PAINFUL LOSS
HOSSA LEAVES GAME WITH APPARENT LEG INJURY
The lack of depth scoring, the lackluster efforts in home games, the sluggish starts of late — all those quibbling concerns that have troubled the Blackhawks recently looked awfully minor late in the second period Saturday night when Marian Hossa was down on the ice in the corner, writhing in pain.
Hampus Lindholm’s hip check sent Hossa tumbling into the boards, where his left leg appeared to get jammed. Hossa was slow to get up and was putting little, if any, weight on the leg as he was helped off the ice and back to the dressing room. He did not return.
“We’ll probably know more [Sunday],” coach Joel Quenneville said after the Hawks lost 3-2 in overtime to the Ducks, their third loss in as many home games. “We don’t think it’s serious, but he could miss some time.”
When asked if Hossa could be out weeks, Quenneville said, “Could be stretching it on weeks. Not that long.”
For the record, the NHL trade deadline is Feb. 29, 15 days away. Last season, Patrick Kane’s broken collarbone suffered shortly before the deadline allowed the Hawks to put him on long-term injured reserve, freeing up enough cap space to acquire Antoine Vermette because the cap is turned off in the playoffs. It sounds as if Hossa won’t come anywhere close to missing the rest of the regular season, so it’s unlikely the scenario plays out again.
Hossa, an irreplaceable two-way threat even in a down offensive year, is four goals shy of No. 500 for his career. He’s a fixture on the Hawks’ top line, power play and penalty kill and has been one of the top defensive forwards in the league for years.
Quenneville called Lindholm’s check “on the borderline.”
“Not much you can say about those hip checks,” Jonathan Toews said. “They’re always risky. A guy takes a hit low like that, if your skate gets caught in a rut or can’t quite give out the way you want it to, something’s got to give there. More often than not, it doesn’t end well.”
The Hawks lost on Ryan Getzlaf’s power-play goal at 2:16 of overtime. All three meetings between the 2015 Western Conference finalists have gone to overtime. The point kept the Hawks in a first-place tie with the Stars (who have three games in hand).
“We’ll take a point tonight,” Quenneville said. “I don’t think we deserved a point, but we’ll take it.”
The Hawks led 1-0 after two periods on Brent Seabrook’s powerplay goal, but Anaheim took a 2-1 lead on third-period goals by Jakob Silfverberg (after two brilliant stops by Corey Crawford) and David Perron. Seabrook scored again — his career-high 10th goal — off a feed from Andrew Desjardins, in Hossa’s spot, to send the game to overtime.
After the game, the Hawks were lamenting yet another slow start, yet another poor offensive showing (they have four goals in their last three games, three of them by defensemen) and yet another squandered home game. But the real attention was on Hossa, who leaves a gaping hole in an already shallow top six.
“We’re going to have to find ways to play without one of our top guys again,” Toews said. “We all know what he means to our team offensively and defensively all over the rink. It’s never easy, but we’ll find a way.