SUNRISE, Fla. — The Blackhawks can learn from losing. But they can’t learn much when they’re getting thoroughly overrun.
After a lopsided 5-1 loss Saturday against the Panthers, the Hawks have 30 games remaining in this latest dismal slog of a season. In order for their young players to gain as much valuable experience from those 30 games as possible, the Hawks need to minimize how many of them are non-competitive blowouts like Saturday.
“We all had a tough game,” interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “They were all over us, and we had a hard time finding any space.”
The Panthers outshot the Hawks 22-4 in the first period and in it generated 15 high-danger scoring chances, more than the Hawks have in all except three entire games this season. It was a men-against-boys level of domination. The ice leveled out during the ensuing 40 minutes, but the score did not.
When things go like that — as in, spiraling completely out of control for the Hawks — their youngsters won’t be able to mentally isolate specific mistakes and teach themselves how to handle those situations better next time they encounter them. Instead, they’ll feel thoroughly overwhelmed.
“When [bad shifts] happen over and over, I think guys tend to just fold in,” veteran Connor Murphy said.
In recent weeks, the Hawks have done a generally better job staying competitive, keeping games close and therefore giving their kids plenty of useful lessons (and even some uplifting moments).
After that disastrous stretch in late December and early January in which they were blown out more nights than not, they entered this weekend having gone seven consecutive games without losing by more than one goal (excluding the Wild’s empty-netter last Sunday). Saturday decisively ended that encouraging streak, though.
Connor Bedard has mostly played well despite the losing; Saturday marked only the third time in the last 19 games he has been held off the score sheet. Landon Slaggert’s work ethic was a bright spot during this three-game road trip. Frank Nazar conversely struggled on the trip, but he has the right personality — with the correct amounts of humility and infallible confidence — to handle these trials without much issue.
But how much is Colton Dach really gleaning from a game like Saturday? Probably not much. How much are Nolan Allan and Ethan Del Mastro gaining from sitting out as healthy scratches? Basically nothing. How can Alex Vlasic, even in his second season, maintain his confidence and continue establishing himself as a long-term cornerstone when he’s under that much pressure? He can’t.
There’s no question the presence of all those young guys — plus Lukas Reichel and Arvid Soderblom to some extent — makes the Hawks more interesting than they were earlier this season. They need to be put in positions to succeed, though, even though wins are going to remain hard to come by.
During the season’s final third, the biggest news will revolve around the March 7 trade deadline and the late March/early April college-prospect signing period, when Ryan Greene, Oliver Moore and Ryan Greene all might ink contracts and make their NHL debuts.
The 30 games themselves will, in a macro sense, not matter all that much — certainly not in comparison to teams in the playoff race. The Hawks and Sharks will theoretically compete (against their players’ wills) for the worst record and highest odds at the No. 1 pick, but that won’t be too dramatic since there’s not a Bedard-level ultra-hyped prospect in this year’s draft class.
But the games will matter in a micro sense, specifically in terms of the development and progress the Hawks’ young generation demonstrates. More games like Tuesday in Tampa and Thursday in Raleigh — and fewer games like Saturday in Sunrise — would be preferable from that standpoint.