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4 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 8-1 loss to the Dallas Stars: ‘We have to get stronger mentally’
:quality(70):focal(1565x1625:1575x1635)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/I7QP3ZJUOQBW4PB2QJRW3QK4PE.jpg?ssl=1 "4 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 8-1 loss to the Dallas Stars: ‘We have to get stronger mentally’")
DALLAS — The Chicago Blackhawks ushered in the new year by getting ushered out of Dallas via a two-game weekend sweep.
Whereas Friday’s loss to the Stars was a roller-coaster ride that was settled with 8 seconds left in overtime, Sunday’s 8-1 loss at American Airlines Center was all but a foregone conclusion after a three-goal first period and two-goal second.
The Hawks entered the rematch knowing what to look for: odd-man rushes.
The problem was, the Stars hardly left the offensive zone, so they did most of their damage from below the blue line.
Craig Smith deflected in Sam Steel’s snipe for the game’s opening goal.
Ryan Suter and Tyler Seguin scored two minutes apart.
The Hawks had a few of their best chances during a second-period push.
Ryan Donato backhanded a backdoor pass to Jason Dickinson but Dickinson couldn’t capitalize. Isaak Phillips had a short-range wrister.
A blast from Lukas Reichel couldn’t find its mark, and Nick Foligno tried a wraparound.
Nada.
Then the Stars collected themselves and continued the onslaught.
Sam Steel blew through the Hawks defense to score on a roofer, and Mason Marchment scored on the power play to pad the lead to 5-0.
The Hawks must’ve had a heart-to-heart or drew up a play in chalk or something during the second intermission.
Philipp Kurashev scored a power-play goal on a tick-tack-toe from Connor Bedard and Cole Guttman 39 seconds into the final frame.
But that glimmer of hope faded quickly when Roope Hintz batted in a rebound goal out of midair.
Petr Mrázek got the hook and Arvid Söderblom got the nod.
He didn’t emerge unscathed either. Marchment bagged his second and third goals of the night in the final 5 1/2 minutes.
The Hawks played a dismal first period, allowed 35 shots, committed three penalties and generally looked worse after getting a second crack at the same team.
And they gave up a hat trick to Marchment, just like they gave Roope Hintz a hat trick on Friday.
[ [Don’t miss] ‘Dumb play by me’: Connor Bedard learns valuable lessons from a split-second decision that led to a Chicago Blackhawks OT loss ]
So what did they learn?
“We have to get stronger mentally and learn to play a little simpler, to the game plan, and getting pucks behind the team, forecheck them well, and then we have to be on top of our checks everywhere,” coach Luke Richardson said.
“We can’t hang behind them,” he said. “We don’t have the wheels for it, the strength for it yet, as individuals or as a team, to play loose run-and-gun hockey.
“We just got to be stronger to sit with our game plan for 60 minutes, not 15 or 45, which has happened lately.”
Tyler Johnson left in the second with an apparent leg injury.
“He’ll probably be out for a little time,” Richardson said.
Here are four takeaways.
Foligno often gives animated postgame gut-check whenever the team has a bad performance, but he was practically apoplectic after an 8-1 beating.
“That is really, really disappointing,” he said. He expected the same “compete” the Hawks showed Friday and didn’t get it.
“My only hope for a game like today is we just finally hammer it through our thick heads how we’re going to need to play, and that is not it. That is just not who we are, not who we can be. That’s not what we expect in the room, that’s not what our fans should expect.
“That’s what pisses me off. That’s not a winning team, that’s just a team hoping. Hoping, ‘Ah, maybe it’s an easy night. Maybe the other team doesn’t have it.’ Are you kidding me? That team’s record, and we’re going to play like that? I’m sorry, just that one is really, really frustrating with the strides we think we’ve been making.”
Foligno mentioned “easy” again: “Tonight it was just like we were hoping to have an easy game. Who are we to have an easy game right now?”
So what does he mean by “easy”?
“Just the compete,” Foligno said. “You watch our puck battles, our battles in front, our changes, the way we change.
“Things that sometimes you can get away with here and there, but when a team like that is playing against you that’s structured, that’s older, that has had winning habits and understands the game, you’re going to get picked apart, and that’s what it was tonight.”
Kevin Korchinski broke the puck out, drop-passed to Bedard in the neutral zone and made two Stars defenders bump into each other as Bedard passed to Kurashev.
Kurashev hit Cole Guttman and drifted backward, Guttman passed to Bedard, and Bedard threaded a backdoor pass to Kurashev for the goal.
Richardson said the execution on the power play hadn’t been great to that point, “so Derek Plante talked to them and kind of fine-tuned it a little bit.
“But that was more their individual skill, making that line rush on that goal and it was a nice goal,” he said. “But a little bit too late for us to play with that kind of fire.”
Tinordi was benched Friday after a terrible night culminated in him getting turnstiled on a third-period goal.
It was worse for Phillips.
He was on the ice for six of the Stars’ eight goals.
He got caught flat-footed by Steel before Steel backhanded a roof shot past Mrázek. Mason Marchment whipped in a power-play goal from the low slot while Phillips wasn’t scrambling to find the puck between his legs.
