After three days without a game, the Blackhawks returned to the United Center to host the Tampa Bay Lightning. Chicago entered the game looking for their first four-game point streak of the season, and they’d have to do it without the services of Seth Jones and Taylor Hall. Jones missed the game due to illness, while Hall was a late scratch to accommodate his trade to Carolina.

Game Summary

The game got off to a back-and-forth start, with both teams trading good looks and opportunities. 10:35 into the period, Colton Dach was tagged for hooking, and the Lighting were off to the power play. They’d strike quickly as Mitchell Chaffee buried a perfect pass from Nikita Kucherov.

1-0 Tampa Bay.

After a frustrating two-on-one with Lukas Reichel and Pat Maroon that led to precisely zero shots on goal, Dach tied the game after poking a loose puck past Jonas Johansson. It was Dach’s first career goal.

2:18 later, Frank Nazar would join the party, teeing up a pass from Connor Bedard for his second of the season.

2-1 Hawks after one period.

The second period started chaotically, as Arvid Söderblom could not gain control of the puck on a net-front scramble. Fortunately, Nolan Allan got in front of a Maxwell Crozier shot that was ticketed for the back of the Hawks’ net.

The Hawks would get their first power play of the game 2:55 into the period, after Darren Raddysh tripped Nick Foligno in the neutral zone.

Chicago would spend the next two minutes passing the puck around, but four seconds after the power play expired, Louis Crevier took it upon himself and blasted a point shot past Johansson.

3-1 Hawks.

In the following minutes, the Hawks would pepper Johansson and put the Lighting on their heels. Inevitably, Tampa took a penalty and sent Chicago to another power play.

The Hawks turned the puck over several times during the man advantage, while Tampa got the best scoring chance of the sequence when Anthony Cirelli hit the crossbar, then was denied by Söderblom moments later. It felt like the kind of failed power play that could shift momentum in the game, especially considering how relentlessly the Hawks had been playing up to then.

With 7.9 seconds left in the period, Tampa cut the Hawks lead to 3-2, when Nick Paul deflected a long backhand shot from Victor Hedman behind Söderblom.

In the third period, Tampa Bay threw everything they had at the Hawks. With 6:43 left, shots on goal were 13-1. Söderblom stood tall, but with 2:26 left in the game, Alec Martinez‘s stick blade got stuck in Brandon Hagel’s skate. It was as fluky a play as you’ll ever see, but it’s a penalty, and the Hawks would be shorthanded as time wound down.

I think you can predict what happened next. Jake Guentzel found space in the crease and poked in a Kucherov pass, and the game was tied with :42.8 seconds to go.

Martinez’s bad luck would continue. With :3.3 seconds left, his stick broke on a slap-shot attempt, which led to a potential Lightning breakaway. Teuvo Teräväinen was forced to take a penalty to prevent a two-on-none breakaway, and the Hawks would begin overtime with 1:57 to kill.

The period would end with a 17-1 Tampa Bay shot advantage.

By reaching overtime, the Hawks did indeed extend their point streak to four straight games, but could they get the elusive second point and the win?

Nope. Kucherov ripped home a one-timer, and the Lightning completed the comeback win.

Jay’s Final Thoughts

• This game was so familiar in so many ways, but we’re at the point of the season now where the performance of the young players is what matters, and they carried the team tonight. Nazar, Dach and Söderblom were outstanding. Crevier was the highest rated player IN THE GAME according to HockeyStatCards.com. Monday night vs Carolina, he was the game’s second-highest rated player and the best Blackhawk in the game.

• Speaking of young players, how about Ethan Del Mastro? He was aggressive shooting the puck and stood his ground defensively. He even showed confidence carrying a puck behind the Tampa net and calmly passing the puck to Dach, who had his stick lifted at the last second. I was impressed with his season debut, and I’d bet he’s in the lineup Sunday vs Minnesota. “He had poise with the puck,” Anders Sorensen said after the game. “He made some really clean exits. That was really encouraging. Even on the blue line, made some really good plays, and then also had an opportunity to dive in there. I thought he almost scored there in the second.”

• I didn’t love Bedard’s game tonight. He had an assist and six shot attempts, but man, I need him to be more aggressive offensively. Too many passes. Too much deferring. Bedard needs to realize the perfect shot isn’t going to present itself as often as it did in Junior hockey. He will.

• If we’re looking for silver linings, the Blackhawks played a much better second period than they had recently. They broke even in possession with 15 shot attempts for and against in the frame. Baby steps.

Nuggets and Timbits

• Seth Jones missed the game with what Sorensen called a “stomach bug.”

• The Blackhawks now have points in four consecutive games…a season-high.

• Kucherov now has 73 points on the season, including 50 assists. Bedard leads the Blackhawks with 42 total points. Kucherov is such a magnificent player.

• I’ll have more on the Hall trade in a later piece, but there’s something I want everyone to realize. There’s a lot of folks befuddled by the Hawks retaining salary on Rantanen and only getting a third-round pick back. I understand the initial reaction, but look deeper. The consensus was that a third-round pick would be the most likely return for Hall, and that the Hawks were likely going to have to retain half of Hall’s $6 million cap hit for any deal. So instead of retaining $3 million for a contender’s late third-rounder, they’re retaining Rantanen’s $4.625 million to get their own pick back, an early third-rounder, likely ~20 picks better than a contender’s pick. It should also be noted that if the Hawks had plans to offer sheet someone, like the Blues did last summer, they need their OWN picks to complete the offer sheet. By trading for their own pick back, they create that opportunity for themselves.

• In the trade, the Blackhawks also moved the rights to Nils Juntorp. In order to retain Rantanen’s salary, he had to be on the Blackhawks roster. The Juntorp transaction is how that piece got done. This via Pierre Lebrun.