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player ready...The Hawks suffered a face-palm of 2-1 defeat Thursday. St. Louis tied the game with less than two minutes remaining in regulation before winning it in overtime. Here are four things to take away from the result.
1. With the loss, the Hawks are locked into the No. 3 playoff spot in the Central Division, and they will face off either against St. Louis or Dallas in the first round when the postseason begins next week. Perhaps more important, the Hawks will officially begin their Stanley Cup defense on the road.
“Well, it’s not [the end of the world] right now,” said Patrick Kane, who had an assist Thursday. “We put ourselves in that situation. We’ve done it before where we’ve started on the road and sometimes it can be a positive if you steal one of the games on the road and come back home feeling good about yourself.”
2. Feb. 6. That’s the last time the Hawks defeated a team headed for the Western Conference playoffs this season (they beat Dallas, 5-1).
“It would have been nice tonight,” Kane said. “We were in a good situation I thought, I thought we played pretty well all night. … Obviously we’ve got to be better closing out these games.”
3. Artemi Panarin will not be pushed around. On the same shift the rookie was sandwiched by a pair of Blues, he took it out on the next opponent he saw with a punishing hit into the boards. It wasn’t just to make him feel better, either. He kept the puck in the zone and set up a scoring chance.
4. Scott Darling was solid in goal for the Blackhawks on Thursday, especially in the frantic overtime period, stopping 33 of 35 shots on the night. Can’t ask for much more from your net minder. Corey Crawford will start between the pipes Saturday against Columbus, mostly to get his sea legs under him before the playoffs begin next week. Expect some of the Hawks’ more important players to get a breather considering the result will be meaningless.
“I’d like to play in it,” Kane said. “I don’t think the playoffs start until Wednesday, so you’re kind of sitting around for a while. Me personally, I’d like to get some game action and you can rest for those few days before the playoffs.”
5. The Hawks’ penalty kill is invincible lately, having canceled out 20 straight opposing power plays since center Marcus Kruger returned from an injury a few weeks ago. Coincidence? Doesn’t look that way.