On March 15, the Chicago Blackhawks traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, to play the Canucks. Center Filip Chytil was skating toward the puck at the half-wall when center Jason Dickinson trucked him from behind.
After the hit, Chytil went straight to the dressing room and wouldn’t return. He was diagnosed with a concussion and would end up missing the rest of the 2024-25 season.
It was a tough break for the Czech forward, who had had concussion and other injury history. The 26-year old has missed significant time, including the last 72 games of 2023-24.
The Canucks were not happy with Dickinson. They may have had Oct. 17 marked on their calendars.
“He’s going to have to answer the bell,” left winger Kierfer Sherwood said after the March game. “We’ll get him next year.”
While the Canucks didn’t target Dickinson on Friday night at the United Center, they got even on the scoreboard.
The Hawks saw their two-game winning streak end with a 3-2 shootout loss for their 11th straight defeat in the series. Their last win against the Canucks came on Nov. 21, 2021.
“I felt like we gave them life when we didn’t need to and that’s a huge learning thing for us,” Hawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “We should have been able to walk out of this game with two points.”
Teuvo Teräväinen, Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar and Ryan Donato all came up empty in the shootout. Canucks right wing Brock Boeser beat goalie Spencer Knight the fourth round for the win.
The Hawks (2-2-2) were up 2-0 after first-period goals from Donato and Tyler Bertuzzi, but Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen held them scoreless from there, finishing with 31 saves.
Second-period goals from Jake Debrusk at 6:49 and Max Sasson at 13:42 knotted the game at 2. The Hawks have been tied or with the lead going into the third period in every game this season.
With 5:32 left in the third, Bertuzzi appeared to have broken the tie with a tap-in shot into the left of the net. The referees instantly waved it off, calling goaltender interference.
“I won’t comment, I‘ll probably get fined,” Bertuzzi said. “I think it was not that great of a call.”
Added Blashill, who lost a challenge on the call: “I’d challenge it again 10 out of 10. I haven’t gotten an explanation yet as for why it wasn’t overturned, so maybe when I hear that, it’ll change my mind. I’ll have to call someone there and get an explanation. I never heard any reason why, so it’s hard for me to comment beyond that, but I was challenging it 100% and I’d challenge it again tomorrow.”
The loss was a missed opportunity for the Hawks to take advantage of a Canucks team in the second half of a back-to-back. They won in Dallas on Thursday, beating the Stars 5-3.
“Blash (Blashill) talks all the time about how hard it is to win in this league,” defenseman Connor Murphy said. “To not put together enough of a push to take a team’s will away when you have them down against the ropes is a big difference in winning and losing. It’s a learning lesson. We didn’t do enough to earn the win that we should’ve gotten.”
The Hawks stayed in the game behind a penalty kill that went 6-for-7. But they have committed a league-high 36 penalties, averaging 14.3 minutes per game.
“That’s a real issue, it’s something we’ve addressed,” Blashill said. “We’ll have to continue to address and we need to get better at it. I think our guys are understanding you can’t win that way. Now we have to put that into action.”