10 observations: Offense stays dry in Hawks’ loss to Capitals originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Blackhawks dropped their third straight game after losing to the Washington Capitals 6-1 at Capital One Arena on Thursday.
Here are 10 observations from the loss:
1. The offense has officially hit a dry spell. The Blackhawks went 118:54 without scoring a goal before Nikita Zaitsev found the back of the net 3:08 into the third period for his first with his new team. Honestly, they were due for an offensive regression. They basically have to defend and goaltend their way to win at this point.
2. Anton Khudobin started between the pipes for the Blackhawks, and it was his first appearance in an NHL game since Jan. 15, 2022 — more than 14 months ago. He had a rocky start, which included a brutal giveaway to Conor Sheary on Washington’s first goal. Good on the Blackhawks for giving him an opportunity. I’m sure he wished it could’ve gone differently though.
3. The Blackhawks essentially played the game with 11 forwards. Philipp Kurashev took a hit from Tom Wilson on his second shift and did not return. He was in some pain on the bench, tried to wait for it to get better but then decided to go to the locker room. The team will know more on Friday what his status is.
4. No Jonathan Toews. No Max Domi. No Sam Lafferty. No. Cole Guttman. And now no Kurashev. Heck, even Jason Dickinson missed a shift in the second period after taking a hit from TJ Oshie that left his nose a little bloody. The center depth has taken a massive hit, to the point where Jujhar Khaira took reps as the first-line center with Andreas Athanasiou and Lukas Reichel.
5. I’m not sure Jarred Tinordi was trying to get even with Wilson for injuring Kurashev, but he lit up Wilson later in the first period and also drew a penalty after Alex Ovechkin tried to come to his teammate’s defense. Tinordi seemed totally unfazed when Wilson tried to have some words with him after the next whistle, too.
A few weeks ago, head coach Luke Richardson said of Tinordi: “If you owned a bar, you’d hire him as your bouncer. He looks in control and people are unsure and they don’t mess around.” What a perfect description.
6. The Blackhawks went 0-for-5 on the power play, but they generated 18 shot attempts and nine scoring chances on their five opportunities, per Natural Stat Trick. They’re making baby steps, and scoring goals will probably be even harder if Kurashev is out for any period of time.
7. Ovechkin, who scored a hat trick for his 800th career NHL goal at the United Center earlier this season, locked up his 13th career 40-goal campaign on Tuesday, surpassing Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history. He also scored for the 821st time in this game, pulling himself within 73 goals of Gretzky for the all-time record. I predict he’ll hit it in February of 2025.
8. Tyler Johnson led all forwards with 21:02 of ice time. It’s also the most minutes he’s logged in a regular-season game since Nov. 19, 2018, when he finished with 22:03 as a member of Tampa Bay.
9. Dylan Strome signed a five-year, $25 million contract in February, which is the exact same deal his brother Ryan got in Anaheim. Good to see Dylan get rewarded and find some long-term stability. With the way the Capitals like to play, Washington is a perfect fit for him.
10. The Capitals are fighting for their playoff lives right now, and their chances are hanging by a thread. They’re four points behind Pittsburgh for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and the Penguins have two games in hand. The Capitals blew a 3-0 lead and lost to Columbus 7-6 in overtime on Tuesday, which felt like the dagger.
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