Game Recap: Blackhawks 1 - Kings 3
Recapping the Blackhawks loss against the Los Angeles Kings.
There was a lot to like about this game, at least initially. Connor Bedard scored his third goal of the season, and the Blackhawks dominated puck possession with a 62.96% Corsi in the first period. The Hawks also owned the majority of scoring chances with a 74.7% expected goals share (xG%) and had a 10-4 shot advantage (all at 5-on-5). Things looked vastly different after the first. What happened?
Once the Kings scored two goals in the span of under two minutes, they tightened up their defense and made it difficult for the Blackhawks to make controlled entries. The Kings forced the Hawks to chip pucks in deep and retrieve with little success. The below shot chart from Evolving Hockey shows how the Kings excelled at limiting the Hawks shots in the second period compared to the first period.
Connor Bedard struggled with zone entries tonight. Three seasons in, and I’m the slightest bit concerned about his OZ entries. Opponents don’t have a tough time stripping the puck away from Bedard. He’s only credited with one giveaway according to Natural Stat Trick, but I counted two. Bedard also had the worst 5-on-5 possession stats on the Hawks with a 24.24% Corsi.
Wyatt Kaiser had his worst game of the season. Kaiser took a horrible shot in the third period which was blocked and gave possession to the Kings who had a scoring chance. Kaiser had a 37.57 xG% and was the worst Hawk according to Hockey Stat Cards graph.
Aryom Levshunov was quiet. He made some plays that I liked (like his pinch during his first shift) and surprisingly had decent analytics with a 63.16% Corsi and a 62.83 xG%. But he also had two giveaways and still needs a lot of work on the power play.
There were some other observations I noted (like Sam Rinzel’s excellent shift in the second that ended with a brutal turn over) but I think I’ll end it with a thought on the broadcast. I’m not a fan of Darren Pang praising Corey Perry. I gave him a little leeway with his constant praising of St. Louis Blues legend Pat Maroon (a lot of leeway) last season. Maroon was retiring as a Blackhawk. But the Perry praise felt out of place on a Chicago broadcast. He’s also been too rambly this season to the point where it’s distracting. Let Rick Ball do his job, please.
Anyway, I’ve rambled much too long myself. Have a night.