Sunday night, the Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Minnesota Wild, looking to extend their season-long point streak to five games. Seth Jones, who himself was looking to build on a four-game point steak, returned to the lineup after missing Chicago’s OT loss to Tampa Bay, with an illness. Could the Hawks pickup at least a point ahead of their three-game road trip?

Game Summary

The game started with a 6-0 shot advantage for Minnesota. They took the 1-0 lead on their seventh shot just 5:43 into the first period. After a turnover at the Minnesota blue line by Ethan Del Mastro, the Wild streaked the other way. Jared Spurgeon split Del Mastro and Nolan Allan and wristed the puck past Petr Mrázek.

Less than two minutes later, Freddy Gaudreau threw a harmless puck at Mrázek, who was fooled by the knuckling shot.

The Hawks must have considered themselves lucky that the game wasn’t more out of hand after the first 20 minutes. They were outshot 11-1 and struggled to keep possession of the puck. The shot attempts were much closer, as the Hawks held an 18-17 advantage, but look at this heat map…

Nothing truly threatened Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson. Chicago’s shot attempts were empty calories.

The Blackhawks began the second period decently, but 7:09 into the frame, Nick Foligno was called for holding and then given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for mocking the call and yelling at the referee. The Hawks would be shorthanded for four minutes.

Joel Eriksson-Ek would make Foligno pay, making it 3-0 Wild after redirecting a perfect power play pass from Kirill Kaprizov. Minnesota had three goals. The Blackhawks had three shots.

After two periods, the Hawks had been outshot 18-5 and trailed 3-0.

But they wouldn’t be shut out.

Just 47 seconds into the third, Jake Middleton cross-checked Ryan Donato in front of the Wild net. Chicago would get their first power play of the game. Nine seconds later, Jones put the Hawks on the board and extended his point streak to five games.

The intensity of the game picked up from there. Pat Maroon and Middleton were both sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct calls. A couple of shifts later, Donato and Zach Bogosian were mixing it up from one end of the ice to the other. While they were sparring, Del Mastro walked in on net and fed Frank Nazar, who scored into a gaping net to cut the Wild lead to 3-2. The assist was Del Mastro’s first NHL point.

After exchanging power play chances, the game would remain 3-2. Chicago went with the empty net with 2:31 left in the period. The Hawks would get a solid shot on goal after the first puck drop, but Foligno would lose the next draw and his brother Marcus would put the game away.

Wild win 4-2.

Jay’s Final Thoughts

• I am so damn tired of moral victories. Sure, they made the game interesting for the last 15 minutes of the game. Great. It should have been interesting for 60. I know we’ll hear the same old stuff about starting on time, and finding identities…blah blah blah. It’s time to put up or shut up. We’re now 49 games into the season. One head coach has already been fired. At some point, the players need to look inward and figure it out.

• On that same train of thought…I was really disappointed in some of the Hawks veteran leaders tonight. Foligno took an undisciplined penalty because he was frustrated with a call, and the Wild scored on the power play. He also lost both offensive zone draws with the net empty. Jason Dickinson had a sub-par game by his standards, too. Mrázek let in a crushing soft goal. This team is getting younger and younger by the day, and I’m here for it. I can handle losing due to young players making young player mistakes, but when it’s the veterans costing you, it’s a much tougher pill to swallow.

• Can we stop with the “trade Ryan Donato picks” thing? Game after game, he sets the example of how to play the game. He is the hardest-working player on the ice. Two nights ago, I said you can never have too many draft picks, but I’m not trading Donato for anything out of the top 45 picks. He brings too much in terms of leadership on versatility to just sell him off. Give him a two-year extension and put an “A” on his jersey next season.

• I’m thrilled that Landon Slaggert got recalled ahead of Sunday’s game. He didn’t play but should be in the lineup when the team’s road trip begins on Tuesday in Tampa.

• The Blackhawks do such a phenomenal job on their Hockey Fights Cancer nights. There is not a dry eye in the house. To see those children who have survived cancer on the ice and ringing that bell is inspiring. By the way, I fight for Mom, Dad, Aunt Julie, Troy, and Linda, to name a few.

• Michael Russo, who covers the Wild for The Athletic, was so shocked by how poor the Blackhawks were playing that he took to social media to express his feelings. “It is unreal watching the Hawks try to get through the neutral zone,” Russo Tweeted. “Like truly, holy crap. And some Wild fans want a teardown. They have 4 shots through 38 minutes.” He continued with another Tweet. “This is like Bad News Bears stuff now from the Hawks. Bertuzzi just took a slap dump in off the groin, followed by a player losing his edge and going six feet offside.”

Nuggets and Timbits

• This was Philipp Kurashev‘s 300th career game, and it was one of his better games of the season. He was -1, but had two shots, six shot attempts, and two hits.

• Marcus Foligno’s empty-net goal was the 16th the Hawks allowed this season. That’s second-worst in the league behind Colorado (oddly enough).

• Jones was a machine in this game. He scored a goal, had six shots and 11 shot attempts, had two hits and three blocked shots. He hit rock bottom just a handful of games ago. His response and bounce-back must be impressive, even to the most dug-in Jones hater.

• Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff was a guest on the CHSN Pregame Show, and provided an update on the Jones trade rumors. “A lot of tire kicking. Teams see the reports. They see the rumors on social media,” Seravalli said. “They wonder what is happening with Seth Jones. There have been a lot of interesting expressions of interest. Nothing beyond that that I would count as substantive. Is it possible that Seth Jones is on the move before March 7th? Yes. Is it possible that last retention spot is used on Seth Jones? Yes. I think that’s not a path the Hawks would ideally like to go down. Think about the future. They’re trying to be a competitive playoff team in a short period of time to ramp things up with Connor Bedard at the helm. You don’t want to jam up your cap table for that long a period of time with a salary retention spot locked in on the Seth Jones contract if you can avoid it. You’d have to find a way to juice the return. And beyond that, I don’t think the interest level at this point in time, given the dollars and term remaining on Jones’ deal, has presented itself as a likely option at this point. If you go back and look at Kyle Davidson’s playbook over the last few years, it’s much more likely that the last salary retention spot would be used on a player like Connor Murphy, or Jason Dickinson or Ryan Donato…someone that has a short period of time that the Hawks could then use to juice that return. Think of the Jake McCabe trade…something like that. Not out of the realm of possibility that Seth Jones is on the move, but nothing to this point yet that I think has gotten anyone excited.”