The losses just keep coming for the Blackhawks.
A 4-2 defeat Wednesday against the Bruins marked the Hawks’ fourth straight regulation loss and 18th overall in their first 26 games of the season, dropping them deeper into last place in the NHL.
“We’re not happy with the record, for sure,” coach Luke Richardson said. “We don’t seem to have one Achilles’ heel. There’s not one [specific] problem with our team. One night, there’s one area…and the next night, it’s another area by a different player. It’s an accumulation of one-offs every night that put us behind the 8 Ball.
“It gets frustrating on players and weighs on their confidence and their execution in the next game, so sometimes it lingers. No one else is going to help us except for ourselves.”
Brad Marchand scored twice just over two minutes apart early in the second period to give the Bruins the lead for good, spoiling yet another night in which the Hawks scored first — something they’ve done in seven of their last eight games despite winning only two of those.
An announced crowd of 19,179 at the United Center brought the noise and energy of about 5,000, and the Hawks weren’t much livelier on the ice. A too-many-men penalty when they tried to pull goalie Petr Mrazek for an extra attacker with two minutes left put a silly finishing touch on a bland performance.
“The thing we don’t like to see is our bench and our emotion lacking sometimes,” Connor Murphy said. “We seemed dejected. And that’s not a good thing, because we’re losing some games here.”
Bad night
A blocked shot in the first period stung Alec Martinez and marked the beginning of a very bad night for the veteran defenseman. He was on the ice for all four Bruins goals.
Martinez took out his frustrations on the bench door after missing the net in the second period, and things only worsened from there. He didn’t notice Bruins forward Morgan Geekie slipping behind him for a third-period breakaway goal that was the Hawks’ back-breaker.
“He blocked that shot and he was pretty sore the rest of the game, but he marched on,” Richardson said. “That’s just a tough night. Every time he was on the ice, they seemed to score. But [it was] not really anything directly [attributable] to him. That happens sometimes. He’s been through a lot in his career — I’m sure he’s had that before — so he’ll manage it fine.”