Blackhawks vs Wild Game Recap, Breakdown and Highlights: Wild Win 4-1
RECAP:
The Blackhawks took the ice in Minnesota for a 4-1 road loss to the Wild.
It was a messy, but stable, first 10-minutes for both teams, but the Wild opened up the scoring on quick back-to-back goals by Marco Rossi and Frederick Gaudreau.
The Hawks were able to answer with a Jack Johnson sniper in the 2nd period. This was the Blackhawks' first goal in almost 2.5 games, ending a frustrating drought.
The Wild scored just under 3-minutes after the Johnson snapshot, and then again at the 14-minute mark of the 3rd period to secure the 4-1 victory in front of the home crowd.
BREAKDOWN:
This is a hard game to read because the Blackhawks actually played a decent game, but still fell victim to a 3-goal lead. The two biggest things that the loss can be pinned on are (1) costly mistakes and (2) powerplay struggles.
Most, if not all, of the goals came from defensive breakdowns. 2 of them consisted of turnovers in the D-Zone and 1 of them came from a 100 foot pass to set up a break away that created the rebound resulting in the score.
The Blackhawks are just not good enough to allow simple errors to happen and good teams, like the Wild, are going to capitalize on enough errors to win. It is just that simple.
It is not just the mistakes, as the Blackhawks went 0-6 on the powerplay in this one. You can tell they are trying to move the puck fluidly, but they just do not have the playmakers to have a solid powerplay, but it still needs to be better than what it is.
The Blackhawks are on an 0-16 powerplay streak, but luckily they are also on a 12-12 penalty kill streak. The penalty kill has been one of the solid bright spots in the last few games, as the Hawks have been absolutely locking teams down since their penalty kill struggles in the preseason opener. Outside of the penalty kill, the team just seems to have no chemistry at the moment, which makes sense considering all the new players that are on the roster.
Of the players that impressed in this one, make sure that you include Colton Dach on that list. He saw his first preseason action tonight and looked like a guy who could make his mark on the team this season.
He may start in Rockford, but he had a solid showing tonight. He did well with the puck and on defense, but also was constantly looking to make something happen on offense. He finished with a team-high 5 shots tonight, though he finished with no points. Something more impressive, though: Dach led the team with 3 hits on the night. The 196lb center was doing his best to disrupt the Wild's playmakers, and I am sure that this is something the front office likes to see. Especially considering that this was his first preseason action.
The Hawks are back in action for their preseason finale on Saturday afternoon in St Louis for a 2pm CT puck-drop.
| POLL | ||
Will the Blackhawks have more than 25 wins next season? | ||
| Yes | 30 | 25.2 % |
| No | 89 | 74.8 % |
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