Flat, Awful Blackhawks Blown Out By Jets
After Wednesday night’s loss to Carolina — in which the Blackhawks blew a 3-1 lead — it appeared Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton was nearing his breaking point. He was as angry as he has been since taking over as the Hawks’ coach, emphasizing the team’s approach. Ben Pope at the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a good piece on Collton’s comments, in which he quote the Hawks’ coach.
“It’s just another hard lesson, but I would like us to stop learning hard lessons and respond with a change in how we think about the game,” Colliton said in the Pope article.
In his comments, Colliton called out players in vague ways (remember: he’s allegedly a great communicator) but would confirm he hasn’t been thrilled with Dylan Strome’s play this season. He also alluded to the decision making of defensemen Erik Gustafsson and Jake McCabe.
The Blackhawks headed to Canada without Riley Stillman and Juhjar Khiara, both of whom recently cleared COVID protocol but weren’t allowed to travel with the team into our neighboring country to the north.
After their coach put them on blast with the media, how would the Blackhawks respond on the road in Winnipeg? It took the Jets 47 seconds to score.
It took the Jets 2:23 to have a two-goal lead.
Yeah, the Blackhawks’ penalty kill was decent in the first period. But Winnipeg’s second goal, scored by Neal Pionk, was a power play marker. And even though the analytics will tell you the Blackhawks out-chanced the Jets, Winnipeg’s chances were in more dangerous areas and they converted their opportunities.
After 20 minutes, the Blackhawks had out-shot the Jets 9-7 but were chasing two goals.
The only Blackhawks skater to win a faceoff in the first period was Jonathan Toews.
Chicago needed to bounce back, and it appeared they started the second period well. Ryan Carpenter, playing with the first power play unit, appeared to tip the puck into the net on a rebound as the advantage was coming to an end early in the second. But Winnipeg challenged that the Blackhawks were offside earlier in the play. The video review clearly showed the Hawks were, and the goal was taken off the board.
Following the goal being wiped away, the Blackhawks were as flat as the ice surface they were skating on. Dominic Toninato extended the lead to three at 13:48 and Kyle Connor made it four 89 seconds later.
After 40 minutes, the Jets were out-shooting the Blackhawks 18-14 and had a 4-0 lead. Chicago was credited with five shots on net in the second period. Toews won 10 of 14 faceoffs in the first two periods; the rest of the lineup won four of 20 at the dot.
If there was ever game tape that would lead one to believe the team has quit on its coach, the first two periods are it.
At this point, the bon fire my neighbor was building started sounding way better than the dumpster fire on the ice that I was watching on television. Cigars, bourbon and an outdoor fire? But I felt sickly compelled to see how the third period would play out before wandering over to drown a couple hours with some fuego.
And I’m glad I hung around. Less than one minute into the third period while killing a penalty, Kirby Dach got the puck to Seth Jones who carried the puck around behind the net and dished it to MacKenzie Entwistle who made the deposit to get Chicago on the board.
Entwistle’s short-handed goal came with assists from Jones and Dach at 56 seconds.
The next goal could have been significant… if the Blackhawks had scored it, quickly, after their first. Chicago didn’t score the next goal; Winnipeg’s Nikolaj Ehlers pushed the lead back to four at 14:03 into the third.
There was no emotion from the Blackhawks. No push back. Zero physicality. They got on the board and then spent 19 minutes going through the motions.
The Jets out-shot the Blackhawks 15-3 in the third period. The “effort” was pathetic.
Entwistle was noticeable in the third period, which means he’ll likely have to fight Strome for ice time when Khiara is ready/able to return to the lineup. Colliton continues to throw grenades on the ice with ineffective line combinations and expects to have any offense come from it.
The Blackhawks (1-9-2) will look for their second win in their 13th game of the season on home ice Sunday against Nashville.
Wow.
#1- last years version of the Hawks played much much harder.
#2 – accelerating the rebuild is code for “we don’t want to get fired”
#3 – who are we building around ? Dach ? Jones ? . Absolutely zero foundation.
#4 – Bowman left his successor with a bag of garbage.
