VANCOUVER, British Columbia — It’s easy to look at Monday’s 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks and dismiss the Chicago Blackhawks as overmatched.
While there’s truth to that, the Canucks supplied a couple of reminders that Hawks aren’t just throwing a bunch of roster-fillers on the ice every season.
Pius Suter and Sam Lafferty were members of Hawks teams that were considered awful, and now they’re top contributors (nine and 10 goals, respectively) on the NHL’s No. 1 team.
Suter led off the scoring Monday with a first-period goal. Linemate Quinn Hughes walked up to the crease with a follow-up goal less than five minutes later.
After that, some of the Hawks’ current role players stalemated the Canucks the rest of the way. They just couldn’t crack the seal Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko placed around the net.
“Give him credit, he played well tonight,” Nick Foligno said, “but we could have tested him a bit more.”
The Hawks led 31-29 in shots on goal, though it was 27-27 in all-strength scoring chances, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.
“That’s the best team in the league, and I think it was a little bit of them and a little bit of us,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “We just didn’t kill plays in the D-zone, and they extended it and they really came out ready to go. They flexed their muscles and showed why they’re No. 1 in the league.”
The Hawks had a few chances on the power play but went 0-for-5.
“Unfortunately we cut a couple of our power plays off short with penalties, but our determination the rest of the way was good,” Richardson said.
The Hawks have lost 17 straight road games.
“That’s definitely way too many in a row on the road,” said Reese Johnson, who led the Hawks with four scoring chances, per NaturalStatTrick.com. “Every loss is a tough one, but we’ve just got to find a way and that way is in the room.”
Added Foligno, who returned after breaking a finger Jan. 5: “Let’s be honest, our record on the road isn’t great. Sometimes we’re ‘waiting’ into games on the road. It’s almost like we’re waiting to see what they’re going to do at home before we respond.
“And tonight we got caught in our end watching them play for the first part, and they got two goals because of it, where we’re just not quite as engaged as we need to be.”
Foligno felt the Hawks eventually snapped to attention and dominated much of the third period.
“That’s the mindset that we have to have and understand that’s the only way you’re going to crawl out of a road thing like this,” he said.
Here are four takeaways from the loss.
1. Nick Foligno’s finger felt OK in his first game back.
For the most part.
“Oh, yeah, I jammed it a few times, but that’s the way it goes,” he said.
After missing seven games, Foligno played 19 minutes, 29 seconds. His one hiccup came when he lost his stick during a second-period power play and held Teddy Blueger.
“Yeah, those suck,” he said. “You try to keep a puck in, and they take away our power play. And it’s just an unfortunate part sometimes of the game, but we had our chances on the power play too tonight.”
Richardson said of Foligno: “He plays hard. Unfortunately the penalty, he lost his stick so he had to kind of give the guy a grab. He didn’t want to give up a two-on-one.
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“But we were on the advantage, so it just nullified our power play, which kind of sucked, but he just was in that position. Had nothing to do with his finger or his hand.”
Richardson credited Foligno for setting a tone for the rest of the game.
“He drove the net down low and he gives us a physical presence as well, which is what we have to play right now,” he said.
2. The Hawks got shut out again.
They’ve been blanked in two of their last three games. Three of their five shutouts this season have come this month, all on the road.
Say what you will about their lack of offensive punch, the Hawks usually have scrapped together a goal or two. So what’s going on?
“When they’re not coming easily, we’ve got to find a way to get those greasy ones and get to the house a little more, shoot more pucks, get rebounds,” Johnson said. “I had a couple chances tonight. Would’ve liked to bury those to help the boys out.”
3. Jason Dickinson’s snub is a head-scratcher.
Every season the NHL insists on having an All-Star from each team, which is dumb.
That’s not to say Connor Bedard wasn’t worthy — he certainly was — but sometimes the players sent to represent the bottom-feeders are a stretch, especially compared with stars from power teams who get left off the list.
But if that’s how you’re rolling, stick to it.
Instead, with Bedard on the mend from a broken jaw and the Vegas Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel recovering from surgery for a lower-body injury, their replacements will come from other teams: New York Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck and Winnipeg Jets forward Kyle Connor.
Dickinson, who’s tied with Bedard with a team-leading 15 goals, has been sheepish about the question.
“It’s more so the guys bugging me about it,” he said last week about his teammates. “It’s not crossing my mind. I’m just playing hockey.
“Obviously with Connor getting hurt, it creates an opportunity potentially for somebody else to go. The guys like to poke fun that it’s going to be me — third-line, shutdown center might be going as an All-Star. It’s definitely been funny to hear the guys poke fun that it’s possible.”
No one is saying Dickinson is more deserving than Trocheck and Connor. But picking someone other than another Hawk or another Knight is a tacit acknowledgement that the NHL’s 32-team format has inherent problems.
It’s like saying we believe that every team has a worthy All-Star, but if one person gets injured, we really don’t believe that. It comes off as wishy-washy.
4. Setting the record straight on Connor Bedard.
Richardson made a pregame comment about the timeline for Bedard’s recovery that was misconstrued in subsequent reports.
Social media lit up Monday afternoon with reports that Bedard might be facing another six weeks, which would place his return in early to mid-March.
Richardson clarified: “It was six to eight weeks at the beginning (of the injury) is what was said. You’re never going to know. Talk to me in a month. Because he’s not going to be back by then. There’s no change (to the timeline). It’s the same.”
Bedard seemingly has been itching to push his return sooner than later, and the Hawks have struggled offensively without him.
But Richardson said: “He ain’t coming back next week, which would be great. It’s not about him wanting to or not. It’s just about the medical side of things. The doctors will let us know when he’s ready to come back.”