Blackhawks Shutout In Toews’ 1,000th Game
I would love to tell you that Jonathan Toews was the knight on the white horse, riding to the rescue in his 1,000th career regular season game against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.
I would love to tell you that Collin Delia distinguished himself against a really good offensive team. That the defensive group — once again without Alex Vlasic because Erik Gustafsson continues getting ice time for some reason — was able to kinda sorta contain the offensive firepower of the Panthers.
I would love to tell you that the Blackhawks had any secondary scoring whatsoever. That they had any chance in hell of playing with the Panthers.
I can’t.
Sorry.
Aleksander Barkov scored the first and fourth goals of the night for Florida. Ryan Lomberg and our old friend Gustav Forsling scored in the second period. Sergei Bobrovsky was solid, stopping all 37 shots he faced.
Delia stopped 40 of 44. He didn’t have much of a chance, but he didn’t help himself. A fifth goal was taken off the board in the first period because it was kicked into the net.
After the game, Derek King talked about how his fourth line had some sandpaper to them. Yet Reese Johnson (who won six of seven at the dot) got only 14 shifts and 8:52 on the ice. Mackenzie Entwistle got 13 shifts and 8:16. And Boris Katchouk got 15 shifts and 9:41.
If you liked what you saw from them… and you’re the head coach… maybe give them more ice time?
Toews won 12 of a team-high 19 faceoffs and put four shots on net. Patrick Kane was credited with seven shots on net.
Oh, Barkov won 12 of 15 faceoffs with his two goals on the night.
What we painfully witnessed on Thursday night was a reality check. The Florida Panthers are an elite team right now — one of the best in the NHL. They might be the best. And the Chicago Blackhawks are just about the polar opposite.
The Blackhawks now have… less than 24 hours before they face Brandon Hagel and the Lightning on the other side of Florida.
Tab, I’ll disagree with you a bit on this one. The Blackhawks were the inferior team, but Bob made some crazy saves and I thought the team played hard until the end. I thought Toews looked fairly strong out there and was around the net a lot. The Blackhawks did have some good chances but Bob played a really solid game. I didn’t think the Blackhawks looked “that” bad, even though the score does reflect that these teams are certainly in different categories.
Boy, Kirby just continues to be an acrobat that doesn’t hit his landings. Airborne, with arms and legs flailing in the air once more. He’s gonna get killed being plastered around the ice like that. He’s kind of like Gumby out there. I’m surprised he hasn’t been in concussion protocol the way he’s getting rag dolled around.
I’m hoping the team plays these last games hard to finish the season. Give Davidson plenty to think about prior to the numerous moves he’ll have to consider in the off season.
kd holds the gm position and it is a position above head coach on the flow chart. he has it within his powers to call king on the carpet and demand that he sit gus and give additional toi to fourth liners and any other player. so why isn’t this happening?
I just remember 1992 when they went to the final and they had a good club and a few years later they were all done ! 2022 sort of reminds me of these times ! The dynasty is all over ! Get over it and rebuild ! It takes some draft choices ,clever moves and rolling the dice ! Sometimes a young player that’s drafted 140 th works out and doesn’t mature until his 4th year playing with the Hogs . You don’t know what’s in store down the road ! Some players buy into the system and he loves the atmosphere in Chicago and everything works out ! That’s the way it goes with hockey players ! They are a tough breed playing that 82 game schedule ! Pops 4
Very predictable type of game. God,the Panthers,Bolts,and Canes must be giddy when they see an upcoming game against the soft Charmin Hawks. No pushback whatsoever. Ice time should have been given to Reese Johnson,s line and D Men that may be here next season. I respect and acknowledge the 1000 game milestone but 0 Goals,0 Assists ,0 Hits and 0 Blocked Shots doesn’t constitute a strong night for a top line Center. Off to see the Bolts !
I don’t remember who compared the skating form of Dach and Hagel a couple months ago, but I was literally thinking about it and 77’s standing-straight approach about a second before he went ass over tits
I don’t know what the scoresheet looked like hit-wise, but it did feel like the Hawks were finishing a few more checks than usual to stop puck carriers’ advance … of course there were usually two more Panthers still speeding by
I didn’t really expect the Blackahawks to win the game. I figured Florida for 4 goals. So…I wasn’t surprised at all. Was I surprised that HC King is still playing Gustafsson? Nope. His bizarre reasoning is that he is respecting the veterans. Okay. So…you don’t want to be a NHL HC. Because that’s just dumb. Vlasic should be out there getting real time experience against the top tier teams.
