Face Down in the Moment: Avalanche 5, Blackhawks 0

The Blackhawks finally did it. They lost a loseable game. Wow.

Oh thank god.

When I heard that Cale Makar was out for this game and Alex Stalock was starting, I thought for sure that the Chicago Blackhawks may take this game. They’ve taken games from teams hungrier than them recently, so it wouldn’t be too shocking.

However, Stalock seemed like the only player awake for the Blackhawks on Monday night, as Chicago lost 5-0 to the Colorado Avalanche. That’s the kind of loss the Blackhawks need to get back to, especially this late in the season with this few players of import on the roster.

The Avalanche started the scoring as defenseman Kurtis MacDermid scored his first of the season for Colorado just 2:41 into the game.

The puck deflected in off of Ian MItchell and there’s nothing Stalock can do about that.

It would take more than a period for the Avalanche to score again, as Colorado went on a fast break. Upon entry, the Avalanche did a bit of passing and of the three Blackhawks defenders that were back, none went with Denis Malgin to the side of the net.

About five minutes later, with Jason Dickinson in the box for holding the stick of Malgin — the Blackhawks’ lone penalty of the contest — the puck went to Mikko Rantanen, who simply chose his corner and sniped a shot past Stalock.

In the third period, the puck found young forward Logan O’Connor near the right faceoff dot and O’Connor put the puck past Stalock.

Just 14 seconds after O’Connor’s goal, Malgin, with a bit of crafty stickwork, put a bouncing puck into the net for the Avalanche’s fifth goal of the night.

The Avalanche would hold the game there, as the final score was 5-0.

Notes

• That’s one of the worst losses I’ve seen, and this is me, the only one on staff actively rooting for the tank, talking. I mean, there was just nothing good about that game for the Blackhawks. Stalock stopped 27 of 32, which is good in the sense that it helps the tank but bad for him considering the rest of his stats this season, the Blackhawks accomplished approximately zero offensively and even the defense looked bad.
• Ian Mitchell was on ice — and perhaps partially responsible for — three goals in this game, finishing with a 15.82 percent expected goal share. The Blackhawks, for comparison, finished with a team 42.25 percent at 5-on-5. Yikes.
• Just three players for the Blackhawks weren’t on ice for any goals against. Those three? Taylor Raddysh, Tyler Johnson and Jason Dickinson. Okay.
• You know it’s bad when Luke Richardson is playing Caleb Jones the most of any skater, as the younger Jones finished with 22:52. It’s not even for a good reason, as three other Blackhawks defensemen outplayed Caleb at 5-on-5, including Jarred TInordi.
• In fact, as hard as this is to say the… (sorry, threw up in my mouth a little) the pairing of Tinordi and Connor Murphy may have been the … oh god … only bright spot for the Blackhawks. The duo, at 5-on-5, both finished with a positive expected goal share (58.44 percent for Tinordi, the team lead) and zero goals against. The duo was positive in every possession stat except scoring chances, which, on this rough of a night, is a feat.

Game Charts

Three stars

1. Denis Malgin (COL) — 2 G, 1 A
2. Alexandar Georgiev (COL) — 27 SV, 2.09 xGA
3. Mikko Rantanen (COL) — 1 G, 1 A

What’s next

The Blackhawks continue their road trip by heading east for a game in the nation’s capital against the Capitals at 6 p.m. on Thursday.