Connor Bedard extended his point streak to nine games, but the Chicago Blackhawks looked sleepy in a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena on Friday.
Teuvo Teräväinen ended a 10-game goal drought by scoring back-to-back goals during a third-period rally, but the Hawks had dug itself too big a hole.
If the Hawks weren’t falling victim to turnovers off forced passes, they were getting dragged around the ice — especially during a second period that was almost all defense.
“Today was self-inflicted wounds,” interim coach Anderson Sorensen said. “If it was turnovers or just a reaction to transitions and just being on our toes a little bit more, some of those things that we did at home (in wins) against Montreal and Colorado” weren’t present.
It was a stunning lack of effort after all the talk this week of carving out an identity — “hard to play against,” “simple,” “relentless” and plenty of other descriptors were thrown around.
They weren’t relentless Friday; they were run down.
“You can talk all you want but you’ve got to show up,” said Ryan Donato, who scored the Hawks’ first goal.
Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat haunted their former team and helped the Wings extend their winning streak to six games.
The Red Wings opened the scoring 4 minutes, 26 seconds into the game after Taylor Hall made a bad change and left DeBrincat uncovered for a connection well familiar to Hawks fans: a Kane cross-ice pass to DeBrincat.
Kane had three assists on the night.
The Hawks answered thanks to a hot streak by Bedard and some fortunate timing by Ryan Donato.
Donato left the penalty box just in time to go on a rush with Bedard, who seamed a pass for a kneeling one-time blast by Donato to even it 1-1.
The Hawks have had their share of second-period lulls this season, but what transpired Friday strained credulity.
Chicago Blackhawks are 14-25-2 at the midpoint of another lost season. What’s left to play for in the 2nd half?
The Wings outshot the visitors 18-2 in the second — and that second shot by the Hawks came with 20 seconds left in the period.
Illustrating just how much the Red Wings dominated puck possession, they finished the middle frame with a 93%-7% advantage in Corsi-for share.
“We’re not trying to play our D-zone the whole period, it just happened,” Teräväinen said. “I feel like everybody was gassed.”
The Red Wings also boasted a 10-1 advantage in high-danger chances (all strengths), according to Natural Stat Trick.
Hawks defensive assistant coach Kevin Dean said during a second-intermission interview on CHSN that the defensemen didn’t support each other well.
“We had a lot of room for improvement, let’s just say,” he said.
Thanks to some stellar saves from Petr Mrázek and a bit of luck, the Hawks escaped down just 2-1 after Lucas Raymond scored on a power play.
However, the Red Wings started to pull away early in the third as they made swiss cheese of the Hawks defense.
The Hawks looked like they were standing still as the Wings had their way through the neutral and offensive zones before Andrew Copp one-timed it 5 minutes into the third.
Albert Johansson scored his first NHL goal on a nifty backhand seam pass from Raymond 2:07 later.
It was only after a TV timeout with less than 10 minutes left that the Hawks showed they still had some life.
On Teräväinen’s first goal, defenseman Nolan Allan threaded a cross-crease pass through Simon Edvinsson’s legs to Teräväinen for a backhander.
Sorensen took a risk and pulled Mrázek for a sixth attacker with 3:50 — and it paid off. Teräväinen struck again.
Donato flipped the puck into the zone and banged Edvinsson into the wall to force a turnover.
Teräväinen jumped on the puck and slung a far-side shot past Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot with 2:54 left.
But the comeback came to a halt when Marco Kasper scored an empty-net goal with 1:39 left.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
1. Philipp Kurashev wasted his one chance.
He wore street clothes in eight of the last 10 games, but Kurashev finally suited up for the first time since Dec. 15. And he played like he already has his suitcase packed for O’Hare.
One play summed up his night — and really, his season.
In the third period, he turned the puck over near the Red Wings blue line, which started a Detroit rush.
Kurashev looked like he was moving in slow motion as both Kane and Erik Gustafsson blew by him. The deke Gustafsson put on him was particularly glaring.
Then Kurashev just stood there. Puck watching. Not defending.
It seemed like an eternity before he reacted to a low-to-high pass to Copp, then took a little whack at him from behind, a beat too late to prevent Copp from scoring.
All Sorensen would say is, “I expect better.”
Well, we expect more from his coach.
It’s clear that Sorensen is reluctant to criticize players publicly, but his words beyond and behind closed doors equally send a message.
It’s one thing if Kurashev had made a mistake or was rusty, but given the circumstances — both Sorensen and Luke Richardson before him have sat him repeatedly — a verbal flogging was in order.
Kurashev, an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent with a cap hit of $2.25 million, virtually has no chance of being re-signed after the season, so he’s mostly likely auditioning for his next team.
Kurashev was blessed to see ice again (the Hawks sat Lukas Reichel, who also is struggling), so his effort should’ve looked more Donato than Donato himself.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone if general manager Kyle Davidson sends a message with his next move.
2. Connor Bedard might not like it, but he keeps making history.
He doesn’t seem to care for age-based milestones, and he has said as much.
But until he turns 20 on July 17, the forward is going to continue to make his mark among all-time Hawks teenagers.
With his assist on Donato’s goal, Bedard became the third teen in franchise history with a nine-game point streak, matching Eddie Olczyk (nine games from Nov. 11-30, 1985) and trailing only Jonathan Toews (10 games from Oct. 10-31, 2007).
Bedard also passed Kane with his 66th assist, now trailing only Olczyk (80) among Hawks teens.
3. On second thought, the third period looked just as bad.
Don’t get it twisted, the Hawks looked as bad in the second period as they have at any point this season, but at least they gave up only one goal.
Their third-period numbers are testament not only to how often they fold in the put-up-or-shut-up period, but often they’re playing from behind.
After giving up three in the third Friday, they led the league with 59 goals allowed.
Granted, one of those was an empty-netter, but you’re only prone to those if you’re trailing.
And the Hawks are tied for the lead with the Colorado Avalanche in that category, too, with 15.