West Edmonton mauled
Blackhawks fall back into bad habits in blowout loss to Oilers
The Chicago Blackhawks picked the worst time to fall into old habits.
Facing the Western Conference-leading Edmonton Oilers, who own the league’s secondbest offense, the Hawks committed 12 turnovers, looked slow and uncertain on defense and gave up two short-handed goals to lose 5-2 Saturday at Rogers Place.
Connor McDavid scored the opening goal and assisted on the second one for the Oilers.
Alex DeBrincat gave the Hawks’ faint hopes a lift with a late first-period goal and another in the third on a two-on-none rush with Philipp Kurashev coming out of a penalty kill, but Leon Draisaitl’s short-handed goal 7½ minutes later gave the Oilers more than enough insurance.
“We’ve got to clean up some areas,” Hawks coach Derek King said. “But the first 10 minutes I thought we were there. I thought this could be a good game for us. I think we could beat that team.
“But (the Oilers score a) powerplay, 5-on-3 (goal), and then it just kind of snowballed a little bit. But I thought we bounced back.”
Here are two takeaways from the 5-2 loss.
1. The Hawks’ puck management left a lot to be desired:
The Hawks committed 12 giveaways and were knocked off the puck by an Oilers team that played bigger and faster.
There are plenty of places to point fingers, but one example was Seth Jones’ defensive-zone turnover on the first power play that turned into Kailer Yamamoto’s short-hander. It was the Oilers’ third goal within a five-minute span — and a backbreaker for the Hawks.
Colton Sceviour pressured Jones at the wall, and Jones’ attempt at a drop pass to DeBrincat ricocheted right to Yamamoto, who roofed a nice shot over Hawks goalie Kevin Lankinen.
“Can’t turn the puck over on anybody,” King said. “We give up two short-handed, give them the power play and then we take a slashing or hooking, whatever it was, go down 5-on-3 (on the penalty kill and) they score again. A good team like that, with the talent they have, you can’t do that.
“You’re going to turn pucks over. You make a mistake, you turn the puck over, it’s what do you do after that. You can’t let it snowball.”
2. It was a homecoming of sorts on both sides:It’s
in the books: The first time Duncan Keith played against the Hawks after spending 16 seasons in Chicago.
He got extra minutes with Darnell Nurse out with a broken finger and played a game-high 25:06 — just like old times — including on the power play and penalty kill. With the double duty, Keith paired with usual defensive partner Cody Ceci and Evan Bouchard.
Keith took three shots and had two blocks, two takeaways and a giveaway.
“Obviously a little weird playing the old team, had that jersey on for a long time,” Keith said. “Lot of fond memories with that team
and that organization, especially (Patrick) Kane and (Jonathan) Toews. That was good to get that one out of the way.”
It was also the first time Hawks newcomers Caleb Jones and Jujhar Khaira played against their former team, and both received the honor of being on the ice for puck drop at Rogers Place.
“It’s a lot of emotions,” Jones said before the game. “They drafted me six years ago and gave me a chance to play in the NHL. I’ve known a lot of those guys the whole time I was here.”