Cut It Up: Canucks 4, Blackhawks 2

The interminable slog continues.

Wouldn’t ya know it … the Chicago Blackhawks lost again!

It’s the darndest thing.

This time it was a 3-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night at the United Center.

The first goal of the game came near the end of the first period, with Connor Murphy scoring on his birthday with this long wrister from just inside the blue line while shorthanded:

Chicago went into the first intermission with a lead and very nearly made it back into the locker room with the same advantage. With #17seconds left in the second, though, Phillip Di Guiseppe was credited with the goal when his centering pass bounced into the net off of Seth Jones’ skate:

Then a pair of Elias Pettersson goals that came 63 seconds apart in the third period put the game away. First, he one-timed a pass from Ethan Bear into the Chicago net:

Then Pettersson hopped on a loose puck for an easy tap-in after a point shot ended up behind Petr Mrazek but not quite over the goal line:

Lukas Reichel made it a one-goal game with the Chicago net empty and just under two minutes remaining, hacking a puck home after Seth Jones sent it towards the net:

But that late rally proved to be a fake rally, with Brock Boeser’s empty-net goal about 40 seconds later snuffing out any thoughts of a comeback.

Notes

• Lukas Reichel’s speed continues to be noticeable and it’s impressive how quickly he gets up to full speed — and that’s probably why the phrase “speed through the neutral zone” comes up so often because Reichel can get to that top gear faster than most. Get Reichel some linemates who have similar speed and skill, allow them time to develop chemistry so they can exit the zone together with speed, and it’ll probably scare the shit out of every defensive pairing it faces.
• And speaking of entertaining to watch: Reichel has seemed inches away from highlight-reel goals on a few occasions lately and it’d be pretty cool if he cashed in on one of those chances before the season ended.
• Yeah, sticking up for your teammates and all that — I get it. But MacKenzie Entwistle should probably get back on defense instead of trying to goad Dakota Joshua into a fight on that Pettersson goal that broke the 1-1 tie in the third period. Settling a score can not come at the expense of surrendering goals against. If this game mattered, it would’ve been substantially more annoying — but no reason to let that standard be set incorrectly now.
• Jarred Tinordi did not finish this game and looks like he’ll be out of the lineup for a bit once again:

• Tyler Johnson had a slew of chances in the third period but did not score on any of them. He has not scored a goal since Feb. 27 and, after not scoring on the sequence below, it’s entirely possible that he may never score again:

• A final word or 100 on all the Pride Night happenings:

No, the jerseys are not the only part of the night’s festivities and having those events happen alongside the game are important for a group of people within our society that are actively being marginalized in legislative sessions across the country. But it feels like we’ve arrived at two takeaways from what’s happened the last few days. One is on the future of Pride Nights in the NHL and how to get the focus of these nights to return to shining a light on the need for inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community in the hockey world instead of the ones who are objecting to it. That’s a league-wide problem. Probably a society-wide one, too.

The other takeaway focuses solely on Chicago, zeroing in on its ownership. Because the Blackhawks made an organizational decision last week that was based on information that continues to not add up — most recently contradicted by the NHL’s own deputy commissioner. They said they were going to be transparent. When given the chance to practice that, here was the reply:

What has this organization done at any point in the last decade-plus that makes it worthy of the benefit of doubt?

Game Charts

Three Stars

1. Elias Pettersson (VAN) — 2 goals
2. Andrei Kuzmenko (VAN) — 2 assists
3. Lukas Reichel (CHI) — 1 goal, being the only thing worth watching on this team right now

What’s Next

The Blackhawks remain at home to host Max Domi and the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.