#5 – It’s going to be painful but the new GM needs to ask Toews which contender he’s willing to be traded to. He’s a shadow of his former self. However his character and Cup rings should reap a ton at the deadline.
Sad. Just plain Sad. A disaster off the ice and on the ice.
@Craig Negrilli
#1…Yep
#2…Yep
#3…Yep….Most likely we will not have a 1st round pick either, Stan was lucky his dad was named Scotty
#4…Yep
#5…Yep…Include Kane as well
It’s painful to watch.
They can’t let this continue can they?? Well maybe they can.
No chemistry in those lines at all out there. Cat and Strome have some put them together, leave Hardman there. Try 19-38 and 88 again only line that had any chemistry so far this year. Dach who’s head was not in the game mostly all night and Entwistle look on same page lately try Kubalik with them. Would they have won, no, bad Fleury showed up anyways but at least try something. Tripping over each other trying to play coaches system and cover their assigned men in d zone, embarassing. But don’t blame Colliton right.
Craig i think the foundation was supposed to be Dach and Cat as the next Kane and Toews with Reichel, Kubalik, the otiginal 2 for a few years and a few others as the supporting cast. Jones the next Keith and Murphy McCabe be Seabrook Hammer. Find the next Crawford among Lankinen, Comesso and Sodeblom. Long ways to go before that happens.
@Craig . Couldn’t have said it any better. No need to make any further comments.
The coach has lost his team – if he’s not fired now I guess he’s not going to fired
Ian – Dach has not played well recently and not with his usual enthusiasm
Guys are not focused- they’re either too concerned thinking about where they should be or they realize their coach is not a difference maker and don’t care that much or both
Overthinking and not caring at the same should get a coach fired
Btw Fleury sucks right now – it would nice to get a save but I bet he too would benefit from a new coach and a re-energized team in front of him
Gus causes a goal against nearly every game – wherefore art thou Wyatt and Caleb?
Gaudette looked like he wants to play – keep him in
Get Borgstrom and Stillman in
Get Gus out ASAP
Play Lank
Leave Strome in
Fire Colliton
Stop embarrassing yourselves
Very predictable game from this team. Winnipeg plays heavy and has skill. Our Hawks do not like running into big bodies and they certainly don’t like driving the net. I watch NHL games on a nightly basis, I know I should get a life, and my humble opinion is that this Hawks team is the worst in the league by a long shot. As most of us said in the off-season,this team as constructed has no heart,character,or any edge whatsoever to them. They are other NHL team,s dream game. Soft team =easy night. What an embarrassment.
TW – I feel your pain – they are embarrassing but I’m cutting the players huge amounts of slack because they don’t play for an NHL coach
I realize that Davidson isn’t going to hire someone like Torts just to pick a name because he’s only an interim GM but he could fire JC and promote Crawford to interim HC
The optics with Crawford’s past will have to be well managed but it could and should be done
I usually try and find gems from the game. Colliton just makes that ever more difficult. He has the wrong guys out there. He scratches the wrong guys. His lines are a clusterf#ck!!! Stan Bowman was a man without a plan or a vision. He signs players that are worse than the ones he lets go. The coach, and his staff, are incompetent…from top to bottom. When he turns on his own players…you’re done. He’s upset with Strome? You’ve barely played him. He marches out his pet projects and they aren’t good enough. Having Carpenter with Toews was an accidental success. Carpenter has stepped up his game and is effective in front of the net. But, signing T. Johnson over V. Hinostroza? Did the team need Khaira? Kurashev is not ready for the NHL. But…Colliton likes him. This last draft was an absolute admission that Bowman has screwed up. Signing S. Jones? I like the guy. Not for the amount and the length of contract.
I hope the future GM is a freakin’ genius who can undo this freakin’ mess
Lastly, Toews, as he is now, is a 3rd line guy. He’s not in NHL game shape…yet. Dach is not winning FO’s. I’d like to see Borgstrom get more of a shot…and Strome. 4th line Center? I still like R. Johnson. This current team is an absolute mess. I’m hoping that Reichel shores up his defensive game. Offensively, he’s progressing well. Nylander is scoring too…still no defense. Let’s hope for that #1 pick in 2022. Next game.
