Blackhawks unravel against Kraken, allowing six goals in second consecutive game

The Blackhawks were probably due for some goaltending regression after a few fantastic weeks in the crease, and that regression has hit hard the past two games.

New cornerstone goalie Spencer Knight allowed six goals on 30 shots Tuesday in a 6-2 loss to the Kraken, three days after Arvid Soderblom allowed six goals on just 15 shots Saturday against the Canucks. That amounts to a combined .733 save percentage over the two games.

Interim coach Anders Sorensen, however, asserted he didn’t think any of Tuesday’s blame should fall on Knight, and he’s probably right about that. The Hawks took an early 2-0 lead on goals by Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi and then completely unraveled.

Knight has certainly come back to earth after his absurd first two starts in Chicago, but it seems like almost every goal against him is either a perfectly placed shot or a wide-open backdoor one-timer — after a defensive breakdown — that he has no chance to save.

There were many moments Tuesday where the Hawks turned the puck over with ill-advised passes in the neutral zone, struggled to sort out their coverage heading into their defensive zone and then lost track of Kraken players.

“We didn’t protect the slot at all,” forward Jason Dickinson said. “There were just too many high-danger scoring chances. You can’t give up that many and expect a goalie to make every save.”

It’s the first time since March 2021 — and the sixth time this century — the Hawks have allowed six-plus goals in consecutive games.

“The whole group [was] less assertive,” Sorensen said. “That’s what hurt us right after turnovers. Turnovers happen. We don’t want them to be as magnified as they were today, but then, ‘How’s your response to those turnovers?’ We didn’t do a good job there at all.”

In the circle

One area in which young Hawks forwards Bedard and Frank Nazar have both improved recently is the faceoff circle.

Bedard has won a respectable 49.1% of his draws since Jan. 28 after winning an abysmal 32.0% before that. Nazar, meanwhile, has won 51.1% of his draws since returning from the 4 Nations break, compared to 41.3% before that.

As a team, the Hawks are still second-to-last in the NHL with a 45.1% faceoff percentage, and that hasn’t even increased recently because Dickinson’s absence hurt as much as Bedard and Nazar’s improvement helped. It’ll be interesting to see if the team percentage does finally increase down the stretch with Dickinson healthy.

Awards time

University of Minnesota sophomore defenseman Sam Rinzel, one of the Hawks’ most heralded prospects, was named the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year on Tuesday.

Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson has raved about the former first-round pick’s development. He will try to convince Rinzel, who has recorded 31 points in 39 games, to turn pro after Minnesota’s NCAA Tournament run ends.

“The strength, the confidence, the ability with the puck — it’s all coming into one,” Davidson said in January. “He’s always been a big guy that can skate with some pretty raw tools. Now he’s really putting that whole package together.

“He’s trusting that first read, and his hockey IQ is allowing him to make quick plays [and] be decisive on the ice. If he sees a passing lane, he hits it. If he sees an opportunity to skate, he takes it. Being assertive in his own ability and his own decision-making is something that has really taken a step this year.”

Fewer calls

Drawing penalties hasn’t been difficult only for Bedard this year but actually for the league as a whole. Power-play opportunities are down 12% from last year and on pace for the fewest since the league began tracking them in 1963.

The Hawks entered Tuesday with 156 power-play opportunities so far this season, down from 205 at this point last season, and they got only one Tuesday.

Stephen Walkom, NHL executive vice president of officiating, told Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli the NHL’s internally tracked “missed call rate” has not increased this season, however, suggesting players are simply playing cleaner hockey. The league is also on track to set a new record in terms of power-play conversion rate (21.4%), so players might be playing more carefully with that in mind.