Game Recap: Blackhawks 5 - Islanders 3
Bedard scores and notches an assist in the Blackhawks 5-3 win against a depressed Islanders' team.
It's the time of year to be thankful or something, right? Well, I'm thankful I'm not a New York hockey fan. Good grief. Imagine getting chewed out for beating a team like the Blackhawks only to get beaten by them a couple of days later.
Tis the season.
We'll dive into my unhinged thoughts below, but first, let's recap the goals.
Scoring
Chicago scores first with some solid low-to-high work. A crowded scoring area opens up with a pass to the point. The D-to-D pass draws the defenders out and stretches the zone. Teuvo Teravainen carries the puck below the goal line and the Islanders don't button up. Islanders defense, baby.
The Islanders tie the game with 1:17 to go in the first. TJ Brodie steps up on the Islanders' breakout with Lukas Reichel deep in the NZ. Connor Bedard seems to anticipate Hawks' possession and lets Pierre Engvall skate right past him. Arvid Soderblom makes a big save but not Ryan Pulock's shot from the point.
Taylor Hall's goal to make the game 2-1 was beautiful.
https://twitter.com/nhl_goal_bot/status/1868398070578172094
Before the Islanders' second goal, Kevin Korchinski pinches to keep the puck in the OZ. Nice play. Jason Dickinson cancels out Korch's effort with a giveaway. The Islanders enter the Hawks zone, Korchinski pressures the puck carrier but there's no backchecking forward to support. Ultimately, New York scores. This was sloppy on Dickinson's part.
Bedard finds Teravainen on a 5-on-3 powerplay and the Hawks take a 3-2 lead.
The Islanders tie the game 3-3 because of butt-ugly defensive positioning. Anders Sorensen challenges the goal and loses.
Bedard scores the game-winning-goal and Connor Murphy scores an empty netter from the opposite end. 5-3 Hawks win.
Thoughts
Sorensen scratched Wyatt Kaiser but we still saw Brodie in the lineup. Let's favor the kids who benefit from learning from those mistakes instead of manatees.
This Kurashev-Bedard-Donato line needs to go. They produced a 33.33 Corsi (Pat Foley shoutout) and a team-low 25.01 xG%. This is supposed to be our most offensive line. Replace Philipp Kurashev with Teuvo Teravainen, our 3-point pass-first menace.
Kudos to the Hawks PK. 25 penalties have been murdered in a row.
Alex Vlasic now has 16 points so far. Last season, in 76 games, Vlasic finished with 16 points. Vlasic has had to step up to the plate because of Seth Jones' injury. Increased ice time brings with it new responsibilities and more situations. Vlasic has delivered and yes, I'm aware he hasn't been perfect.
Not a lot of thoughts on Frank Nazar but he looked ok. He made some noticeable plays and had 1 scoring chance. Let things cook for a minute since we like to "marinate" hockey players and all that jazz.
The Hawks' possession numbers sucked. The Hawks owned 41.86% of shot attempts and that's not because of scoring effects. Take a look at the graph yourself. The Hawks beat a team that can't defend.
Sorensen replaced Luke Richardson to get Bedard going and to increase offense. Bedard getting points is great, can't argue with 7 points in 5 games. But that's not an accolade for Sorensen. At 5v5, Bedard only has 3 points in those 5 games. Getting Bedard to score more starts with his linemates, which we already discussed.
As for Sorensen's impact on the rest of the team, the vets have a pep in their step (stride?) and they're more fun to watch. Things look better, but I'll wait a bit before I weigh in.
The Hawks play the Caps on Tuesday at 7:30 PM CT.
Let's Go Hawks.