SEATTLE — After leading off the week with an overtime win, the Chicago Blackhawks had three off days from the schedule.
And then they had an off night.
The Seattle Kraken stunted the Hawks’ already limited offense and pressured them defensively on breakouts to win 3-1 at Climate Pledge Arena Thursday.
“It’s disappointing,” captain Nick Foligno said. “We talked about it, they start fast here, too, we just didn’t have an answer for that.”
For much of the game, the Kraken forced the Hawks to settle for dump-ins, which goalie Joey Daccord easily controlled. Seattle outshot the Hawks 29-16, including a 10-3 edge in the first period.
“We had a lack of execution on hitting the net,” coach Luke Richardson said. “We had three good line rushes in the first where we missed the net by big margins, which doesn’t show up on the shot (chart), and it frustrates the team because it basically breaks out the other way.”
This game was another chance for the Hawks to settle an old score. The Hawks scuttled a 12-game winless streak against the Minnesota Wild dating back to Feb. 4, 2020, with a 2-1 overtime win Sunday. But Thursday, the Kraken continued their hot streak against the Hawks, winning for the third consecutive time and improving to 5-1-0 against them at home.
Offensively, the Hawks struggled to get on track. They had chances in the first period but couldn’t generate much on net.
Defensively, for at least one play, they were victims of a bad decision followed by some bad puck luck.
Alec Martinez, who returned from a groin injury after missing 12 games, missed on a pinch in the neutral zone — and a Kraken rush was on. Caught in a two-on-one, Seth Jones deflected Jaren McCann’s pass to Matty Beniers. Teuvo Teräväinen went into a slide with the same idea – to break up the pass – but the puck bounced off his stick to Beniers and actually redirected what had been an off-target pass by McCann. Beniers then had no trouble one-timing it past Petr Mrázek.
Late in the second, an interference penalty by Jones 20 seconds before intermission ended up costing the Hawks. Not only did it negate a Hawks power play, but it put the Kraken on their power play once the four-on-four expired in the third.
Chandler Stephenson moved along the boards and drew Hawks defenseman Wyatt Kaiser’s attention. Jaden Schwartz moved into the slot behind Kaiser, who was helpless to stop Stephenson’s pass to Schwartz to set up a power play.
The Hawks finally got on track in the third.
Ryan Donato answered 1 minute, 48 seconds later with an unassisted goal, his team-high 8th on the season.
Despite outshooting the Kraken 10-6, the Hawks couldn’t produce the equalizer – but they did create another chance for the Kraken.
After Jones disrupted a Kraken attempt at an empty net, Jones’ breakout pass off the wall bounced a little high to Connor Bedard, who mishandled it. Brandon Tanev swooped in for the empty-netter.
Richardson said, “I don’t think we came back and supported. Seth was by himself and maybe he could have made a better play up the wall. Unfortunately, it might have hit Connor’s shin pads and went ahead, and it just went right to them.”
The Hawks are second in the NHL with seven empty-net goals allowed, trailing only the Colorado Avalanche’s nine.
In the end, it was another loss in which the Hawks were within shouting distance.
“We were hanging around, hanging around, the game was almost waiting for us to take it over and we just didn’t,” Foligno said.
Richardson added that after two practices and an off day, “It’s up to us to come out harder and play harder than we did tonight. I think the 50-50 battles, they were more hungry than we were.”
The Hawks were held to a single regulation goal for a fourth straight game.
“We’ve got to get on the inside more. It’s desperation at the end of the day,” Foligno said. “Dono’s goal is a great result of that, just wanting it, wanting to score, wanting to get in the hard areas, wanting to make a difference, wanting to be around the net and pay a price. We just don’t have enough guys wanting to do that.”
Meanwhile, Richardson said Martinez looked “good” after the defenseman played first game since Oct. 15 in Calgary.
“He was trying to shoot the puck a lot,” he said. “He had a couple good opportunities in the third. And he’s just a strong player, he makes strong plays and is physical back there. So he looked fine.”
Here are six takeaways from the loss.
1. Connor Bedard’s goal drought extended to eight games.
It’s not for a lack of trying. He missed his first three shot attempts — with one first-period try going just above the crossbar — and didn’t land a shot on goal until a six-on-five in the third period.
The Hawks tried at least six line combinations with Bedard in five-on-five.
“We’ve all been there before,” Donato said. “It’s funny, sometimes it’s going to be a lucky one where it bounces off your shinpad or skate — you’re just around the net and it hits you and goes in. I know he’s probably feeling it a little bit and wants to score, but I know he can definitely turn it the other way and get just as hot.”
