The Blackhawks delivered poor performances on both legs of their back-to-back set this week.
Their 3-1 loss to the Stars on Thursday built upon their 4-1 loss to the Red Wings on Wednesday in the worst way. They were sloppy, disjointed and disengaged through the first two periods, then found their legs in the third period — a common theme this season — but weren’t able to complete a rally.
The Stars racked up a 33-23 advantage in scoring chances. The Hawks have now been buried 148-81 in that category over their last four games against the Stars, Wings, Ducks and Kings — a 35.4% ratio reminiscent of last season’s hideous hockey.
Coach Luke Richardson reconfigured the forward lines considerably in Dallas, putting together some trios that made sense on paper, but they didn’t click on the ice. Considering the Hawks’ team-wide lack of cohesion and the difficulty of the matchup — the Stars have a very real chance to win the Stanley Cup — perhaps no line combinations would’ve worked.
The Hawks’ lone goal was a power-play marker from Connor Bedard to Tyler Bertuzzi with 11 minutes left. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger later robbed Bertuzzi on the Hawks’ best opportunity to equalize before the empty-net goal that felt inevitable.
Hawks goalie Arvid Soderblom continued his surprisingly stellar start to the season by making 37 saves on 39 shots, singlehandedly keeping the Hawks alive most of the night.
Wondering aloud
The ugly back-to-back set raises a few questions moving forward.
Was it a sign of the Hawks regressing back to last season’s form? Did they permanently miss the opportunity to earn more points from their relatively solid first 13 games of the season, during which they played much better than last season but won just as little?
Alternatively, were these two games just two of the eggs that every NHL team will lay occasionally throughout a season? The Rangers lost 6-1 at home Thursday against the Sabres, after all, and it’s not like the Hawks were routed like that this week.
Will the Hawks take advantage of their light upcoming schedule — with just one game (Sunday against the Wild) in the next seven days — to return to their competitive ways next week against the Kraken and Canucks? Or are things falling apart for them right around the same time as they did last season, when they went 2-9-1 after a respectable 5-7-0 start?
College rules
The NCAA announced Thursday it will allow Canadian major-junior players from the OHL, WHL and QMJHL to play in U.S. college hockey starting next season. The decision comes months after a lawsuit was filed by Braxton Whitehead, a former Bedard teammate on the WHL’s Regina Pats who intends to play for Arizona State.
The ruling is expected to open the floodgates for a Canadian migration to the NCAA. Prospects belonging to every NHL team, including the Hawks, could take advantage of their newfound flexibility.
In fact, the Hawks already have two notable Canadian prospects playing for U.S. colleges: Ryan Greene, a Newfoundland native on Boston College, and Sacha Boisvert, a Quebec native on North Dakota. They’re able to do so because they also played junior hockey in the U.S., but younger prospects will no longer have to pick one route so early.
Boisvert, the Hawks’ 18th overall pick from last summer’s draft, is off to a great start at North Dakota. He leads the team in scoring as a freshman with seven points in seven games.