5 thoughts on Blackhawks vs Jets, a surprise in goal, Bedard gets rocked and more
The Winnipeg Jets beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1, in overtime.
1. CHSN - It's the year of 2024 and people are still struggling to watch Blackhawk games. This is the first regular season hockey game that's solely on CHSN, as the first one against Utah was nationally televised on ESPN, and a lot of Hawk fans can't watch. CHSN is currently only on DirecTV and antenna, if you have an antenna or go out and buy one in the Chicago area. If you're out of the Chicago area, just tune into ESPN+, as CHSN is on that. So, it's easier to watch a Blackhawks game if you're outside of the Illinois area. Make it make sense.
2. A Nice First Goal - Chicago finally opened up the scoring when Ryan Donato sniped one from the left circle in the second period. Donato found himself behind the defense and on a one-on-one rush, where he shot it to the left side of Connor Hellebuyck and fit it perfectly in between him and the post. It was a beautiful goal that got the Blackhawks really started for the night, even though it was midway through the game.
3. Arvid Soderblom - Soderblom played the best game of his life last night. Soderblom finished the night saving 33 out of the 35 shots and having a .943 SV%. The skaters could actually count on Arvid in between the pipes as he was making sliding saves and sticking out the pad and glove like it was nothing. We didn't see any of the Soderblom we saw last year, it was just too bad they couldn't get the full two points for him.
4. Blew the Lead - Mark Scheifele killed the Blackhawks dreams, as he scored with a minute left to go when the Jets had an extra attacker. The Jets got a shot on net and Soderblom made the save, but the rebound was left outfront and Scheifele picked it up and threw it in. Seth Jones in particular looked lost, not knowing where the puck was as he was near the blue paint. Then, in overtime, Scheifele scored goal #300. Mark drove the puck up the board then did a drop pass to Kyle Connor. Connor then centered it to Scheifele, who then tapped it in for the win. At least this game was actually watchable.
5. Faceoffs and Breakouts - These two things go hand in hand. The Blackhawks went 37% of the faceoffs last night, going 22/60. If you lose the faceoff, it is ten times harder to break the puck out. But even if the Hawks won the faceoff, they still couldn't get the puck out of their own zone. Chicago tried chipping it up near the boards or just the blue line, but every time it would fail, and if they did get it out at all, a few of the times the puck trickled down the ice for an icing, but with the new rule, you can't change lines after an icing, so people got stuck out on the ice. They did themselves a major disservice and that was the reason they lost the game, as in overtime, Winnipeg had an offensive zone faceoff and scored off of it. The coaching staff needs to find something else that works, because this is unacceptable.
