Happy New Year.
The Blackhawks hadn’t played in 13 days before today. It showed. Chicago allowed a goal 62 seconds into the first period, 28 seconds into the second period, and 53 seconds into the third period, and others in-between those two, leading to a 6-1 final score. I hope you chose to spend your New Year’s Day afternoon wisely.
I won’t waste much more of your time that the Blackhawks already did with their performance today. They controlled so much of the puck on their four powerplay opportunities, but came up without a goal on the man-advantage today. Nashville, on the other hand, scored two powerplay goals on their three opportunities. Juuse Saros stonewalled the Blackhawks, making 37-of-38 saves.
After losing both Marc-André Fleury and Kevin Lankinen to COVID protocols in the past week, both Collin Delia and Arvid Söderblom were recalled to Chicago from the Rockford IceHogs. Both of them got into the game today with Delia starting and Söderblom replacing him after the first period. Delia made four saves on seven shots in his one period of action. Söderblom stopped 13-of-16 shots in his NHL debut. It’s not that every goal was the fault of the goaltending, but the defensive breakdowns and the effectiveness of the Predators using screens and making the most of their limited scoring chances led to a game that was just painful to watch.
Philipp Kurashev scored his second goal of the season in the second period, but that was the only bright spot of the game.
Blackhawks are back at it tomorrow, hosting the Calgary Flames at 6:00 p.m. CT.
Find the full box score here.