The Chicago Blackhawks were looking for some early-season momentum on Thursday night. They hit the road to take on former captain Jonathan Toews and the Winnipeg Jets for a Halloween-eve showdown. Unfortunately, the game did not go well for the hosts.
Kyle Connor, Gabe Vilardi, and Mark Scheifele each scored three points in this game. Vilardi scored twice while Connor and Scheifele provided a goal each. In the end, these efforts helped Winnipeg win 6-3 and improve to 8-3-0 on the season.
The Blackhawks, meanwhile, fell to 5-4-2 on the year. It certainly was not their best effort of the season. They were unable to get anything going against the reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners on the road.
Chicago didn’t exactly play horribly, though. They had a decent enough performance, and they feel they could have won on a different night. For now, they are tipping their cap to the Jets and are willing to learn from this performance.
“I give Winnipeg credit,” Blackhawks forward Andrei Burakovsky said, via NHL.com. “They’re a good team; they played a [heck] of a game. For us, we made some mistakes that cost us. If we can eliminate those, it will be a different game. It’s a learning process for our group. It’s something we will look over tomorrow and correct and just do better next game.”
Blackhawks Coach Laments ‘Weird’ Jets Loss
Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesThe Chicago Blackhawks could not defeat the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
The Blackhawks were outplayed in totality by the Jets on Thursday. Winnipeg controlled faceoff percentage, shots, hits, and shot blocks. In most areas of the game, it was the hosts who had an advantage, which is usually a winning formula in the NHL.
However, the Blackhawks still had their chances. They got pucks on goal, they had some clear looks, and they made some solid plays. There was enough there that a couple of changes in the game may have tipped the result.
Of course, that’s not how games work. But the effort Chicago put in, while not their best, did not go unnoticed. Head coach Jeff Blashill mentioned that the ups and downs for Chicago may have thrown them off their game.
“It was kind of a weird game,” Blashill said, via NHL.com. “There were moments in the game I thought we played really well, and then we made some big mistakes and those big mistakes ended up in our net.”
Blashill Praises Chicago’s Fight In Winnipeg Loss
One thing Blashill liked from this game was his team’s willingness to fight. They faced some adversity, being down three goals in the third period. It’s not a situation they’ve been in, and Chicago’s bench boss wanted to see how they would respond.
“That was one of the things I was interested to see in terms of the character of our group — were we gonna lay down or were we gonna come out and play? And I thought we did a good job of that. Against this team, it’s hard to come back from that. We certainly made a fight for it,” Blashill said, via NHL.com.
The Blackhawks are a young team with a ton of potential. There are positives to take away, and they should be able to move on from this defeat. Chicago is back in action on Saturday night when it continues their road trip against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.
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