With Bedard playing his first game in hometown of Vancouver on Saturday, the spotlight will only intensify.
“Hopefully it’s the best time to bring a little bit extra juice in his game,” Richardson said.
2. The Hawks were long shots – literally.
For their first six shots, the closest came from Donato’s second-period wrister from 41 feet. Teräväinen finally ripped one from the “short” distance of 25 feet late in the second. Wyatt Kaiser followed up from 65 feet and Alex Vlasic shot from 52 feet from the high slot.
Six of their nine shots were from blueliners, so that at least partially explains it.
“When you play a three-quarter-ice game against them — we weren’t getting pucks in, advancing it, we weren’t putting (pucks) in good areas,” Foligno said. “Every time we dumped it, it was to the goalie. When you do that, you don’t give yourself a chance to really forecheck, to really make a difference.”
Foligno added that when the Hawks did have closer looks in the first and second, they were rushes off Kraken mistakes.
“It wasn’t until the third period where we really started to generate our own game and our own chances off of that,” he said. “It’s just a stubbornness sometimes. The cross-ice stuff or the three-quarter-ice game, because we’re turning it over, is killing us.”
3. Ryan Donato is on pace for 43 goals this season.
Well, 42.7 goals to be exact. He’s scoring about half a goal per game and leads the team with eight, though he’s played in 15 of the Hawks’ 17 games.
Donato seized on a turnover by Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson and scored off his own rebound against his old team.
“Just trying to get the puck to the net,” Donato said. “We were talking on the bench: we just weren’t getting enough shots.
“Sometimes the distance shot isn’t the best play, trying to shoot it through guys’ feet. Just try to get it on net, try to create some sort of action. The rebound popped out and I just tried to get it to the net again.”
“Just desperation,” Richardson said about the goal. “He’s the only guy that’s really shooting the puck with desperation and not really letting that opportunity go by, and it’s showing in the stats and in his play. We all have to take a page out of that book.”
4. The Hawks have gotten too ‘cute’ with their shots.
Entering Thursday’s game, the Hawks ranked 27th in the league with 27.3 shots per game – just a shot per game better than last season’s 26.3 that ranked second to last.
“We get very cute with the puck in O-zone,” Jones said pregame. “Sometimes we want to be Globetrotters in there. We make five passes that are pretty, but then there’s no action in front of the net. Then we shoot one puck, and then they break it out.”
Jones said the team needs to be more assertive, shooting north-south to let the net-front players either score off the rebound or retrieve pucks to keep the offense going.
“Then it becomes easier,” Jones said. “(Opponents) get tired, then you can start rolling around and making things happen.”
But sometimes you can create more chances from chaos.
Richardson said he drills in practice that “it’s a quick attack, quick strike, so guys can figure out on the fly — and it happens quick — whether it’s a shot situation or there’s a play open.” He said players get away from it because they’ve been drilled at skills camps to make plays for teammates; it’s part of the culture.
However, “there is the odd guy that’s a shooter: You don’t have to tell Craig (Smith) to shoot a puck. You don’t have to tell Dono (Donato) to shoot a puck twice,” Richardson said.
“That’s a good mentality because usually when that shot is taken away, they’ll make the play. It’s when you’re waiting for the play to open up, that’s when your space and time closes in on you and you get neither, and you’re usually chasing back and it’s frustrating.”
5. Seth Jones has been fading from the offense.
In the first eight games, Jones produced a goal and six assists on 24 shots. In the next eight games, he put up a goal in two assists, but on just 11 shots.
The Hawks defenseman said before the game, “I was shooting the puck a lot that first trip. I think it’s just a tiny bit (down), but it depends a lot on our O-zone time.”
And staying solid on defense.
“Then when offensive chances continue to come, be (I’ll) aggressive when I can.”
6. If it’s working, why change it?
As odd a grouping as Lukas Reichel, Patrick Maroon and Craig Smith were, the fourth line worked. Especially for Reichel — that’s where he has most looked like a natural playmaker.
But then during the Detroit Red Wings earlier this month, the Hawks moved Reichel to Bedard’s line. Since then, he has teamed up with Bedard and Taylor Hall (against the Stars) and Bedard and Foligno.
It was laughably predictable that soon after Reichel finally settled into a comfort zone, coaches would change his line again.
At least he played mostly with Maroon and Smith against the Kraken, though he put in some minutes with Maroon and Tyler Bertuzzi. But Reichel sees a bigger picture.
If the line is working and they play really good, you don’t have to switch the lineups,” he said. “But it’s more like you want four lines to be good and not just one. And when one line is not clicking, you have to (pull) someone out from another line.”