I was criticized for saying that they brought up Dach too quickly and thought it was best for him to play a half season or more in the WHL and work on FO. It was a desperate move to bring him up right away. He needs to be the centerpiece to build around, especially when the system is so short on talent. Other than Toews, we continue to get killed at the dot.
Toews just seems gassed all the time. He may not be recovered. He’s said in his post games that there are conditioning things he needs to still work on. How can he do that while playing an NHL schedule? He can’t.
He might go at a trade deadline, but not this year. Maybe next year. If he’s still playing.
Colliton subtly throws the team under the bus now after each game. He doesn’t really take any accountability. Credits the teams’ lackluster performance to their minds not being right and not understanding what it takes to win. It’s been his time to go for a long time. He’s not making it any easier on himself right now. Of course the team is playing like crap. We all get that. But the coaching staff has to take some accountability in that. His tired mantras of putting it on the players night in and night out doesn’t hold water.
The guys on the ice, in large part, have more experience in “winning” than he does. By far. Who does he think he’s kidding.
As much as I love the Blackhawks and some of the players on the team, it is time for a complete blow up. I don’t think it can reasonably be done right now. It has to be done at a time that is right financially for the club. I think that’s during or after next year.
In a perfect world a new coach would come in and lay down the line and be accountable, and make every player be accountable, or they sit. Regardless. Ain’t gonna happen. Stan and the gang changed horses in the middle of the stream on the strategy of the so called “rebuild”. It ain’t working out. Not by a long shot. The whole organization is in disarray.
Through it all though, I think Colliton gets a pass for the rest of this year. And it is going to be a long year. There will be some interesting players to continue to watch. But the outcomes are going to continue to be hard to swallow.
Tim W correct prediction on how the game would be but 2 goals short. Didn’t cover.
Was at a wake so couldn’t watch. Guess Mr. R is watching over me and keeping me away from bad hockey.
Thinking Crawford replaces JC after the Coyotes get their first victory against the Hawks.
It’s hard to say who should stay and who should go if you’re thinking of blowing things up until there is a real NHL coach behind the bench
Evaluating players when there’s no consistent structure no chemistry little compete and sucky goaltending is a fool’s errand
Get rid of JC – let Crawford take over on interim basis – he would at least garner respect and let’s see who responds and who doesn’t then go from there with a new Pres of Hockey Ops a new GM a new coach
Tim W: I watch a lot of hockey myself because I like to see how good hockey teams play but one team I have not seen yet is Arizona. Its hard to believe but there is somebody worse than our team.
Wrap agree need a different coach to evaluate who should go and who stays, comfidence in Colliton as coach or talent evaluator is non existant at this point. No doubt now that the brightest light at the end of tunnel for this year now, will be lucking out in the Shane Wright lotto, which certainly could be a game changer on turning things around. Leaving Reichel in Rfd., sliding his elc year and keeping him away from this mess is best for him this year. Maybe him and Colton Dach can be a couple of wingers added to the mix for next year who can offer some help from within. Borgstrom’s progression at C would be a big help as well in that regard.
I don’t think Crawford is the answer temporarily or permanently. To many skeletons in his coaching career. This organization needs new blood and consistency.
Craig N
spot on
re-build getting blown up this off-season by SB -iswas a complete disaster… as predicted by many here.
fools gold
Only thing I was re-signed to hope/believe is that they would be competitive – and have many TDL players to sell to recoup some losses… NOT gonna happen- right now. MAFs value trends downward the more I see him,,, Hope He gets red hot 2 weeks b4 TDL- and maybe we get some value.
Kane/Toews- both should be politely asked- if they want to play elsewhere- as service to them.
Pathetic
HAMMER, I have seen Arizona only a couple times this year. They don’t have a lot of top 6 talent but they do play much harder than are beloved Hawks and definitely aren’t a give me win. Of course at this point who is. Ironically Ottawa played 1 of their worst games of the season against the Hawks. The bottom line is that this thing has to be blown up immediately from the top down. Stop wasting anymore time. Deal everything away at the deadline.
