Last night was a brutal and very disappointing loss for the Blackhawks. With their third consecutive loss in a row and their road trip starting & ending on a poor note the Hawks have definitely dug themselves into a deep hole.
The first period was especially brutal for the Hawks as the Penguins gained a four-goal lead with goals scored by Teddy Blueger, Drew O'Connor, Brock McGinn and Danton Heinen. Marc-Andre Fleury’s night against his old team came to an end and Kevin Lankinen took his place for the remainder of the game.
In the second period, Patrick Kane scored a power play goal (with assists by Seth Jones and Alex DeBrincat) to make it a 4-1 game; however, Jason Zucker extended the Penguins’ lead to five goals late in the period.
Kirby Dach scored his second goal in back to back games during the third period with assists by Kane (with his second point of the night) and Brandon Hagel, but by then, momentum was still on the Penguins’ side and the Hawks lost for the third time in a row.
Honestly, I am very disappointed with how the Blackhawks have started off the season. The players are more than capable of playing three whole periods of hockey, but some of them haven’t been applying themselves. If they don’t start applying themselves and start improving on the things that they need to improve on, nothing is going to change for them.
This bad habit of allowing the other team to score the first goal of the game has to stop. As I have mentioned numerous times before in my past keys to the game, the Hawks need to start off their game on a good, strong note. If they start off poorly, then chances are, they’re not going to win.
Like I mentioned before, the players are more than capable of playing three whole periods of hockey. They need to start playing on their “A” game and remember that this is not the preseason anymore. Every point in every game counts, and if they don’t get it together, their future playoff chances could go straight out the window.
I feel so bad for Marc-Andre Fleury for getting pulled out of the game in the first period. I was looking forward to seeing him play against his old team and hoping that the Hawks would get a bounce-back win last night (which obviously didn’t happen).
I don’t blame Fleury for being so angry as he left the ice when he was pulled from the game in the first period. He deserved so much better than that and his teammates weren’t doing him any favors at all yesterday. The Hawks need to give their goalies more support and stop leaving them out to dry.
With the Blackhawks losing their first three games of the season, Coach Colliton is definitely in the hot seat and his job could potentially be on the line if he doesn’t try to improve things as well. Honestly, if he keeps this up, I don’t see him lasting until Thanksgiving.
I’m also not thrilled with Colliton for healthy-scratching Dylan Strome for the entire road trip. I have no idea what Strome did that landed him in Coach Colliton’s doghouse, but I thought that he deserved to play in at least one game to show what he can do.
I am fully aware of the potential trade rumors involving Dylan Strome, but something tells me that it’s going to get to a point where Strome is probably not going to want to stay in Chicago anymore and would probably prefer playing somewhere else where he would get at least some playing time. It reminds me of what happened with former Blackhawks player Brendan Perlini back in the 2019-20 season: he didn’t get much playing time and later requested to be traded.
I understand that Colliton wants to give some of the new and young forwards a chance to play in the lineup, but after this dreadful road trip, I feel it’s time to switch things up and give Strome a chance to play. I hope he does get the chance to do so on Tuesday (depending on what his status on the team will be by then).
This week, the Blackhawks will be begin their four-game homestead at the United Center starting with their home opener against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
Now that the Hawks are back home in Chicago, I hope they use the time before they face the Islanders to re-group, re-focus and be 100% ready for a bounce back victory.
Until then, go Blackhawks!
We will take him back in Vegas at no charge !!! 🥅💰
