In Chicago, the spiral for the Blackhawks continued on Thursday in a 4-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
To call it a lackluster effort would be kind.
Logan Thompson made 24 saves in the Knights win.
“This was an exciting game for me,” Thompson said regarding the win Thursday. “These guys finished our season last year, so I wanted to come out and have a good performance tonight.”
Vegas improved to 22-9-1.
Taylor Raddysh was the lone striker for Chicago, his third period goal came after Vegas had created a 3-0 lead into the period.
“We, at different points in every period, played pretty good,” Raddysh said. “We kind of let them dictate the play for a bit there in the first, and then just a mistake by our line there in the third to give up the third one. A little too much to get back in the game.”
Chicago dropped to 7-17-4.
“I thought the first period was really good,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “The way we played I thought was a good team effort. We got a lot of pucks behind their [defense]. We didn’t get enough to the net, but I liked how we skated and we took the body a little more.”
The Golden Knights took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a power play strike from Chandler Stephenson.
Reilly Smith h pushed the advantage to 2-0 in the middle frame on a shorthanded marker at 3:56.
“I think a lot of road games, you have to have that [workmanlike] mindset,” Smith said. “[The Blackhawks] did a really good job in the third period, upping the tempo. They had a lot of good chances. ‘LT’ did a really good job in being able to find pucks and keep them out.”
Phil Kessel got in the act for Vegas at 8:08 of the third for a 3-0 lead.
Raddysh put Chicago on the board with four minutes left in the game on an excuse me strike.
The third period was played straight through without a television timeout.
“Most of the time you like it because you’re rolling in,” Cassidy said. “But we were down a forward, so we were trying to juggle guys. When you’re protecting a lead, guys tend to take shorter shifts. We had guys all over the place. Every combination we could imagine was out there, I think.
“Also, when you have the lead, you look up and it’s like five minutes on the clock [without the TV timeouts]. That’s what the guys said on the bench, ‘Hey, put one or two shifts in and we’ll bring it home.’ That’s kind of what happened.”
Smith hit an empty net at 19:30 for the 4-1 final.
Arvid Soderblom made 21 saves in the Hawks loss.
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