The current NHL season is a maddening string of ups and downs for nearly every one of the 31 teams in the circuit.
Perhaps excluding the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights the other 29 clubs continue to frustrate fans and front office leadership.
On Sunday, the Chicago Blackhawks stepped forward for their turn current spin in the down cycle when they lost to the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0 on home ice.
Petr Mrazek made 27 saves to get the shutout.
Petr Mrazek made 27 saves to shut out CHicago 4-0 Sunday night – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“I thought Petr was excellent,” Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought he made the game easy, the puck stuck to him, he made big saves at big moments, he moved the puck well, he was excellent.”
Tyler Bertuzzi scored his first NHL goal in the victory as the Wings improved to 18-18-7 on the season.
The Hawks dropped to 22-17-6 and there was little about the effort that pleased their bench boss.
“That was tough to watch,” Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville said. “Use the word brutal, that may be complimentary, out to lunch, use them all. But that wasn’t good enough. Nowhere near good enough.”
Dylan Larkin, Mike Green and Anthony Mantha also scored for Detroit.
“We started well, we scored two goals, we had a good start,” Mrazek said. “I tried to help the [defense] there in the first 10 minutes, play the puck. They play a lot behind the net so I just tried to get the puck out. I think the first 10 we were really good and obviously we scored two goals on the road in back-to-back games helps the team.”
Detroit put up two goals in the first and third periods and let Mrazek do the rest.
“I thought we came out, and you know, we talked about making sure we use one of our best assets and that’s using our speed to pressure all over the ice, and I thought we did a good job of that, you know, the first half of that first period,” Blashill said. “They pushed back in the second half of that period, but we were able to find ways to score, and I thought it was a pretty complete game.”
[WATCH:Â All Red Wings vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Jeff Glass made 22 saves to take the loss for Chicago.
“Relax, I guess. Have a little fun. But hockey still has to be in the back of your mind. It’s still going to be on when you’re out there. Certainly knowing it’s going to take a lot more than what we showed in the first half of the season. We’re going to need everyone going all out every single night to have a chance,” Quenneville said after the game as his team goes in its week off.
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