10 observations: Blackhawks routed by Stars originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Blackhawks lost to the Dallas Stars 6-1 on Tuesday at American Airlines Center.
Here are 10 observations from the loss:
1. Head coach Jeremy Colliton made a few lineup changes after Sunday’s 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay, going back to the traditional 12 forwards and six defensemen. Calvin de Haan returned after missing one game with an injury and Reese Johnson drew in for the first time since Feb. 15. Ian Mitchell was a healthy scratch for the first time in his NHL career and Wyatt Kalynuk also did not play.
2. This was one of the worst games the Blackhawks have played this season and it’s unfortunate because there was a real opportunity to keep the Stars in the rearview mirror by the end of this series. The Stars have six games in hand on the Blackhawks and now trail by 10 points, which means they technically control their own destiny for the No. 4 seed.
3. The Stars dominated in just about every statistical category. They led in shot attempts (60-36), shots on goal (37-22), scoring chances (30-12) and high-danger chances (14-3), according to Natural Stat Trick.
4. No team had scored fewer first-period goals going into this game than the Stars, who were at eight through 20 games. They scored twice in the opening frame on Tuesday. Three of their 10 first-period goals this season have come against the Blackhawks.
5. The Blackhawks got off to a brutal start. They had only 12 shot attempts, seven shots on goal, two scoring chances, zero high-danger chances and 1:20 of offensive zone possession time, according to Sportlogiq. The Stars had 22 shot attempts, 13 shots on goal, nine scoring chances, six high-danger chances and 2:48 of offensive zone possession time.
6. The Blackhawks had an opportunity to get back in the game and that’s what they did when they scored 1:43 into the second period to pull within one. But a Matthew Highmore offensive zone penalty just minutes later led to a power-play goal for the Stars, who scored three times in a span of exactly four minutes to extend their lead to 5-1.
7. The Blackhawks went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill and are now 14-for-27 over their last nine games. That’s a success rate of only 51.9 percent.
8. Mattias Janmark scored his ninth goal of the season, but Lucas Carlsson is the one who opened up the lane for the shot. He pretended like he was going to slapshot it from the point but instead fed it over to Janmark, which forced Anton Khudobin to go down early. A great play all-around right off the faceoff.
9. It was Patrick Kane Day in Chicago after he became the youngest Blackhawk ever to play in his 1,000th career NHL game at 32 years and 110 days. His teammates gave him a well-deserved special entrance when he hit the ice for pregame warmups.
10. Kane also received video messages from Chris Chelios, Sidney Crosby, Dominik Hasek, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Marian Hossa, Joel Quenneville, Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews, among many others. Here are some of the highlights:
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