NEWSLETTER
Last night was supposed to be a night of celebration for Patrick Kane (and the Blackhawks) on reaching 1,000 games. But that lasted about 1:40 of the game. The Blackhawks got off to a slow start and never recovered against the Dallas Stars last night, dropping a 6-1 game on the road. In their last five periods of hockey, the Blackhawks have been out-scored 12-2 by the Stars and Lightning. Kane’s 1,000th game, outside of the video tributes and pregame honors, was one to forget.
This one’s for you, 88.#1Kane #Teammates pic.twitter.com/kVx8O26LVd
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 10, 2021
• This is how you enter your 1,000th game in style!
Lucky 7.
Patrick Kane becomes the seventh player in franchise history to play 1,000 games in a #Blackhawks sweater.#1Kane pic.twitter.com/bybBcf2dmV
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 10, 2021
• Kane became the seventh player in franchise history to play 1,000 games with the Blackhawks. By season’s end, barring injury, Kane will surpass Bob Murray and Eric Nesterenko for fifth all-time.
Most Points Through First 1,000 #NHL Games Among Active Skaters:
Sidney Crosby – 1,278
Alex Ovechkin – 1,118
Evgeni Malkin – 1,094 (931 GP)
Patrick Kane – 1,060 (999 GP)
Joe Thornton – 1,004— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) March 9, 2021
• Kane didn’t record a point in his 1,000th game, but he came damn close.
https://twitter.com/NBCSBlackhawks/status/1369485463053103106?s=20
• Even though he was held off the scoresheet, Kane has registered at least one point in 67.2 percent of his NHL regular season games. In the playoffs, Kane has at least one point in 87 of 136 career games, or about 63.9 percent of the time. Including playoffs, Kane has played 1,136 total games for the Blackhawks with at least one point in 759 of them, or 66.8 percent of games.
Patrick Kane: 1,000 career games.
Games with 1 or more points: 672
Games with no points: 328#Blackhawks— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) March 10, 2021
• While the game sucked, the highlight of the night were the many videos sent in from around the Blackhawks and greater hockey world celebrating and congratulating Kane on reaching 1,000 games. None more special than the video coming from Blackhawks Captain Jonathan Toews. We haven’t seen Toews publicly since last summer and has been away from the team this season while he deals with an undisclosed illness. Toews looked and sounded great, congratulating his long-time teammate on reaching 1,000 games.
Chicago Blackhawks Captain Jonathan Toews sends his well wishes and congratulations to Patrick Kane on his 1,000th game tonight #Blackhawks #1Kane
(@NHLBlackhawks) pic.twitter.com/ajgK3LSFKa— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) March 10, 2021
• The game was an absolute stinker. Not the kind of effort we have been accustomed to seeing recently from this Blackhawks squad. If the three games against the Lightning showed that the Blackhawks were on their way to being able to compete with the big dogs, the loss on Tuesday night was a reminder that this is still the same team from the beginning of the season that was getting run out of the rink. It’ll happen with the amount of inexperienced and young players in the lineup consistently for Chicago.
Jeremy Colliton on 6-1 loss to Dallas: "They were good and we didn't have it tonight." #Blackhawks
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 10, 2021
• Thursday provides the Blackhawks an opportunity to get their heads right, without any distractions around them with Kane’s 1,000th game out of the way, and get back to the recent form we have seen from the team.
Murphy: "We're a good team when we're skating and we're on our toes and clean with the puck. We haven't been doing that [the last 2 games]."
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 10, 2021
• Calvin de Haan had one of the weirder postgame pressers I’ve seen in a while from a Blackhawks player. He had protein powder caught in his throat that caused his to cough and nearly choke on his words, he seemed almost dismissive that he and the Blackhawks had just played a terrible game, and at one point got tongue-tied in an answer and just said, “uh yeah, whatever.” It was weird.
Calvin de Haan has frequently said, "The sun's gonna rise tomorrow" after losses. It's not a perspective you usually hear from hockey players, but I like it. You can be pissed about a loss (and he seemed to be) and still realize it's one game, not the end of the world.
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) March 10, 2021
• Maybe this is an attitude the team can have when they know they can brush off a performance like they did on Tuesday, knowing they can be better. If they want to keep that, “tomorrow is another day” attitude, they’ll have to stop the bleeding quickly or face an uphill climb to stay in the playoff picture in the Central Division.
“We hung Subby out to dry with a lot of those plays.”– Connor Murphy on Malcolm Subban
— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) March 10, 2021
• Malcolm Subban didn’t have himself a great game last night, and neither did the defense in front of him. It seemed very likely after the 5-1 goal in the second period that he would be pulled in favor of Kevin Lankinen to perhaps spark the team. No move was made and Subban finished the game, giving up one more goal in the third period. Colliton has a track record of being hesitant to pull goalies, but it seemed like a reasonable time to make that kid of move in the moment.
Colliton on not pulling Subban: "As a rule, whether it's young players or goalies, you’d like to give them a chance to play out of it. But I don’t think Suby got much help tonight. It’s not like I have a flow chart I can give you for each decision."
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 10, 2021
• Not putting one bad game on Subban completely and writing him off, but with the performance last night and the fact that Lankinen has given up 20 goals over his last five starts is concerning. The Blackhawks are not where they are currently in this season without the elite level of goaltending they have had from the duo. It’s a leap to think Collin Delia will get into the mix again soon, but after he finished his conditioning stint with the Rockford IceHogs with back-to-back wins, and if the Subban/Lankinen rotation continues to trend in the wrong direction, it’s possible that Chicago could have their goaltending competition open up again at the wrong time of the year.
• A Happy Birthday to former Blackhawks forward Tyler Motte and to The Athletic beat reporter Scott Powers!
A double Happy Birthday for former #Blackhawks forward Tyler Motte and @TheAthleticCHI beat writer Scott Powers! pic.twitter.com/sTw3eAUAbz
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) March 10, 2021
• On Wednesday, ESPN and the NHL made a press release public, detailing the new seven-year TV deal they had reached. The details were laid out that ESPN/ABC would be getting back into the hockey business. A seven-year TV deal beginning next season will see ESPN.
Deal is official:
– 7-years
– exclusive coverage of the Stanley Cup Final on ABC in 4 of 7 years
– 25 regular-season games per year on ABC/ESPN
– NHLtv merges with ESPN+
– 75 regular season games per year stream on ESPN+& Hulu
– ESPN+ will stream more than 1000 games per year https://t.co/owfFKSVI0E— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) March 10, 2021
• Finally, after taking a leave of absence from the team in February, it appears that Artemi Panarin is back with the New York Rangers today.
Say it with us:
PRIVET, BREADMAN. pic.twitter.com/VANV62fn6r
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) March 10, 2021
• He had been away from the team, tending to allegations in Russia of an assault incident that happened in 2011. Over time, it was reported by multiple outlets familiar with the situation that the alleged incident likely never happened. Panarin has been outspoken against Russian President Vladimir Putin and it was suspected the allegations were politically driven against Panarin.
• Blackhawks are back in action tomorrow. Let’s have a good Wednesday, everyone!