As recently as June we were in a position to rebuild and there was room for optimism. Then in a few short days that pasty little imposter likely convinced the owners that he could get it done on the quick (and maybe they were all too willing to go along with it). Of course, some here were quick to embrace the “accelerated” rebuild but as has now become undeniably clear what we got instead was the torpedoing of the foreseeable future.
MAF, Johnson, McCabe (who is awful), and Khaira together cost $40 million, so let’s call that $10 million/year for the next 4 years. Jones is doing his best, but in four years time he’ll be closing in on 1,000 games and he’ll likely wear down after that. That will be another $9.5 million/year largely wasted for a further 4-5 years.
This is rock bottom with not just a dreadful team but maxed out on the cap and with over 10% of our payroll for the rest of the decade already wasted. It’s amazing how much damage that creepy little wannabe was permitted to inflict.
@Craig: All that had to be done to start the foundation was take the consensus picks:
2018: Bouchard or Dobson (top pairing guys)
2019: Byram (#1 guy)
Call me crazy, but either of those pairing is kind or reminiscent of 2/7. Stanley was the proverbial only guy in the poker game who didn’t know who the sucker was.
First, I believe it is time for the Hawks to move on from Coach Colliton. I believe from the beginning that he was not given a chance to be a Head Coach by the players on the team he inherited, or by the fans in Chicago. He replaced a legend. Never be the guy that replaces a legend. I think it will be difficult to replace him with a coach with “hockey respect” at this time, considering where the team is regarding the the disclosures of the recent past and the chaos that exists within. Moving Crawford into the top position is moving the chairs on the Titantic. IT simply gives the Hawks a salary to keep on the books for another year – I don’t think that is a desire for the Wirtz family. They are hoping we can get a small streak together and calm the waves of fandom (it wouldn’t work anyway). Was JC really qualified for the job? It would be his first NHL level coaching job, but his recent success prior to that hire fit the narrative of being a communicator and teacher. Those are facts – here are the stats.
Other Leagues
Team Year Regular season Postseason
G W L OTL Pts Finish W L Win % Result
Mora 2013–14 52 19 19 5 (80) 7th 1 4 .200 —
Mora 2014–15 52 22 20 7 79 7th 1 1 .500 Lost in SHL qualifiers
Mora 2015–16 52 20 20 6 78 6th 3 1 .750 Lost in SHL qualifiers
Mora 2016–17 52 31 13 4 105 1st 7 2 .778 Won promotion to the SHL
Rockford 2017–18 76 40 28 8 88 4th in Central 9 4 .692 Lost in Conference Finals
AHL total 76 40 28 8 88 9 4 .692 1 playoff appearance
Has Jeremy had success at the NHL level? Not by most standards. Cherry picking streaks could work, but there are longer and more streaks of failure, so a reasonable lean to NO is easy to say. A hard lean can easily be argued, and a definite NO can be accepted. My measures.
Drafting for the Hawks – Hindsight is well… always easy to do. Show me an organization that gets it right all the time. How did Keith make it so deep in his draft year? There are plenty of draft picks from mid and late rounds that were missed by EVERY TEAM in that draft year and every year. Yes, we have missed our share (and maybe more) but we got a few right along the way too, including some pretty good signings of players from Europe and that part of the world. Why didn’t the rest of the league get those players instead?
I get the ranting here. I just don’t live to watch the Hawks win. I enjoy the sport and they happen to be my favorite team. I don’t lose sleep over them. I don’t fight with my wife over them. My dog doesn’t get broken ribs because Fleury mishandled the puck for the 5th time this period. I love the game, not the team.
I find life easier when I am objective instead of closed-minded.
Will this season bring us a top 2 draft pick? Well, personally I think there is such a thing as Kharma, and I wouldn’t bet on anything good happening to the Hawks this year in the draft!!
Change is good.
Silent Spot: Please save the violin strumming for Kid Coach. You said it yourself about a month ago, You didn’t have an idea about Kid Coach’s defensive philosophy. It just doesn’t work for this team so of course the players are tuning him out. I thought maybe after StanBo got dumped that maybe Kid Coach would wake up and say: “You know this defensive style just isn’t doing it, maybe I should scrap it to see if they play better”. But no, he’s just as stubborn as StanBo was and if he’s not going to change it, get somebody here that will. I still say that if they scrap that, they will play better, they will act instead of reacting, I say tough, let Kid Coach still screw the pooch until they hire the guys that run the organization here then they can ship Kid Coach out of here. Maybe then people will realize what a complete idiot StanBo really was. We have some talent here, they aren’t being used correctly. I’ll personally buy Kid Coach’s and Brookbank’s one way train ticket out of town.
