PITTSBURGH — The Chicago Blackhawks used identical lineups in Sunday’s win against the Pittsburgh Penguins and in Tuesday’s rematch.
They even used the same group for the puck drop.
But the outcomes could’ve been more disparate with Tuesday’s 5-0 loss.
After beating the Pens 3-1 two days prior, the Hawks were shut out for just the second time this season — the other was on March 10 in a 3-0 road loss to the Avalanche.
“I don’t think they let me down, they let themselves and their teammates down, right?” interim head coach Anders Sörensen said. “That’s the biggest part of it. We’re a group here.
“The first period was good, but then we just came apart there. I can’t put my finger on right now, but, yeah, I’m part of it too.”
After the game, the Hawks held a players-only meeting before addressing reporters.
“I’d rather not say,” what was discussed, Connor Murphy said. “Within the room, guys talk. That’s our thing.”
There should’ve been plenty of material to rail about.
Where the Hawks were sharp and connected at the United Center, they were far less cohesive at PPG Paints Arena.
Passes were off-target, and turnovers were plentiful.
The Pens’ sticks disrupted several plays and Tristan Jarry stonewalled whatever attack the Hawks had left.
The Hawks had forced a stalemate late into the first period when Kevin Korchinski was called for hooking Matt Nieto, a questionable call at best.
The Penguins capitalized six seconds later — a Sidney Crosby wrister with 16 seconds left before the intermission.
It went downhill from there.
In the second period, the Hawks got in trouble when Teuvo Teräväinen made a soft breakout pass to Frank Nazar and Bryan Rust picked it off to keep it in the Hawks’ end.
Soon, Alex Vlasic found himself alone in a sort of Bermuda Triangle: Erik Karlsson to his back-door side, Crosby in the slot in front of him and Ville Koivunen to his left above the goal line, carrying the puck, ready to pick his poison.
Koivunen chose a cross-crease pass to Karlsson for an easy one-timer and his 200th career goal.
The Penguins broke open the game in the third, with Kris Letang charging in with a roof shot goal and Kevin Hayes padding the blowout with two more goals.
“We just didn’t play good,” Ryan Donato said. “There wasn’t a lot of good things tonight. I don’t know where you can begin.”
Here are four takeaways.
1. The Hawks had 32 giveaways — and it showed.
At least, that’s how many were credited.
There are games in which the stat sheets include a lot of harmless “giveaways,” even some intentional turnovers to get out of even more dangerous situations.
This game wasn’t one of them.
Some turnovers could be chalked up to youthful inexperience while others were just plain carelessness.
“Disconnected and forcing plays,” Murphy said, “and some of us D panicking and chopping the puck around. Or forwards forcing plays when we’re not keeping it simple enough and going forward with it.”
“You can’t do it,” Donato added. “It’s just simple. If you’re getting pinched in at the blue line, you chip it in.”
He said the players need to hold each other accountable.
Sörensen appeared more agitated when the subject of turnovers came up.
“That’s the disappointing part, right?” he said. “We were there (in the first period) and for it to come unglued like that in the second and third, it’s unacceptable.
“And a lot of it is like turnovers.”
It was night and day from Sunday.
“It’s mind-boggling it can be like that 48 hours later,” Sörensen said.
2. You might ask, “Why meet now?”
Why have a players-only meeting in April when the team is second-to-last in the standings (22-46-10) and there are five games left in the season?
“Just to address games that sometimes guys feel like need to be addressed,” Murphy said. “Sometimes it’s good to blow off some steam and not sit on it for days.”
And the younger players needed to see it and hear it.
They needed to know how they lost mattered, and that it’s unbefitting.
“Hopefully learn right from wrong,” Murphy said, referring to work ethic and details of winning hockey.
Donato said he doesn’t believe anyone was lulled into complacency by Sunday’s win, but “you just got to show up every night and give your ‘A’ effort every night. It’s too good of a league.
“You can’t get too comfortable. I don’t think that’s the case, we all just need to buy in and show up every night. Not just every so often.”
3. Sam Rinzel showed off some of his offensive repertoire.
Rinzel showed at Minnesota that he can pick a corner on his shots, but he put a little extra cheese on a first-period scoring chance Tuesday.
After taking a centering pass from Teuvo Teräväinen, Rinzel executed a drag-and-release shot in front of Rickard Rakell and Koivunen.
His predraft scouting report may have undersold that part of his game, but now he’s popped on the radar.
4. There are times to fault Korchinski, but …
… the hooking penalty wasn’t one of them. More on that in a second.
First, on Hayes’s second goal, Korchinski tried to take the inside position on a two-on-two, but Hayes slid back in front of him for a set-up pass from Danton Heinen.
That’s a tough task defensively, but something to chew on.
Now, that “hooking” on Nieto just looked like good defense. Where was the actual hook? Both players’ sticks were flying with neither tying up the other player.
But that quick whistle ended up being mighty costly for the Hawks.
Sörensen said he objected to the call, but it went nowhere (in fact, the Hawks haven’t gotten the benefit of the doubt much at all this season).
“They’re not going to come talk to you if you want to yell at him, but I did talk to him between periods,” he said.
