The Blackhawks earned their first win of the season Monday, beating the Mammoth 3-1, despite putting forth their sloppiest and least emotional effort so far.
Sometimes in hockey, that’s the way it goes. And after feeling robbed of positive results in the last two games, perhaps it represented cosmic justice for the Hawks.
“Today, even though we maybe didn’t have so much puck [possession] the whole time, our details on the defensive side were really good, and that’s something we’ve been working on,” forward Andre Burakovsky said.
Nick Foligno found a wide-open Burakovsky for the game-deciding power-play goal with 11:05 to play, and Ilya Mikheyev (two goals) and goalie Spencer Knight (22 saves on 23 shots) continued their strong individual starts to the year.
Coach Jeff Blashill earned his first victory as Hawks coach, too. He has earned heaps of praise from his players.
“I like him as a coach and a person,” Knight said. “I really appreciate his eye for details. [He’s] building a style that is sustainable over time — to win not just one hockey game in October, but…that can win continuously over the course of a season and hopefully into the postseason.”
The second period wasn’t pretty as the Hawks fell into a snowball effect of shifts stuck in their defensive zone, with poor ice conditions complicating attempts to exit the zone cleanly.
They tightened up in the third period, however, and didn’t let the Mammoth push too hard for an equalizer.
“We would love to create tons, but the recipe to win in this league on a consistent basis is to give up very few chances,” Blashill said. “We bent a little bit without breaking, and that’s something we’re going to have to continue to do.”
Stabilizing force
Hawks defenseman Alex Vlasic is having a tougher time on land than on ice right now as he recovers from his leg laceration.
“It’s honestly still pretty stiff and sore,” Vlasic said. “I don’t really know when it’s going to feel any better. I’m hoping it just magically goes away. But skating, I don’t really notice it too much. It’s just walking that’s the biggest annoyance.”
At least Vlasic is lucky he’s a hockey player, not a marathoner, because the Hawks have needed the stability he provides over their last three games.
Although Blashill has tried his best to spread the work around his inexperienced defensive corps — dressing seven defensemen again Monday to help with that — there’s no doubt he relies on Vlasic, who’s relatively experienced even as a 24-year-old.
“I know [Alex is] not old, but in our ‘D’ corps, he is,” Blashill said recently. “And he also plays a very mature game. There’s not a lot of peaks and valleys in his game. That is definitely a steadying presence.”
Breakthrough coming?
The onslaught of penalties in the Hawks-Canadiens game Saturday limited Lukas Reichel to a mere 6:41 of ice time, which Blashill acknowledged wasn’t enough time to fairly judge him.
But Blashill still made Reichel a healthy scratch again Monday, costing the German forward an opportunity to face Mammoth forward JJ Peterka, his childhood friend and summer training partner.
Reichel and Peterka did get dinner together Sunday night, during which Peterka advised Reichel that “hard work pays off at the end every time, even if it takes longer sometimes.” Peterka then scored the Mammoth’s lone goal Monday.
“[With his] skill and speed, how much stuff he can make happen is pretty special,” Peterka said. “I’m obviously rooting for him. I think he’ll make his way at some point, because with so much skill, it’s almost impossible to not break through.”
Notes
Hawks forward Jason Dickinson returned to the lineup ahead of schedule Monday after missing just one game due to an upper-body injury. His line with Mikheyev and Ryan Donato was clearly the team’s sharpest.
Hawks chairman Danny Wirtz said construction on the first phase of the “Project 1901” United Center-area redevelopment plan is on track to begin in early 2026, starting with a music hall.