SAN JOSE, Calif. — Ryan Donato needed a few moments to translate his emotions and thoughts into words after the Blackhawks‘ demoralizing 3-2 loss to the Sharks on Thursday.
“I don’t know,” Donato said. “I don’t know.”
Eventually, some words came.
“You’re disappointed in yourselves,” he added. “It’s a hard loss. We had a lot of chances that we could’ve scored on, obviously, but it’s not good enough just to create. We’ve been saying in the locker room that we’re not going to take any moral victories, and getting chances is just not good enough.”
After an encouraging 5-2 win Monday against the Avalanche, the Hawks promptly squandered all momentum by losing to the NHL’s arguably worst team — the only team they had experienced consistent success against in recent years, having previously beaten the Sharks five straight times since February 2023.
The Hawks held a 2-1 lead after the first period on goals by Donato and Tyler Bertuzzi — his first at even strength this season — but Sharks rookie forward Will Smith also scored the first two goals of his career, including the go-ahead strike halfway through the second period.
Beyond that point, the Hawks were unable to translate a plethora of possession time into an equalizer. They generated 16 scoring chances to the Sharks’ four in the third period but couldn’t break through goalie Mackenzie Blackwood. Open ice was plentiful against a porous defense, but penetrating the middle of the offensive zone proved more difficult.
“We got away from how we scored those goals,” said Seth Jones, who ripped eight shot attempts in the third period alone.
“We started turning the puck over. [It’s the] same old story you’re going to hear a thousand times. You’ve heard it a thousand times. We start going east-west in the neutral zone. Sometimes we think we’re the Globetrotters in the neutral zone when we need to be getting pucks deep, going to work and scoring rebound goals like we did last game. [We need to] just keep it simple.”
With seven points in 11 games (3-7-1), the Hawks are now tied with the Predators for last in the NHL standings — even though they’ve been within one goal in the third period in all but one of those losses.
“[We were] just off our game plan a little bit,” coach Luke Richardson said. “And that’s all it takes to lose a game in this league.”