Tim W. I hope you’re right in the end-that they are the worst team in the league. That means we have a shot at Wright. Sadly, the Coyotes are worse.
Call me crazy but I still think there is the talent on this team to be in the middle tier of the NHL with a proper coach even a temporary one
No one should be traded until at least a temporary coaching change is made to allow for a more accurate assessment of the current players and probably not until a temporary coach and a new GM are in place
Crazy!!!!!
this team is middle of pack–IF and Only if- Toews plays like 3-5 years ago + MAF plays like Vezina + Kane is top 5 in scoring + The D bonds/ plays well + all the new guys show up and go to work/with their roles.
ALL of them – or at least 4 out of 5 have to happen together- just to be #6-8 seed in Conference.
I would say NONE to Maybe 1 (Kane putting up #s) is what we have so far.
They had a chance to get Laviolette, to get DeBoer. But no, Stan liked his Jugghead.
Just a joke of a coach.
I think when the dust settles the dumpster fire that is this team on the ice right now, there will alot of smoke and not all fire. Moving Seabrooks caphit of almost 7m for 4 years for Johnsons 3 year 5m hit wasn’t a bad move. TJ is a live body who help if used right, just not as no.1 C or even in top 6 regularly at all. Fleury yes 7m for this year, for nothing and a hope he could stand on his head nightly without the Blackhawks porous defensive strategies ruining him not the results hoped for, what would the cap space be used for this season anyways, just space needed in future years. Kind of amusing how some of the biggest proponents of acquiring Jones this summer, now want to wash their hands of the deal and join the another idiot move bandwagon. Myself and others have been bandying the prospect of Jones for few years, think he will turn out to be good signing aa far as getting a proven no. 1 guy when all is done, finding him a regular partner who works well with him a must, maybe not how i saw the deal happening but most aren’t. Adding some size and grit was a requisite of most on here and with Entwistle, Hardman playing regularly, plus Khaira and McCabe adds that. The one area the Blackhawks are among league leaders this year is in hits, shows that being bigger and hitting people hasn’t made things better. Chemistry and proper balance do, as we see with other teams having success.
I think a new coach and whoever is Gm need to seriously ask how good can this team really be as designed though. Now is the time to keep who you want and move on from who you don’t. Agree that Toews and Kane will not go anywhere this season, that would be an odd season deal with retained salary likely for most teams or a next season tdl move if they go anywhere.
Craig i was a Dobson supporter at the time of the draft. If you go back and see my first reaction on drafting Boqvist was say it ain’t so or something similar to that. I learned to appreciate Boqvists potential and rooted for him, didn’t work out here for him but still expect if used right he can be a very good player. If Byram was to become the number 1 guy, the big caphit would still be there in a year or 2 if he worked out, have him around a little longer on other end maybe or maybe not. Again with a new coach and used properly Dach has alot of potential too so could still end up with number 1 D, plus a top C yet.
Should be off season deal not odd season.
Colliton fired
Is it just me or does anyone else feel that Fleury is getting a pass from the media and fan base? I understand that we don’t have an NHL caliber coach and the team has been playing poorly in front of him, but Fleury’s play with the exception of a couple of games has been nothing short of awful and demoralizing for the rest of the team. If Corey Crawford had let in a fraction of the weak goals that Fleury has so far, the media and fans would have been merciless. It’s only the first week of November and I’m already sick of hearing the broadcasters say “I’m sure Fleury would like to have that one back.” That being said it’s also time that many players on this roster take a look in the mirror and start taking a little pride in themselves and get their heads in the game and start playful to their potential. It’s time we start winning a few despite the coach. We have more talent than we’re showing. I don’t think that Marc Crawford is the answer and I don’t see a coaching change coming until we find a permanent GM so it’s time for the players to suck it up and start earning their pay.