Was I surprised that Dach won 2 out of 3 Faceoffs? YES!!! YES I WAS!!! The rest of his game was the usual nothing. He did take a Grade A hip check and flew through the air. Borgstrom is showing nothing…AGAIN!!! The 4th line barely saw any ice time. How about Toews centering Katchouk and Entwistle? Lafferty would be a stabilizing force on the 4th line.
Tampa Bay is up next and I hope that Hagel scores against his old team. However, I also hope that Raddysh scores and a bonus would be Katchouk.
Let’s finish on a good note. Raddysh continues to impress. I would not object to reuniting Strome and DeBrincat with Raddysh. Although, Raddysh is playing well with Toews. Maybe Kubalik on the LW and that 3rd line of Katchouk, Dach, and Entwistle. It would be a big line. Productive? What does it hurt to find out? Next game.
Like others this is the game I expected – Hawks didn’t look as bad as they did blowing a 4 goal lead to Buffalo but FLA never broke a sweat either
Like I have said previously if the mission next year is to suck bad to get a high draft pick then resign Lank and Delia
Count me among those who say WTF regarding Gus – really WTF?! I get that you have to play McCabe because he’s got a longer term contract but not Gus
What’s King respecting by playing Gus – his uncanny ability to constantly turn the puck over and lose his defensive assignment- granted no one does it better although there are nights when McCabe comes close
Vlasic hasn’t had any chance even to show he’s not ready – I don’t mind keeping the young D in RKF but Vlasic is here and presumably will be until Murphy is ready so give him some games
I’m tired of Borgstrom – he’s bad at both ends of the ice and brings no physicality
He’s an anchor on Dach’s line
Raddysh looked good
Delia had a good game stopping 40 shots and had one bad goal so nothing he can do for the rest .
Hard to win when you can’t score .
Maybe tomorrow against another top team .
That Florida team has porous defense – even with Ekblad. They aren’t even close to the best team. They will get slaughtered by the real good teams in the playoffs. Carolina, TB, to name a couple of actual balanced solid teams. Florida is all offence and had exceptional goaltending last night. Delia was good, it was Hawks who didn’t help “himself”. Raddysh is going to be a stud and we will not regret the trade as much as I liked Hagel. Raddysh does it all, with effort too. Not effort level of Hagel but almost no one in the NHL has that lets be honest. Raddysh is not lazy, competes at both ends, wins board battles in multiple ways, already has better offensive awareness and instincts than Hagel, and has size, good hands, and a great shot. Add chemistry with former linemates and he’s looked great as a bumper guy for new look PP. There is a lot to like about our FWD group once Dach gets really comfortable and confident and Reichel gets some NHL seasoning. I’m not writing off kurashev being a big piece yet either.
Oh yeah. And Gus, Stillman, McCabe, and Dehaan need to be replaced by Vlasic, Mitchell, and 2 others to be determined, maybe galvas is one. Ideally Caleb Jones goes or is 7/8 D-man in a couple yrs too.
too bad that hit on Dach didn’t light a fire under his ass. boy this bust of a pick shows no emotion. for a first round pick at #3 YOU DO NOT BUILD AROUND THIS PLAYER.
i would be happy with a trade of him for 2 3rd round picks.
Good to see clips of Kane, Sharp, Hossa, Crawford, Keith, Seabrook, Bolland with others congratulating Toews on his milestone, talking about what a great teammate leader he was for Blackhawks. Too bad the outcome on the scoreboard wasn’t a little better. Team competed better than Buffalo game for sure and agree if not Bobrov could easily had 3 or 4 goals. Still left with the feeling if Panthers wanted to push it they could’ve had a couple more too. Delia played well, made some nice saves but Bobrov was the better goalie last night. Agree Toews with 4 shots, 12 of 19 on fos, 60%, the only line that didn’t allow a 5 on 5 goal last night looked pretty good.
King has produced no development among younger players at Nhl level, for that reason i hope he isn’t head coach any longer than necessary. Yes like Colliton in his first partial year he put 12, 17 and 88 together and let them entertain but that isn’t developing. Hagel was already a big part of the roster and Dach buried with linemates that aren’t helping him improve like Colliton did with Strome. His use of the rest of the youth has been a huge disaster amid a disaster season.
Zero goals without Ekblad in the lineup. No response to the hit on Dach. Wonder how he feels knowing teams will make runs at him.
Watching Gus, Entwistle, Borgstrom, de Haan, C. Jones, McCabe, they all are the most uninspiring players. They play to lose. Rather watch a bunch of hungry Rockford guys give it a go. What does this team have to lose?
King is Christopher Lloyd in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Weird ass cartoon man.