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Richardson said he told Phillips that he had a strong game on Friday.
“And then tonight, just on the wrong side of guys and not aware,” Richardson said. “I think when things start to go bad, kind of like what we talked about with Tinordi last game, it seemed to go like that with Philly.
“I think he started to guess a little bit instead of just playing and doing his job and trusting everybody else, and when teams and individuals start doing that, it breaks down.”
It’s the much-maligned plus-minus rating.
Sure, there’s some fluke factor baked into the stat. But that can’t totally explain away Vlasic’s team-leading plus-10 rating entering Sunday’s game, especially because he’s not exactly a big contributor on offense.
“I was not aware of it,” Vlasic said about the stat. “You know, there’s going to be times where you get lucky and you’re on the ice when your team scores. And then there’s going to be times when you get unlucky and you’re on the ice and the other team scores.
“It’s not necessarily anyone’s fault or whatever, so it’s not always an accurate representation of how people are playing. But I like to take pride in just shutting down things defensively and then trying to contribute a little bit offensively.”
First Shift 🏒
For the past four regular seasons, the Stars have the best road record in the NHL.
Through 164 games, Dallas tops the league with a .655 points percentage away from home. It also leads in goals per game at 3.40 and in GAA at 2.70. That spans two different head coaches and several different players, but there is a culture that the team hopes to tap into Wednesday when the best-of-seven playoff series moves to Minnesota for Game 3.
“You have to be able to play on the road,” said Stars coach Glen Gulutzan. “Since my time here, our guys feel really comfortable.”
The Stars were tied for second in road points percentage this season at .683, so an actual improvement over their previous average. They were third in GAA at 2.73 and sixth in scoring at 3.41, so the league has improved. That said, the new coaching staff has also embraced a sound road strategy.
Like Pete DeBoer before him, Gulutzan doesn’t worry too much about matching lines – at home or on the road. The road matching can create some real gymnastics, as the home team gets second change. But the fact that a team chooses not to chase that part of the game.
“That’s why you program your guys to play in those situations and not yank them off every time something happens,” Gulutzan said. “That way they have the confidence to play in all of those situations.”
The Stars coach did make some tweaks after a disappointing team performance in Game 1. Arttu Hyry jumped in for Adam Erne and played center on a line with Jamie Benn and Sam Steel. The right-handed Hyry was a solid complement to lefties Steel and Benn. That allowed Hryckowian to move up to the top line in place of Steel. The left-handed Hryckowian is good balance to right-handed center Johnston.
Again, when you have those options, you are comfortable with whatever line is on the ice.
“I like our combinations right now,” Gulutzan said. “One of the things you worry about is the hands of your centermen, and on each line we have a righty and a lefty that are more than capable. Plus, all of the guys know their systems and their jobs, and they’ve been doing it all year.”
The Stars have had several injuries this season to key players, and that means everyone has played everywhere with everyone else. That’s big this time of year.
“I definitely think that helps,” said Colin Blackwell. “It just makes everything flow. If the coaches shuffle things up, you usually land with someone you have played with before.”
And that means playing on the road isn’t as difficult. The biggest challenge might be fact that Minnesota will be fired up by its home crowd and will be looking to make a point about grievances they perceived in Game 2.
“I don’t know if we need a bulletin board,” Gulutzan said when asked about the Wild making “bulletin board” statements Monday. “We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing and grind this thing to where we need it to go.”
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Johnston gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 8:58 of the first period. His slap shot from above the right face-off circle deflected off Wild forward Danila Yurov and then bounced off the end boards and in off Wallstedt’s left arm.
“I’ve had a goal like that go in on me, too, that’s a tough bounce,” Oettinger said. “Like I said in Game 1, we got some bad bounces. We got a nice bounce there. We had one where I was behind the net, and the guy was shooting it in the net and our (defense) stopped it, so we got some good bounces. The way we played the last 40 minutes of the game, I think, didn’t give up much, had a ton of good chances offensively. The power play, we got looks and our (penalty kill) was great. If we kind of build off the game that we played the last 40 minutes, I think we should feel very good for the next few games.”
Faber tied it 1-1 at 11:33. He took a pass from Hughes, skated around Robertson in the left circle and cut to the slot, where his wrist shot ramped up and in off Oettinger.
Duchene put the Stars back up 2-1 with a power-play goal at 4:02 of the second period. Mikko Rantanen gained the offensive zone along the right boards and sent a backhand pass to Duchene, who snapped the puck between Wallstedt’s pads from in front.
Robertson made it 3-1 at 7:09 of the third period when he tipped Lundkvist’s wrist shot from the blue line past the right pad of Wallstedt.
“I think we got to do a better job, I mean, the odd-man’s, right? I thought we played a really good game. Probably their best game, you know, meaningful game. And, yeah, we didn’t get fazed by it. Was really good by us. Just got to be smarter in some areas, and we get to go back home and in front of our crowd,” Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno said. “They want (penalties). I mean, they’re looking to play 5-on-4. I mean, that’s their game. They can’t hang with us 5-on-5. We got to just be smarter, and myself included. But it’s a heated game out there. You’re gonna have emotional swings and learn from it. We got a split series.”
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