Over three game to start the season, the Chicago Blackhawks have been outscored 15 to 5. There is already plenty of blame to go around including fingering the club for its youth.
Nothing is clicking and certainly an abbreviated training camp can be seen as a culprit in the dismal offense and the absent defense.
On Sunday night, Chicago surrendered five goals again, in a 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers in Sunrise.
The Blackhawks trailed entering the third period, 1-2, and managed to tie the game on a goal by Connor Murphy.
The Panthers replied with the three straight including two from Patric Hornqvist and Eetu Luostarinen.
“Obviously, I got some ice time over there in Finland, some games (for KalPa in Liiga) before the (training) camp, and I think that was a huge deal for me,” Luostarinen said. “I just wanted to keep going, and that first game felt good.”
Keith Yandle struck for his 100th career NHL goal in his 867th consecutive game, fourth on the NHL list for longest streaks.
“I mean, obviously, just for me, it was just being ready to go and just waiting for my time to get the chance,” Yandle said. “And I think scoring that goal kind of helped solidify the work that I put in and being ready to go, and I think a lot of it was seeing the guys, seeing their reaction to it and getting real fired up for me.”
Chris Driedger made 23 saves in the win, it was the first game of the season for the Panthers.
Alex DeBrincat also scored for Chicago.
“We had some good pushes,” Chicago head coach Jeremy Colliton said. “I just feel we didn’t play well enough, we weren’t clean enough with the puck, we weren’t sharp enough in little situations that make a difference in the game.”
Just looking around is not going to get done for the Blackhawks.
“It’s frustrating,” DeBrincat said. “We work hard to get back in games, then they go down and score. I feel like a broken record, but we have to play a full 60 minutes. We go down in the second, we battle back and end up losing by a lot. So we just have to be better.”
Jonathan Huberdeau hit on the power play with under four minutes left in the third period for the final goal of the game.
Aaron Ekblad‘s opened the scoring with a goal 12 seconds into the middle frame for a 1-0 Panthers lead.
“Loved his game,” Florida head coach Joel Quenneville said. “I think he does a lot of good things. I think he’s got some creativity to his game. The puck follows him around a bit. The goal and the timing of it kind of gives you an illustration of an under-the-radar type of player that can help our team and be useful in all situations.”
Collin Delia made 24 saves in the loss.
“I think around our net is a big part of it,” Murphy said. “I don’t think, right now, we have the right intensity that we need. That’s including all of us [defensemen], and it could go as far as forwards winning battles too. And then I think it’s just some puck play and some breakdowns. You have a breakdown, you have to know how to manage that chance or that play. We don’t seem to be doing a very good job with that right now as a team. Those are two areas, but we’ll look over things and we’ll definitely need to be better.”
Chicago remains in Sunrise for the second game in the set.
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