It is true that Gus playing this much is a head scratcher. And it makes sense that King isn’t the solution (although who knows how much on the cheap the Hawks will go in the short term) But a new scenario emerges–
Tomorrow Gus is replaced by a 25 yr. old Brent Seabrook and behind the bench a young tandem of Toe Blake and Scotty Bowman. (Some young people going Toe who?)
Competitive playoff team? Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Overall, a better effort against a SC contender! The defensive pairing of Gustafson and Stillman was terrible. I don’t know which one was worse! Delia just ain’t it, Chief! Who is that guy on the Panthers, I think his name is Gustav Forsling? Man, if we had a guy like that, imagine how much better our defense would look? Not only Raddysh, but I really like that Katschouk too, Reese Johnson and Entwhistle are keepers!
No response needed to Dach hit – that was a clean hip check that Dach helped make look spectacular by jumping just before it contact
He has to learn how to avoid getting lit up on a regular basis – it’s not junior anymore Kirby where you can skate around wherever you want because you’re 6’4″
I still have hopes for him but he needs to adjust better to the NHL game and he needs 2 line mates with skill or even one to replace Borgstrom
Wrap i would say Dach jumped because Goudas was coming at him knee level. Coulda really did damage to his knees if he didn’t.
Dach was thinking he could squeeze through like he did on a previous attempted check on him. Not sure all of you a blaming Dach on this, it was a good clean check….period. other than that, the Hawks made it easy on Bob’s to make all his saves, zero net front presence, no screens, and majority of the shots were in his belly. And as usual, too many shots were passed up for attempting to make extra passes….ya I’m talking to you Land and Dcat, just shoot the puck already.
Borgstrom and Dach look lost. They float around waiting for the puck to jump on their sticks. Get a new coach and a new system. If the plan is to bring structure first, like next year with a new coach, and coax the younger guys along a little slower while filling minutes with the likes of Gus etc, I get it. Rushing Dach has done him no favors nor will it Vlasic, Regula, Reichel. Let those guys grow in the Rock while the parent club gets it shit together.
Clean or not, still would be nice for some response. Soft team.
Does it seem odd to anybody else that the players never serm to defend King. When losses were happening to Colliton the players were defending him at least.
Didn’t say anything when it happened but will now that Raddysh looks like he can be a piece who can help for awhile. Almost seemed like KD was pulling a Bowman move bringing him back for Hagel to play with 12 and 17, hopefully he keeps bring a player next season too.
Noonan96: Excellent point regarding King, I can envision a lengthy hiring process ala KD only to announce that King will be back.
On to more important stuff: When are the Hawks going to announce the new play by play person?? Every time they put Vosters on(my choice for the job) they stick him with Nasal Cohen. Put him with Chelios or Edzo and lets hear how they sound together. Genna Rose?? She can stay, she’s something fine to look at while we play like dogdoo.
Liked the tributes last night on Toews. Gudas laid the perfect hip check on Dach, came right in hip high. Nothing dirty there.
What does Dylan Mclaughlin have to do to get a look in the big league? This team is a$$, Mclaughlin has been consistently effective in his time in Rockford
Sobchak, MacLaughlin first off he has to earn an Nhl contract. We see a good Ahl player but so far, now 32 teams have had the opportunity to sign him to an Nhl deal and none seem to see him as an potential Nhl player. Maybe this sumner he gets one.
A hit doesn’t have to be considered dirty to injure someone. Just look at the replay, it’s clear Goudas, not only bent over but crouched down, his contact point was well below Dachs hips at the top of his knees. Looks like he saw Goudas at last second and leaped to avoid contact on his knees, which was probably a good thing.
If the Hagel trade turns out to be the worst trade made in the next 4 years, we will be in great shape.
I’m not sure why most people on this board even watch the Hawks games. Seems like tearing off finger nails would be more fun and constructive for you. But I’ve been wrong before.
Patience. This season is basically over and we are just playing them out. Go do some gardening or rob a bank. The off-season will tell the tale of what next year will be like. And I’m guessing it won’t be a championship team. But I’ve been wrong before.
It’s been a banner year for the Walldogs. Can you imagine the enthusiasm they will bring next year?
Everyone seems to be anointing Raddysh as the next Nathan MacKinnon…it has been about a half dozen games and his energy level is likely high due to trying to impress a new team.
Yes he has looked effective but He spent 5 years in the minors so let’s give him next year before we determine if he is anything more than one of our 3rd or 4th liners
Katchouk ain’t very good…another fourth line banger
Chuckie – I’m curious as to why anyone being excited/hopeful about Raddysh should wait another year before determining his value as opposed to Katchouk being deemed “ain’t very good… another fourth line banger” after being with the Hawks the same amount of time.
