In last night's 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild, it was a rare occurrence for Patrick Kane to be kept off the board. Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, no other forwards were able to find the back of the net.
Brandon Saad and Kirby Dach were able to grab assists, but none of the offensive weapons for the Hawks were able to light the lamp. Defensemen Adam Boqvist and Olli Maatta scored the team's two goals.
"I think it's been a while since we played that poorly," Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton said after Tuesday's game. "First two periods and overtime I didn't think were very good. But credit to [the Wild], they made it hard on us. They had an urgency and desperation to their game that we didn't match in the beginning."
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Despite the loss last night, Chicago still found a way to force overtime and grab a point to remain just three points out of a playoff spot heading into Wednesday's game against the Boston Bruins, who hold the second-best record in the league.
While Kane was riding a 12-game point streak, which was snapped on Tuesday in Minnesota, some other forwards had been productive as well. Jonathan Toews had 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in his past eight games before Tuesday and Brandon Saad had four goals in four games. Rookie Dominik Kubalik — who's been playing on the left wing of Toews — has 21 goals so far this season, which is five more than the rookie with the second most (Victor Olofsson: 16).
The Blackhawks seemed to have turned the corner since winning five straight before losing to Coach Q's Florida Panthers to head into the All-Star break and bye week. Saturday's 3-2 shootout victory was a solid effort to work past vacation legs out of break and despite a poor start on Tuesday, they managed to get a much-needed point.
What the Hawks need to avoid is losing their grip on their newfound consistency. They were around a .500 team — now 25-21-7 — for the majority of the first half of the season because they were constantly up and down.
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The Blackhawks are 1-8-3 when Kane fails to record a point this season. The key offensive contributors during this last stretch other than Kane (Toews, Kubalik and Saad) can't lose their magic when "Showtime" does. They need to find a way to get on the board on the off night he doesn't.
Being a few points out of the playoff picture in what will continue to be a very tight wild card race in the West, Chicago needs to capture all the points they can here on out. They'll need their big guns to score all the goals they can night in and night out to make it back to the postseason promised land after missing out the past two years.
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