NEWSLETTER
In a game that was supposed to be a return for Seth Jones to Columbus, it was a number of other Blackhawks defensemen that were the featured players tonight. After losing six-straight, Chicago has now won back-to-back games after topping the Blue Jackets tonight 4-2 They improved to 13-18-5 on the season, 12-9-3 under interim head coach Derek King, which is technically .500 if you just go by games won and lost.
The Blue Jackets got on the board first in the opening period, but their lead would only last about 30 seconds. Something this Blackhawks team can seemingly always do is respond to adversity. Down 1-0, Alex DeBrincat tied the game at 1-1 in the opening frame, scoring his 22nd goal of the season.
5th goal in his last 5 games for DeBrincat. He is on a 50-goal pace this season with 22 in 36 games. He is on pace for 13 assists, FWIW #Blackhawks #CHIvsCBJ pic.twitter.com/jeNC1uqXFU
— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) January 12, 2022
It would remain a 1-1 tie into the second period until Calvin de Haan got on the board with his first goal of the season. For the past five seasons, de Haan has scored exactly one goal in each season, so it was good to see that tonight’s tally didn’t get wasted. Also have to give credit to Philipp Kurashev with an impressive effort to win the loose-puck battle and setup the 2-1 goal.
Philipp Kurashev out-muscles Jake Bean and sets up Calvin de Haan for his 1st of the season#Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/iUiB248Oae
— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) January 12, 2022
With Jake McCabe and Seth Jones out, the Blackhawks were down their two highest goal-scoring defensemen with each of them having three goals this season. No problem tonight, though, as de Haan and Connor Murphy put the Blackhawks over the top. Murphy, who is from Dublin, Ohio, scored his third goal of the season in the third period to give the Blackhawks the 3-1 lead. It was the first multi-goal lead for the Blackhawks in their past seven games.
Ohio-native Connor Murphy scores his 3rd of the season to extend the #Blackhawks lead to 3-1#CHIvsCBJ pic.twitter.com/0raN5LPLL6
— Mario Tirabassi (@Mario_Tirabassi) January 12, 2022
The Blue Jackets made it interesting late with a short-handed goal, but DeBrincat scored an empty-netter to seal the 4-2 win with his 23rd goal this season in 36 games. He is on a 50-goal pace for the year.
Rookie defenseman Jakub Galvas made his NHL debut tonight for the Blackhawks and nearly led the team in ice-time. He played 23:41 minutes tonight, second on the team behind Connor Murphy, who played 23:45. Galvas was on the top powerplay unit for Chicago tonight as well, recording 6:53 minutes of powerplay time. According to Natural StatTrick, the Blackhawks had a 1.1 expected goals-for marker and a 57.5% Corsi-for advantage with Galvas on the ice tonight, the highest for all Chicago defensemen.
Marc-André Fleury made his fourth-straight start tonight and was solid in net, making 24 saves on 26 shots to improve his record to 11-11-2 this season. He has a 10-4-2 record since interim head coach Derek King took over on November 7.
The Blackhawks return home for a Thursday night contest against the Montréal Canadiens. It will be Andrew Shaw memorial night at the United Center as they take on the other NHL club Shaw played for in his career besides the Blackhawks.
Find the full box score here.
