Game Recap: Blackhawks 1 - Kraken 3
The Blackhawks lose 3-1 against the Seattle Kraken.
I don't know how to start this thing so I'm just going to open with this: last night sucked.
I'm hesitating to open up Natural Stat Trick but here we go. Yikes.
If there's anything to get real frustrated at, it's the veterans that Kyle Davidson brought on over the summer to be more competitive. In the grand scheme of things, none of those vets won't matter when this team plays meaningful games again. However, in the short term, there are some things that are getting incredibly old.
And it's not like the Kraken are a good team. They suck. And once again, much like last season and the one before it, the Hawks looked lifeless against a team they should be able to compete against. In the first two periods, the Hawks had a 32 Corsi at 5v5 before turning it up in the third. It's the same old song. 1 regulation goal in 4 games isn't great either.
If there is a veteran who I expected to be much better than they currently are, it's Teuvo Teravainen. Teuvo was bumped up to the first line for this game in hopes of getting our golden boy getting hot again. A 36.36 Corsi and an xG% of 36.95 is not what you like to see. Teuvo had a couple of brain-dead plays that I would've expected from the person in my next point.
The effort from Tyler Bertuzzi is getting stale real quick. Bert isn't going to be here when things matter again, but he is here for 4 years. Can you endure 4 years of whatever the hell he played tonight? And people want to see him bumped up to play with Connor Bedard. Bertuzzi had 1 shot attempt last night and a 28.57 Corsi at 5v5. He was never going to be sound in the DZ, but wasn't he supposed to be getting chances up close? Granted, there wasn't a single Hawk player who sniffed the blue paint last night.
Glad to see Alec Martinez is back in the lineup to really impact things. Skip to the 20-second mark to watch Martinez step up in the NZ with no forward covering him.
https://twitter.com/DavyJonesLR/status/1857275575255040178
Lukas Reichel had a couple of plays that I liked. Some stick lifts and he backchecked real well a few times.
Even though Wyatt Kaiser was on the bad end of a Kraken goal, I liked what I saw from him. He had the team-high Corsi at 50. Which isn't good but hey.
You might be tired of hearing this, but I'm not tired of saying it. Alex Vlasic looked solid and continued to break up plays with that reach.
For the golden boy, Connor Bedard only put up 1 shot on goal and 4 shot attempts. This kid can shoot the puck, but he's trying to pick corners and it's not working.
Tomorrow night, the Hawks head over to where Bedard was born or something. The evisceration that was done by Vancouver wasn't that long ago and the Hawks aren't looking to break out of their funk any time soon. I highly recommend watching this one intoxicated because it's not going to be pretty.
Out.