ST. PAUL, Minn. — Most NHL arenas have been houses of horror for the Blackhawks in recent seasons, but none more so than the Xcel Energy Center.
The Hawks’ 4-3 loss Monday marked their eighth consecutive defeat in Minnesota, where they haven’t won since the 2018-19 season. The Hawks have lost 14 of 15 games against the Wild in any location since 2020.
Wild defenseman Brock Faber, who narrowly lost out on the Calder Trophy to Hawks star Connor Bedard last season, scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period. The Hawks weren’t able to penetrate the Wild’s 1-1-3 neutral-zone trap very often after that point.
The Hawks enter the NHL’s three-day Christmas break with a 12-21-2 record, having dropped back-to-back games since their three-game winning streak.
“When the game is on the line…we’ve got to be willing to go and play offensively,” interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “We sat back a little bit too much there. I thought we did that in the home games we played, but these past two road games, not so much.”
Sorensen’s system changes have made the Hawks more aggressive to start games, but he agreed that the team subconsciously tends to fall back on old conservative habits at times in crucial later-game situations. So how can they break those habits?
“Talk about it. Work on it. Show it,” Sorensen responded. “It’s going to be a process, for sure.”
One bright spot Monday was young forward Frank Nazar responding from a rough outing Saturday against the Flames with a strong performance. Sorensen gave Nazar a season-high 16:30 of ice time, and the Hawks generated an 11-5 advantage in scoring chances with him on the ice.
He also tallied his first NHL point of the season with an assist on Nick Foligno’s second-period goal, although the Wild responded within a minute to tie the game — continuing an ongoing Hawks problem with conceding quick-response goals.
“[I] felt a lot better out there,” Nazar said. “I came back after that [Flames] game wanting to do better and not happy with myself, so [I tried] to do my best today.”
Bedard, who scored the opening goal, now has 11 points in nine games under Sorensen. He’s creeping back toward a point-per-game pace with 30 points in 35 games this season.
Swedish roots
Goalie Arvid Soderblom, the Hawks’ lone Swedish player at the moment, never crossed paths with Sorensen before joining the Hawks’ organization. Soderblom grew up in Gothenburg, which is on the west coast of the country, whereas Sorensen grew up and coached in Sodertalje, a city near Stockholm on the east coast. The cities are about a four-hour drive apart.
Nonetheless, Soderblom has heard that the hockey community throughout Sweden is excited about Sorensen becoming the NHL’s first Swedish-born head coach.
“Of course, you see it has been recognized at home, and people are happy for him,” Soderblom said. “It’s great for Swedish hockey . . . to show that it’s possible. There’s a lot of great coaches in Sweden, so hopefully he can show the way and we can have some more coaches over here.”
Kubalik’s decline
Looking back at the 2020 Calder Trophy voting results is a mind-blowing exercise.
The top two finishers were Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar and Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes, who since have won Norris Trophies. In third was ex-Hawks forward Dominik Kubalik, who now is playing in Switzerland. Behind Kubalik — in fourth place — was Rangers defenseman Adam Fox, who also has turned into a world-class star.
Kubalik’s fall out of the NHL has been as steep as his rise into it. He erupted for 30 goals in 68 games for the Hawks in 2019-20, but he was so awful on the Senators last season that he couldn’t even get an NHL contract as a 28-year-old this past summer.
Notes
The Hawks won’t play again until Friday at the Sabres, who finally snapped their 13-game losing streak with a 7-1 blowout win Monday of the Islanders.
It seems likely the Hawks will keep Nazar and Kevin Korchinski up in the NHL for that game and the time being. In regards to Korchinski specifically, Sorensen said he’s “playing well, so we’ll keep playing him here.”