The Chicago Blackhawks have a knack for making one-goal losses look completely lopsided. Tonight against the Utah Hockey Club was no different. A 2-1 loss to a team fighting for a playoff spot in late-February wouldn’t be much to get upset about for a 31st-place Blackhawks club, but the underlying stats and how this entire season has transpired has led to utter dismay from the fanbase and from the CHGO crew, as was the vibe of the postgame show following the road loss.
Seth Jones scored the lone Blackhawks goal in the 2-1 loss to Utah, his first goal since “requesting a trade” about a week ago. He was also the most honest in his postgame quotes about where the Blackhawks are at this point in the season where things have not gone according to plan. Tuesday night’s loss in Salt Lake City looked to be a microcosm of those short-comings.
“We’re refusing to play simple,” Jones said following the game. “We’re the exact same team right now as we were game one. It’s pretty evident out there. We haven’t made any strides to be a better, more simple hockey team, and it shows. We don’t get a lot of wins because of that.”
It was a glaring problem in the loss to Utah and followed a similar theme to many of the Blackhawks losses this season where turnovers and not making the smart plays led to Chicago getting caved-in in their own defensive zone for long stretches of the game.
At 5v5, Chicago was out-chanced 69-19, out-shot 26-12, and the high-danger chances favored Utah at a 40-5 advantage. Including the numbers at all strengths, which were inflated by Utah’s five power-play opportunities, the Blackhawks were out-chanced 93-39 and scoring chances were 52-16 against Chicago.
One could live with losses coming in games where it’s the talent-gap that ultimately leads to the Blackhawks coming up short, since that is still how this team is matched-up in the NHL man-for-man against most other teams. But when losses come from lack of execution, or rather a refusal of execution from Jones’ words, that is what makes those that care about this organization, that live and breathe Blackhawks hockey, so incredibly frustrated.
Chicago deserves teams that will play with heart, no matter their talent levels. It appears this Blackhawks team, headed for their third-straight bottom-three finish in the league, has lost their heart to play for anything in the final stretch of the season. Whether it’s for themselves, their NHL livelihoods, the fans, or for each other, they need to figure out real fast what they are going to play for over these final 24 games of the season.
