retire28), Denis Savard, Patrick Kane, Jeremy Roenick and Darryl Sutter.
