The Blackhawks modified all the pieces they might Saturday: ahead strains, defensive pairings, goaltender.
Yet they nonetheless squandered an brisk begin, nonetheless spent too lengthy on the ice every shift, nonetheless dedicated a brutal defensive breakdown at an important time, and nonetheless completed the night time winless on the season after a 3-2 time beyond regulation loss to the Jets.
“As a group, we have to have that character to close out games and step on their throat when they’re down,” Brandon Saad mentioned afterwards.
Clearly, via three video games — every painful defeats in their very own methods — the Hawks don’t have that but.
Leading 2-Zero after the primary interval and 2-1 midway via the third, the Hawks had been in promising place to beat one other lackluster second interval.
Then Calvin de Haan and Jonathan Toews each concurrently vacated the web mouth in entrance of Robin Lehner and left Winnipeg’s Andrew Copp huge open on the again submit for the tying purpose.
It was merely tutorial from there: the Hawks, clearly dropping steam because the night time wore on, managed to outlive a late Jets energy play and earn the time beyond regulation level, however couldn’t final even a minute of the 3-on-Three session.
“We’ve got to clean up the details — that’s what it comes down to in close games,” mentioned Lehner, who made 30 saves in his Hawks debut. “We’ve just got to tighten it up, pull [out] a 2-1 win.”
The new, unusual strains and pairs Jeremy Colliton debuted at follow Friday did little to jumpstart the crew’s stars. At 5-on-5, the Hawks had been out-chanced 21-17 and didn’t rating as soon as — their objectives got here solely shorthanded (Saad) and on the ability play (Brent Seabrook).
Toews, who admitted after Saturday’s morning skate that “there’s a lot I can do better,” remained mired in an uncharacteristic season-opening stoop.
Patrick Kane by no means fairly gelled with Dylan Strome and Andrew Shaw, both.
Even the Dominik Kubalik-David Kampf-Saad line misplaced its luster, hammered to the tune of a sub-30 p.c Corsi ranking.
“The minute we turn it over, [the Jets] have a ton of skill over there and they’re going to make plays,” Saad mentioned. “They had a lot more zone time, and it’s a lot harder to play defensive zone coverage than try to get on the offense. For us, it’s just making simple plays.”
Many of the breakdowns that marred the Hawks’ first two losses returned to the United Center simply as shortly as Carl Dahlstrom did (the previous Hawks defenseman, claimed off waivers lower than two weeks in the past, recorded an help and 56 p.c Corsi price in 16:36 of ice time for the Jets).
The Hawks averaged 51.2 seconds per shift, two seconds longer than their already-lofty common from the primary two video games, regardless of claiming that shorter shifts could be a precedence.
They had been charged with 18 giveaways, greater than in both of the primary two video games, regardless that turnovers killed them these nights too.
And the second interval was actually abysmal. Hemmed in by the lengthy change, the Jets generated eight scoring possibilities to the Hawks’ two within the center body, marching again into the sport. The Hawks have now been out-chanced 35-10 and out-scored 5-Three of their three second durations so far.
“The best teams, they dominate the second period, and so it’s a point of emphasis for us,” Colliton mentioned. “We’d like to control the tempo of the game and control the territory. … That’s where you show how good you are, so we’re not close to where we want to be in that area.”
Or actually in any space, the Hawks proved Saturday.