Rough debut for Khudobin
3 takeaways from the Blackhawks’ 3rd straight loss
The Chicago Blackhawks lost to the Washington Capitals 6-1 on Thursday at Capital One Arena.
It took a third-period goal by Nikita Zaitsev, his first as a Hawk, to avoid a second straight shutout following Monday’s 5-0 loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
The Hawks had been game against their betters in the league earlier this month, but it looks as if the roster’s shortcomings after a trade-deadline fire sale have caught up with them during a three-game losing streak.
Goalie Anton Khudobin made his Hawks debut, but it was one he probably would prefer to forget. Khudobin gave up the game’s first two goals 18 seconds apart midway through the first period with the opening goal a mental error.
Khudobin held the puck off to the side while looking for a teammate. But he appeared to panic as Capitals defenders closed in, and he turned it over directly to Conor Sheary for basically an empty-netter. The Caps won the next faceoff and after the puck got knocked loose, Anthony Mantha snapped it home from the slot.
“It was a tough start,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “Doby had a tough puck pay there and not the way he wanted probably to start, but I thought he battled the rest of the way and had some good stops.
“Unfortunately the other team got some momentum there and they got one off the faceoff. Not much Doby could do on that.”
The Hawks also lost top-line forward Philipp Kurashev to an injury about a minute into the game.
“The guys were just a little bit gassed after losing Kurashev early,” Richardson said.
Nic Dowd padded the lead to 3-0 at 1:27 of the second period. Niklas Backstrom pushed it to 4-0 on the power play on a pass from former Hawk Dylan Strome that settled right at the doorstep.
John Carlson added another powerplay goal 1:04 into the third for a 5-0 lead,
then Zaitsev answered from the point at 3:08. Alex Ovechkin scored his 41st of the season with 5:04 left.
Khudobin had 22 saves while Darcy Kuemper had 27 for the Capitals. The Hawks went 0-for-5 on the power play.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Kurashev’s injury another blow to offense.
Kurashev played just 1 minute, 4 seconds and left after a collision with Capitals forward Tom Wilson during Kurashev’s second shift.
The Hawks didn’t elaborate on his injury.
“We’ll have to check tomorrow but he was pretty sore tonight,” Richardson told reporters in Washingon. “We’ll have to figure out that and let the doctors check him after he settles down tonight.”
Kurashev centered the top line with Lukas Reichel and Andreas Athanasiou on his flanks, and the Hawks rotated forwards with Reichel and Athanasiou in his absence.
Even though the Hawks aren’t playing for anything but development, coaches want to see Kurashev get stronger on the puck and build chemistry with Reichel, so it would be a setback if he misses time.
In other injury news, forward Colin Blackwell’s sports hernia surgery Wednesday in New York was successful, according to a team release. The Hawks plan to keep him out of hockey activities for 12 weeks.
After the Capitals dumped the puck, Khudobin retrieved it to his left, above the goal line. But he looked like he didn’t know where to go next and double-clutched his pass attempt to Joey Anderson. Sheary snagged the dribbler and had an open net for the opening goal.
Khudobin dropped to the ice and buried his head. It was just a dreadful decision however you slice it.
Even if Khudobin had put any mustard on his pass attempt to Anderson, Aliaksei Protas was ready to pounce on it anyway. Same result.
To add insult to insult, Khudobin gave up a short-range goal to Mantha 18 seconds later.
Obviously, Khudobin is serving his role helping the rebuild-focused Hawks play out the string, but no veteran of 13 years wants to be embarrassed.