The Chicago Blackhawks came to life too late to avoid another close loss — this one a 3-1 defeat by the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night at the United Center.
The four-game winning streak in January that started in Las Vegas seems like a distant memory. The Hawks have since gone 1-4-2.
A team that had been a tough out in regulation has been held to no points in three of the last four games.
The Hawks knew the stakes ahead of time. Patrick Kane said after the morning skate: “You have Vancouver, who’s a team that’s kind of in the same position as us or a few points ahead of us. It’s a big game tonight. You win tonight and you play Minnesota on Wednesday and see if you can go into the (All-Star) break with a little momentum.”
After the puck dropped Monday, the momentum was all Vancouver’s.
The Canucks dominated possession in the first period and frustrated the Hawks offense in the second.
Whenever a Hawk tried to find space to create something, there was a Canuck with a stick down to block Alex DeBrincat or a defender riding a streaking Dominik Kubalík.
That’s when the Hawks could get into the offensive zone. Breaking Vancouver’s neutral zone pressure proved a chore, even thought the Hawks placed an emphasis in practice on their forecheck.
“(We) worked on a few things and just kind of go back and have a little reboot on D-zone coverage, neutral-zone forecheck, just to refresh their memories,” Hawks coach Derek King said after the morning skate. “As players, you can forget things or get lazy or get some bad habits.”
The Hawks fell back into some other bad habits.
Jake McCabe made a bad pass from the defensive zone, and Alex Chiasson capitalized with a wrister off Justin Dowling’s setup 12:21 into the game.
In the second period, the Canucks played keep-away until Brock Boeser deflected in Quinn Hughes’ sharp-angle shot that trickled through a sliver of daylight to Marc-André Fleury’s stick side.
After Kirby Dach’s takeaway, Connor Murphy’s one-timer with 6:59 left in the third gave the Hawks some life.
The Hawks showed more jump, but a late penalty for too many men on the ice forced them to spend precious minutes on defense.
Luke Schenn added an empty-netter for the Canucks in the final minute.
The Canucks’ 31-21 edge in shots on goal doesn’t tell the whole story. The Hawks also blocked 30 shots, indicating how one-sided the offensive pressure was for much of the game.
