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There’s a tale of two games tonight: the game up until Connor Bedard left and the game after he left. Before he left, the Chicago Blackhawks were hanging on for dear life against the New Jersey Devils, but after leaving the ice and not returning to begin the second period, the heat was turned up. At the end of the night, the Blackhawks were not able to hold-off the Devils, dropping a 4-2 decision in New Jersey. The loss is the 14th-straight road game the Blackhawks have dropped.
Jason Dickinson got the scoring started with a power-play goal in the first period after Bedard had left the game. Dickinson continues his career-best year for goal-scoring with his 13th of the season and got the chance on the power-play with Bedard out. Chicago held the 1-0 lead into the second period, but the Devils would tie the game on a great tic-tac-toe passing play.
The second period also is where the game went off the rails as there were two scuffles and 14 penalties handed-out in the middle-frame alone. Notably, Nick Foligno fed a number of fists to Brendan Smith at center-ice, the player who caused Bedard to leave the game.
Right before the end of the period, with the Blackhawks on the penalty-kill, it’s Boris Katchouk who gives the Blackhawks the lead again and gives it to the New Jersey crowd following his third goal of the season. Taking a 2-1 lead into the third period of a game where you lost Connor Bedard felt like a victory, and as long as they could hold for the next 20 minutes, it would’ve actually been one.
But as was the theme of the night/week/season for the Blackhawks, the injury bug bit again as Nick Foligno wouldn’t play in the third period following his fight with Brendan Smith because of course. The Devils would go on to score back-to-back unanswered goals in the third period to take their first lead of the game and add an empty-net goal to complete the third period comeback for a 4-2 win over Chicago.
As hard as this season has been to watch, Connor Bedard has made it worth it. Michigan goals, OT winners, jaw-dropping highlights. He’s been worth the investment of time and the price of admission.
That’s why Chicago’s collective heart sank when Bedard left the ice after a big hit from Brendan Smith in the first period.
Bedard was weaving into the offensive zone, but didn’t see Smith lurking behind a pair of teammates. Smith stepped up and delivered a big, clean hit. Bedard popped up, but left the ice holding his jaw. Early in the second period, the Blackhawks officially announced he would not return to the game.
Bedard’s injury is the fourth of this horrific road trip for the Blackhawks, who had already lost Taylor Raddysh (12/29), Tyler Johnson (12/31), and Anthony Beauvillier (1/2).
Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be the last.
As the third period began, the Blackhawks announced that forward Nick Foligno would also not return to the game. His last shift came after his scrap with Smith.
After the game, Luke Richardson offered little in terms of an update, saying both players would be evaluated upon returning to Chicago. “We’re going to get everybody home and checked out at home to see if there’s anything further. Hopefully we’ll know more [Saturday].” Richardson continued on Bedard, “I think he obviously banged his head. I haven’t heard anything other than everybody’s coming home tonight…everybody’s fine to come home and we’ll just get them checked out at home. There’s not too much we can do here other than get them home and get them to our specialists to see if everything’s okay.”
When asked if Bedard was in the concussion protocol, Richardson said, “That’s where I thought he was at first. I didn’t know until I got in after the period that he probably wouldn’t return to the game. They didn’t say that he’s got a concussion, but we’ll just wait until we get home and checked out.”
So, recapping the current list of injured Blackhawks: Taylor Hall, Andreas Athanasiou, Seth Jones, Joey Anderson, Tyler Johnson, Taylor Raddysh, Anthony Beauvillier, Connor Bedard and Nick Foligno. If you’d like, you can throw the banished Corey Perry onto that pile of missing Hawks. I’ve been watching hockey religiously for 30+ years, and I can’t recall an injury streak like this. Yikes.
Lost in the shuffle of the Bedard injury and a very physical game, Söderblom had himself his second straight solid effort. He entered the night with just two wins (both against the Toronto Maple Leafs) with an unsatisfactory .874 save percentage (SV%) and 4.07 goals-against average (GAA). His poor performance has had many fans wondering why he’s still on the NHL roster at this point.
Söderblom had a much better effort in his last start, allowing just two goals to the Nashville Predators on 35 shots. He followed that up with a great effort against the talented Devils tonight, giving his comically shorthanded team a chance to win.
The Devils had 13 shots in the first period, but Söderblom stopped them. He did his best work against Jesper Brett, who he made two big saves against in the second period and another in the third. Of the three goals he allowed, the second one is the one you could criticize him for. He did not have a great angle, but it still took a terrific shot from a rookie defenseman to get inside the far post.
Söderblom has not played with a ton of confidence this season, but we’ve seen more in his last two starts. His rebound control and his vision through traffic has been much better. In his last two starts he’s given up goals and 66 shots for a .924 SV%, so we are seeing improvement. Let’s keep it rolling.
This was a game where the Blackhawks could have very easily turtled away and packed the bus early to head back home after a five-game road trip and playing on the second night of back-to-back games. But, they didn’t.
After losing Connor Bedard in the first period, the Blackhawks were out to answer for losing their meal-ticket player and not let the superiorly talented Devils team push them around. Whether it was Alex Vlasic and Ryan Donato or Nick Foligno and Jarred Tinordi, the response in physicality and on the scoreboard was something this Blackhawks team has been missing for most of the season.
On the CHGO Blackhawks pregame show for this game, we talked about the team needing something to rally around or use as fuel to “play for each other.” We didn’t mean losing Bedard to an injury, but as unfortunate as it is, it did become that point where the team rallied.
Hopefully that kind of mentality and effort-level can snowball for this Blackhawks team as it continues to try to assemble an NHL-caliber lineup while going through a massive amount of injuries. We don’t know how long Connor Bedard or Nick Foligno will be out, but even with them not missing long-term time, this is still a roster that is patch-work with NHL/AHL talent. Their effort and will power is going to have to lead the way.
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