Nick Foligno has frequently mentioned the Blackhawks not properly understanding “situational play” and the dynamics of momentum during the first two months of the season.
In his view, the Hawks are working hard and giving strong effort in general, but they have a tendency to let their guard down for brief moments or fail to appreciate the critical nature of every single event in hockey — like winning a wall battle for the puck in a 2-0 game, for instance. Those tiny breakdowns then compound to undo all of the smart plays they make.
“There’s games we’ve been in for the majority of the game that we’ve found a way to lose, and those are the ones that tick me off,” Foligno said Saturday.
Come Sunday, the Hawks added another frustrating defeat to that bucket, falling 6-3 at home against the Blue Jackets. They’re now 8-14-2 this season, sitting last in the NHL.
The Hawks actually tied a season high with three power-play goals — by Connor Bedard in the first period, by Craig Smith in the second and by Foligno in the third — but they conceded a goal within the next three minutes every time. Those terribly timed miscues prevented them from building any momentum against a beatable opponent.
“We get one back and then we’re a little too loose — it just seemed like that,” Foligno said after the game. “They’re an offensive team…but you smother a team like that by making them have to come through you and not giving them those opportunities. It just seemed like a little bit too much time and space on a lot of those goals. We have to rectify this.”
Coach Luke Richardson was equally upset about his own message not being heeded. He said the team spent the last two days emphasizing the importance of playing a structured, defensive game instead of letting the Jackets break things open into a loose, back-and-forth game. But then the Jackets proved able to do exactly that.
“We haven’t been scoring a lot on five-on-five [play], so why would we do that?” Richardson said. “That would be irresponsible of us. We somehow got sucked into that game. That’s just [not] being disciplined on our game plan. We have to be stronger in that.
“Today was the whole ball of wax put together. That’s the situation Nick’s talking about.”
Hawks goalie Petr Mrazek endured his worst performance of the season, which exacerbated the Hawks’ porousness. Sean Monahan’s goal (which gave the Jackets the lead for good in the second period) and Dante Fabbro’s goal (which extended their lead to 4-2 in the third period) both beat him short-side with no Jackets screen in front — shots that always should be saved at this level.
Kent Johnson’s first-period goal also probably should’ve been stopped, although Mrazek made up for that by making an unbelievable glove save on Johnson later on. He finished with 30 saves on 35 shots.
The Hawks have now scored first in six consecutive games, but they’ve earned only two wins in that span. On most nights, their inability to keep generating offense and add onto their leads has been their biggest weakness. Their defense has been OK overall this season, and their goaltending has been stellar.
On Sunday, however, sloppy turnovers, inattentive defensive coverage and weak goaltending were the problems instead.
“We’re a team that [has to] earn respect every time we play, and no team thinks they’re out of it against us,” Foligno said. “We have to prove to them they’re out of it. It’s a hard thing to do.”
The Hawks continue to be competitive, at least. They’ve been leading, tied or within one goal in the third period in all but one game all season. But they also continue to find more and more new ways to lose those close games.
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