Coming off consecutive losses to the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers, the Blackhawks welcomed the Calgary Flames to the United Center on Monday night. Interim head coach Anders Sorensen scratched veteran defenseman TJ Brodie in favor of Wyatt Kaiser, who had been a healthy scratch vs Edmonton. With Petr Mrázek in goal and a more youthful lineup, including a second chance for the line of Frank Nazar, Colton Dach and Lukas Reichel, would Chicago get a better result?

Game Summary

The Flames dominated the first two shifts of the game and struck 1:14 into the period. First, Tyler Bertuzzi failed to take an extra few steps to avoid an icing call. Then, Connor Bedard was knocked off the puck in the offensive zone, leading to a Flames rush the other way. Jakob Pelletier beat Mrázek, making it 1-0 Flames.

Just over a minute later, Louis Crevier would answer back for the Blackhawks. Crevier sent a point shot through Dach and Nazar in front. Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf never had a chance.

With 8:13 left to go in the first, Kevin Bahl wristed a shot at Mrázek. The rebound bounced off Kaiser and onto the stick blade of Pelletier.

2-1 Calgary.

Less than two minutes later, Mikael Backlund beat Seth Jones in front for Calgary’s third goal on 12 shots.

The first period would end with the Blackhawks being outshot 14-7 and out shot-attempted 24-14. If Sorensen wants to show his team what an effective NHL forecheck looks like, show them film of that period. Calgary was all over the Hawks. Every time a Chicago player received the puck in the defensive zone, there was a Flame there to pressure and/or check. They were relentless.

“We can’t do another period like that,” Crevier told Darren Pang during the first intermission.

The second began just like the first period, as Calgary took a 4-1 lead 1:55 into the period. After a nice scoring chance from Bedard (set up by Nazar) on the other end, Yegor Sharangovich shot a puck wide that ricocheted off the back boards in front of Mrázek. Jake Bean was all alone and fired into the gaping Hawks net. 4-1.

The Blackhawks would get their first power play when Martin Pospisil boarded Taylor Hall into the glass. You may remember Pospisil from his elbow on Bedard and hit on Nazar from their game back in December.

Pospisil was hit with a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the hit.

The Hawks would waste no time in converting, as Bedard sent a point shot through a Bertuzzi screen. 4-2 with 4:01 of power play time remaining.

Just as the Hawks gained momentum, Jones attempted to throw a blind pass through two Flames. It didn’t work, and Calgary was off on a two-on-one. Sharangovich put a beautiful move on Mrázek to bury the shorthanded goal.

The score would hold through the third period, and Calgary took the 5-2 win.

Jay’s Final Thoughts

• This was about as bad a game as you can imagine, but if you’re looking for a silver lining, Nazar is really starting to catch up to the NHL game. He created several great scoring chances, and used his speed to create space for himself and for his teammates. He also hit a post on the Blackhawks lone power play. While the offensive production hasn’t been there yet, he looks better and better every game.

• Jones is either still hurt, checked out, or both. Either way, he’s been awful since his return. He was on the ice for FOUR goals against, including Calgary’s shorthanded goal, which came as a direct result of his mistake. If Sorensen wants to send a message, he could sit Jones. I doubt he will, but it would be justified after this performance. He was basically benched for the third period, and finished the game with only 16 minutes of ice-time.

• Bedard seemed pretty dejected after the loss. “It’s been hard,” Bedard said. “It’s been a lot of games to lose. It weighs on you. Yeah, I mean, just trying to find a way of it, trying to get better every day. But it’s hard.” Some are concerned that the losses are going to crush his spirits. I am not among them. Bedard is a self-driven athlete who wants to be great. If anything, I feel these losses will drive him to work harder. Remember, this is a guy who has to be dragged off the ice so the Zamboni can clean the ice. That won’t change.

Nuggets and Timbits

• Bedard’s second-period power play goal was the 100th point of his NHL career.

• Bedard’s 100th point came in his 112th NHL game, tying him with Jeremy Roenick in Blackhawks history. Only Bill Mosienko (74), Denis Savard (90), Steve Larmer (94), Terry Ruskowski (103), Patrick Kane (104), Artemi Panarin (107), and Max Bentley (111) got to the mark faster than Bedard.

• This note from NHL Public Relations: Bedard (112 GP) became the 24th teenager in NHL history to collect 100 points and required the fewest games by a teenager to reach the mark since Sidney Crosby (80 GP in 2005-06). Wayne Gretzky was the fastest to ever do it, scoring his 100th point in his 61st game.

• On their five-minute power play, the Hawks only had four shots on goal. They scored a goal and allowed a goal.

• Wolf’s NHL career has started just as well as his AHL career ended. He’s been fantastic for Calgary (15-6-2, 2.50 GAA, .916 save percentage). All this after being drafted in the seventh round, 214th overall (fourth from last), of the 2019 draft.

• As pointed out by Troy Murray in the WGN intermission show, the Flames had 12 goals in their previous five games. They are not a high-powered team by any measure. In fact, entering this game, Calgary had scored one fewer goal (110) than the…wait for it…BLACKHAWKS (111).

• The Dach-Nazar-Reichel line skated together at 5v5 for 2:34. In that time, they had two shot attempts to Calgary’s four, but were on the ice for Crevier’s goal. The line was short lived, however, as Sorensen began mixing things up. The line of Dach-Bedard-Nazar was united for 4:52 of 5v5, but didn’t fare too well, either (5-10 in shot attempts). “They had some good moments there, offensively,” Sorensen said. “There was something there.”