NEWSLETTER
The Blackhawks came out strong, but Detroit flipped the script in the second period and the Hawks were never able to recover.
Alex Stalock is going to be an adventure of an experience this season. Stalock made a ton of saves tonight, and he worked his tail off in the second period when the Red Wings poured 17 shots on net while it felt like the Blackhawks played three-quarters of the period skating backward in their defensive zone.
There were some very nice saves like this:
There was also a handful of times (on the generous side) where Stalock made very aggressive decisions to abandon the crease to play a puck.
I also couldn’t help but feel like Stalock flailed around a ton, and while he made the bulk of the saves, they just felt and looked very uncomfortable.
Overall, Stalock wasn’t terrible. Still, the rust definitely showed, and Luke Richardson’s comments on the importance of Stalock and Mrazek getting plenty of work the rest of the preseason rang loudly tonight.
Lukas Reichel has a solid first period, nearly getting the Blackhawks on the board with this golden look that Red Wings netminder Alex Nedeljkovic denied. Despite not getting into the scoring column tonight, Reichel played a nice game, and whether he ends up breaking camp with the Blackhawks or not, he’s clearly a better player now than he was six months ago when he was getting his first taste of NHL action.
The penalty kill look strong again tonight, with the Blackhawks killing off 4 of 4 penalties. Josiah Slavin, Alex Regula, and Isaak Phillips all looked solid on the penalty kill tonight.
Jack Johnson was one of the more noticeable players on the ice tonight, logging a team-high in ice time and delivering some big hits, especially early when the Blackhawks were still buzzing around as a unit.
Johnson’s the elder statesman on the Blackhawks blue line, and he did an excellent job leading a young group with him tonight, especially his partner most of the night, Alec Regula, who had another good performance.
The Blackhawks looked strong in the first period. They dominated the Red Wings in about every phase, and they had the United Center crowd (a bigger one than I expected) buzzing. Then … it was gone. The Blackhawks looked like a completely different team in the second period.
Detroit out-shot the Blackhawks 19-7 in the second period, and before a Hawks power play with under four minutes to play in period two, the Red Wings owned a 17-1 advantage in shots on goal. It felt like the Blackhawks played the entire second period in their zone, and it carried over into the third period, where Detroit would break the stalemate on the scoreboard.
Luke Richardson has preached the heck out of “playing a full 60” in camp the last week-plus, and his hockey team will need to hear it a few more times because they didn’t do it tonight.
