DALLAS — The Blackhawks are still waiting for their record to reflect the fact they appear to be — and believe they are — a better team than last year.
They suffered a fourth consecutive regulation loss Saturday, 4-2 against the Stars, to fall to 2-6-1 this season.
Part of the problem has been incomplete 40-minute efforts. On Friday against the Predators, they played well for the first two periods but not the third. On Saturday, they struggled mightily during the first period, stopped the bleeding in the second and climbed back into the game in the third, but they weren’t able to complete the comeback.
“We’re not just going to be happy that we stayed in a game,” Connor Bedard said. “It’s frustrating. We’re what, 2-7? That’s pretty bad. Losing is not fun, so we’ve obviously got to figure it out.”
Pat Maroon assisted on goals by Ryan Donato and Bedard that cut into a 3-0 Stars lead, and the Hawks threatened for a while with an extra attacker late. But Stars forward Matt Duchene eventually buried an empty-net goal to make his power-play strike earlier in the frame hold up as the game-winner.
“I loved our pushback at the end,” coach Luke Richardson said. “I thought that was our best look in a six-on-five situation. But we really struggled a lot of the night breaking out the puck with numbers. We had a lot of single-man or two-man line rushes for. [The Stars] set the high pace of the game, and we had a hard time matching that.”
Said Maroon: “We’ve got to find ways to generate offense that’s not off the rush. It’s [about] getting pucks in, generate offense below the top of the circles, create those second and third opportunities, create that shooting mentalit [and] shoot and scramble. We’re not doing enough of that. In the third period, we did and we got results off of it.”
The Stars have now beaten the Hawks in 11 of their last 13 meetings, flipping the script after the Hawks won 11 of 12 meetings between March 2012 and January 2015. The Hawks were the Stanley Cup contenders then; the Stars are now.
Double Mrazek
Goalie Petr Mrazek never started both games of a back-to-back set last season, but the Hawks decided to test his endurance and send him back out Saturday instead of sentencing prospect goalie Drew Commesso to make his first career NHL start in such a difficult matchup.
Richardson, Mrazek and goalie coach Jimmy Waite had a conversation Saturday morning and decided Mrazek was rested enough to do it, even after facing 34 shots Friday. He faced another 28 on Saturday.
“That’s a lot of work for him,” Richardson said. “So that’s something that we just don’t want to do too many times [in order to] keep him healthy. But he battled right to the end.”
Arvid Soderblom missed both games due to illness, necessitating Commesso’s call-up. But Soderblom and Laurent Brossoit, whose recovery from meniscus surgery has taken longer than expected, could both join the team later on this road trip.
Richardson nonetheless suggested Commesso might get a start somewhere before returning to the AHL, where the Hawks want to be patient with his development.
Hay passes
Former Hawks forward Bill Hay, one of 10 Calder Trophy recipients in franchise history, died Saturday at age 88.
“A true giant of hockey, Bill’s contributions to the sport are ever-lasting and immeasurable,” the Hawks said in a statement. “We send our condolences to Bill’s family as well as the many fans who were fortunate enough to have experienced his boundless impact on our great game.”
The Saskatchewan native was named the NHL’s rookie of the year in 1959-60 after tallying 55 points in 70 games. Coming out of Colorado College, where he won a national championship, Hay’s success legitimized U.S. college hockey as a route to the NHL.
The following season, he led the Hawks with 59 points in 69 games during the regular season — finishing three points ahead of linemate Bobby Hull — before guiding them to the 1961 Stanley Cup title.
Hay ultimately spent the entirety of his eight-year playing career in Chicago, accumulating 386 points in 506 games. He later became CEO of the Flames and chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, into which he was inducted in 2015.