SALT LAKE CITY — That was ugly.
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The Chicago Blackhawks were coming off a less-than-ideal season opener, a 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Hawks struggled on the road against the Stanley Cup runners-up.
Salt Lake City was a perfect place for a rebound. The Hawks had had the Mammoth’s number, winning four straight games against the newest NHL team.
Thursday’s game was a whole different story.
The Hawks were overwhelmed against their Central Division foe in a 6-0 pummeling. The Hawks (0-2-0) have been outscored 11-2 to start the season.
“I don’t think we played very good individually, I thought we made our decisions too slow,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “I didn’t think we played to the level that we’re capable of.”
The first period, much like in Las Vegas, was bad for the Hawks. It was scoreless until Mammoth forwards Dylan Guenther and Michael Carcone scored 40 seconds apart at 16:41 and 17:21, respectively.
The Hawks trailed by the same margin after one period in the opener.
“Momentum in games matters — a lot of times when you’re on the road, especially against what I think are really good teams, you’re going to get pinned in a little bit,” Blashill said. “You’ve got to manage that and try to get out of there without giving up goals, without taking penalties, which we didn’t do on either night.”
Blashill’s line combinations took to the ice Thursday, shuffling Frank Nazar with Patrick Kane, Anton Frondell, Roman Kantserov, Teuvo Teräväinen and Tyler Bertuzzi.
“It’s always fun to play with (Kane) and Roman, I thought we had some good looks there towards the end.” Nazar said. “It’s good going out there with everybody and trying to do our best to create something.”
It might not be the best idea to mix lines this frequently with a young team, and Blashill’s switches seem to be made in panic rather than strategy. The young, new-look Hawks need to develop chemistry with the recent roster additions.
Blashill brushed off the notion of his lineups thwarting team flow Wednesday.
“It is what it is,” Blashill said. “We’re trying to find the right combos and we’ll see when we get there.”
The right combos were not there at the Delta Center. A below-average first period was followed by a second in which the Mammoth had 29 shot attempts with 13 on goal, compared with 12 attempts and two shots on goal for the Hawks.
Ryan Donato, Nick Lardis, Ryan Greene, Kantserov, Kane and Nazar finished with zero shots on goal. And Blashill noticed.
“We’ve got to get to some lines that we feel can produce offense and generate chances,” he said.
Lines have been ever-changing, but the defensive pairs may need a refurbishing. The Hawks blueliners combined for nine giveaways, five shots attempts blocked and a non-positive rating for all.
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“It’s tough to say one or a few specific things (that went wrong) at this point,” defenseman Ian Cole said. “Obviously it wasn’t good enough. We’re going to have to take the next 48 hours and look at it and fix some things.”
Bowen Byram‘s first couple of games with his new team haven’t been great. Blashill did switch Byram to pair with Levshunov for a bit, but he doesn’t have plans to involve Kevin Korchinski or Ethan Del Mastro yet.
“I’m not there, probably, we’ll see,” Blashill said. “We consider everything, so we’ll look at it and see if we think the two other options are better than the options that played.”
Cole — the 37-year-old veteran who signed a one-year, $4 million contract in the offseason after two seasons in Utah — received a brief but warm welcome back in the first period. Unsurprisingly, that wasn’t the focus postgame.
“It was nice (but) unfortunately the outcome of the game kind of overshadows everything,” Cole said. “We’re professional athletes and we get judged based on whether we win or lose hockey games. Tonight was obviously not a great game.”
The Mammoth made clearing the puck nearly impossible, creating an endless slew of scoring chances. The Hawks spent nearly the entire game in their own zone.
The Mammoth had 65 total shot attempts, 32 on goal with five players scoring. They also won 39 of 54 faceoffs.
“Certainly large parts of the first and the first half of the second, we couldn’t get out of our end,” Blashill said. “I thought we overcomplicated it a bit again. It’s just a process.”
Kantserov was close to his first NHL goal in the third period but was unable to rebound Levshunov’s shot. Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka (15 saves) pounced on the loose puck, just one of the highlights of his ninth career shutout.
The opening two games couldn’t have gone much worse for the Hawks, and a hungry Sabres team awaits them Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y.
“I don’t think we can let it snowball,” Cole said. “There’s going to be ups and downs through the course of the season. We would have preferred not to start down, but I think that there is a reality where if we can steel ourselves and we can get our mind right in how we approach the long run over the course of 84 games, we could look back at this and say, ‘Hey, this could’ve been good for us.'”
Added Nazar, bluntly: “It’s two games.”
Blashill’s confidence in his team hasn’t wavered. But he noted that the Sabres offer a grand opportunity.
“You’ve got to go change that with your play,” Blashill said. “You’ve got to find a way to win a hockey game Saturday against a really tough opponent in their building.
“I don’t think there’s any lack of belief in our group. We’re 0-2, that’s the fact of it. We haven’t played nearly our best, but it’s neither more nor less than that.”
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