Sounds a bit like a double standard. But I’ve been wrong before.
S.S. classic-a good laugh was had.
Silent Spot: Got to agree, shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that we’re going to have to watch bad hockey around here. Time to look at the positives here for the year: Got rid of StanBo and Kid Coach. Picking up some much-needed draft picks that hopefully will amount to a decent rebuilding start. Except for Vlasic(which is a head scratcher) the rest of the kids are going to be involved in a playoff atmosphere and not be exposed to getting hammered by good teams the rest of the year. Another positive is that in a couple of weeks this will all be done and over, the team is playing hard to finish the year and maybe some other trades will be in the works over the summer.
Ian: Still think the Gudas check was OK, yes he did crouch down but his hips were just a hair lower than Dach’s
SS pretty much agree and have said also giving the Rfd. group the experience of playoff run is important. Would have liked King to focus more on youth that are there now and when others were up there. In his own words he said players like Borgstrom etc. he didn’t give them proper opportunity to see what they can do, then scratched him for a number of games. I am not saying he has to give them the most minutes but if he doesn’t give players like Entwistle, Borgstrom, Kurashev, Vlassic and others who were up with team the proper opportunity as he said, that’s a big fail to me from a coach.
Hammer, lol Dachs skates sere just a hair higher than the top of the boards when he cartwheeled over too.
I will keep watching this year so I can truly understand the new hierarchy of the Chicago Blackhawks and why the last 3 months of the season were wasted playing people that will not be here and in most cases ,as witnessed by lack of interest at the trade deadline, don’t belong on an NHL team .We should be getting extended playing time to about 8 of our players and no,not the obligatory 6 minute King/Colliton once every 3 games ice time. How about cutting Seth Jones,Kane,and Debrincat s ice time down to about 15 minutes a game at the most and roll your lines evenly and even double shift a young aggressive 4th line to bother the heck out of these teams you are playing that are coasting into the playoffs and laughing at you as they pad their stats with no fear of push back.
why didn’t he Haan get assists on the first two goals? If he wants to watch the game he should have to buy a ticket like the rest of us Agree that Dach should be in concussion protocol looks totally bewildered out there worse first round choice since SD Chargers chose Ryan Leaf
If anybodys counting i believe Toews 1000th game as captain could happen if health permits sometime around 1st of Fedruary next season.
Yes that was a predictable game such as tonight’s game should be.
Thinking the important thing is to stay out of the first two spots of the draft. Win 4 or 5 games should do that. Then try and avoid the advantageous ping pong balls.
Hypothetical question. Let’s say we win the Number one draft pick. If you have a choice of Drafting Wright or trading for another teams #1 this year and #1 next year what would do.
Remember that if we have this year’s number 1 we automatically lose next year’s number 1 no matter where it falls. I’m thinking a team like Philly NJ or Buffalo might do it.
JR nobody who is going to pass up an opportunity to draft Wright for a wing and prayer next year.
Lankinen starts, Vlassic in not sure who sits. Kurashev and T. Johnson in, Entwistle, Borgstrom sit.
If you watch the replay of the Gudas hit on Dach,Borgstrom has the perfect opportunity to light up Gudas as he is admiring his hit and instead chose to go for a skate. Embarrassing to see that from any NHL player. Hopefully he is the forward that is sitting tonight and for a while.
Ah yes – the hockey player’s dilemma: Do I attack a guy who is certain to knock me into next week after he failed to deliver a check that everyone knows was legal, thus meaning if I indeed get knocked out the game by the guy for retaliating (like that would even be in question, possibly put on IR to recuperate from my act of stupidity), get penalized on top of it and have someone clearly smarter than me have to serve my time in the box should the game resume after the ice is cleared of my now missing body parts and red liquids, only to see our horrid penalty kill give up a goal on top of it?
Of course I should!! I got to feed the Neanderthals that watch on TV at home!!!!!
A small sacrifice to make. But I’ve been wrong before.
Ian not thinking anyone else I’m thinking us. We’ve done dumber things. We trade P Esposito.
Silent , You watch much NHL Hockey? In a rational non violent utopia where we all get together to sing kumbaya after fast paced violent competitions I am sure your passive theory holds water. Ask any NHL player what is expected of his linemates when a player delivers a hit of that type and admires his work and you may be surprised at what their “Neanderthalic” responses are.
I come here to learn about hockey.
Of course, I’ve been wrong before.
Dach needs to stick up for himself if he wants to stick in this league. Maybe he can scrap because he sure as hell can’t do much else.