![\"Connor](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/e8abe0c\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5908x3939+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F4b%2Fde%2Fdd2813b549de8134d5f47d963964%2Fmurphy-1.jpg\")
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Veteran Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy has experienced so many years of losing in Chicago that he has acclimated to the usual tides of a basement-dwelling season.<\/p>\n
During the stretch run after the trade-deadline sell-off, where the Hawks currently find themselves, the team\u2019s longest-tenured player has ridden this ride enough times to know the best approach involves re-framing expectations.<\/p>\n
As the Hawks\u2019 losing streak extended to seven consecutive games with a 4-1 defeat Saturday against the Blues \u2014 dropping them to 20-41-9 this season, including 7-24-5 on the road \u2014 there\u2019s really no other way to maintain sanity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the nature of this time of the year, after trading guys away and having a young team,\u201d Murphy said Friday. \u201cYou change your mindset to look at how <\/i>we\u2019re playing. Obviously we want to win every game, but you do want to make sure your details and how you play as a team is in order, and then the wins come.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like we\u2019re back more in that stage of trying to get our game complete and worry about big details that we\u2019re giving up. It\u2019s magnified this time of the year when you\u2019re playing against teams that are gearing up for playoffs. A turnover turns into a goal more than it did two months ago. There\u2019s things like that we\u2019re just going to have to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team dynamic feels different to Murphy now because the roster has turned over so much since the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were growing as a team with a lot of different guys before, and now we\u2019re trying to reset that with new players,\u201d Murphy added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a weird, hard reality. It sets in more, where you are in the standings, and knowing there is no hope of getting much better for the remainder of the season. … But you still have to have fun, keep bonding with young guys and make sure that they\u2019re feeling comfortable to be themselves and play their game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dynamic might change even more during the season\u2019s final weeks if veteran defenseman Alec Martinez and veteran forward Jason Dickinson, who were both injured Saturday, end up missing significant time.<\/p>\n
Martinez crashed awkwardly into the boards in the first period after getting tripped and pushed by Blues forward Jake Neighbours, although it seemed more like an unfortunate than a dirty play. Dickinson immediately fought Neighbors, and neither Hawk returned to the game afterward.<\/p>\n
The Blues \u2014 who are battling for their playoff lives while the Hawks simply play out the string this season \u2014 finally broke through late in the second period, taking a 2-0 lead with two goals two minutes apart.<\/p>\n
Ilya Mikheyev scored the Hawks\u2019 second shorthanded goal of the season, but the Blues pushed the lead out further in the third period.<\/p>\n
Young defenseman Ethan Del Mastro \u2014 a bright spot over the past few months \u2014 endured a rare rough game, making overly aggressive plays at the defensive blue line that led to him getting beat on two Blues goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat third [Blues] goal early in the third set us back,\u201d interim coach Anders Sorensen told reporters in St. Louis. \u201cBut overall, I thought we competed hard and stuck with it, for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawks\u2019 decision to start goalie Arvid Soderblom on Saturday \u2014 before Spencer Knight starts Sunday at home against the Flyers \u2014 was also curious, considering the Blues have historically dominated Soderblom.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, Soderblom saved only 21 of 25 shots, dropping his season save percentage below .900 (to .899) for the first time.<\/p>\n
Since the start of the 2019-20 season, the Hawks are a woeful 3-15-1 against their rival Blues, including their humiliating loss in the Winter Classic earlier this season.<\/p>\n
The two teams have played a number of crazy games during that time span \u2014 always in St. Louis, not Chicago \u2014 that the Blues have managed to win every time. Enterprise Center has been largely a house of horrors for the Hawks lately.<\/p>\n
In November 2019, the Hawks blew a 3-0 third-period lead to lose 4-3 in regulation. In February 2020, the Hawks let a 3-1 lead slip away to trail 4-3 in the third period, then reclaimed a 5-4 lead, and then lost 6-5 in regulation with Blues forward Zach Sanford \u2014 who now plays for Rockford \u2014 scoring the winning goal.<\/p>\n
In December 2023, Connor Bedard scored his famous lacrosse-style goal in St. Louis and Nick Foligno scored shorthanded early in the third period to give the Hawks a 5-2 lead, but the Blues stormed back to win 7-5 in regulation. Then just last month came a 6-5 loss in St. Louis \u2014 following an absurd 10-round shootout \u2014 in which the Hawks led 2-0 and 5-4 but yet again couldn\u2019t close out.<\/p>\n
Amazingly, the Hawks\u2019 record against the Blues isn\u2019t their worst mark against a specific opponent over the last six seasons. They\u2019re 2-13-0 against the Canucks (against whom they\u2019ve lost 10 straight) and 2-13-3 against the Wild (with zero wins in Minnesota).<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not too much better against the Jets (4-11-3), Predators (6-15-6), Hurricanes (3-13-2) and Lightning (4-12-2) during that time span, either.<\/p>\n
There are only four teams against whom the Hawks have won more than half of their games during that span: the Ducks (11-3-1), Senators (6-1-1), Blue Jackets (10-8-0) and Sharks (8-7-0).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Hawks dropped their seventh straight game Saturday, 4-1 against the Blues. Murphy, the team’s longest-tenured player, has ridden this ride enough to know how to handle it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks"],"yoast_head":"\n