RECAP: Blackhawks drop 5th straight preseason game to Wild and it's concerning
The Minnesota Wild beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 6-1.
1. It's Time to Panic - The alarm has been sounded. It's time to worry. This team is lifeless. They don't shoot. Don't battle. Defense is asleep. The center ice goal in the first period. The Blackhawks have yet to win a game this preseason. They had a 2-0 lead against the St Louis Blues last week going into the third period, but lost it and lost in overtime. They got blown out on Monday 7-2 to Minnesota, and now 6-1 last night. It's unacceptable. To those of you who can't watch because of CHSN not being accessible on all programs, it's probably for the best. The team got more assets over the offseason. It shouldn't be this bad, in fact, last year's preseason was better. Is the first overall pick in question?
2. It's only preseason» - Sure, it's preseason. But these are the starters. Mrazek letting in six isn't what you want to see. The power play going 0-for-4 isn't what you want to see. This is the crew for 2024. The Blackhawks lost to the Wild 13-3 in the two meetings this week. When does that excuse end? They're 0-4-1. You need results, especially since you upgraded the team, and you aren't getting them. Things need to change in all aspects, and where it begins, no one knows.
3. Petr Mrazek's Mess Up - Petr Mrazek had a huge blunder tonight. In the first period a few seconds after a Wild goal, a shot from center ice somehow slipped by and went into the net. Nobody really knows what happened, but whatever it was, it had Mrazek fooled. Mrazek let in six goals tonight. Hopefully it's just him brushing off the offseason dust, as he hasn't been in between the pipes all preseason.
4. The Second Period - The second period was decent, especially the first three minutes of it. They weren't letting up and drew a power play, which looked fairly good. However, in the middle of the second, they went into some sort of trance and didn't shoot the puck. It just looked ugly. Even though the middle stage was ugly, near the end, Chicago woke back up and found the back of the net when Seth Jones received a pass from Connor Bedard, drove the puck to the net, and got a lucky bounce off the stick of Marc-Andre Fleury and it went in. But then the Blackhawks went on the penalty kill and Mats Zuccarrelo scored on the Minnesota power play within seconds.
5. A Lack of Adjustments - Whatever you want to call what the Blackhawks are doing, it's not working. These line combinations aren't helping out a single player on the team, as players who did well last year aren't performing at all with the new combos. But the coaching staff isn't doing anything about it. Richardson is just letting it roll, hoping the click that'll never happen comes. Richardson hasn't impressed all too much this preseason, and when does the backlash on the coaching staff begin?
