At first, this had the makings of another yo-yo game for the Chicago Blackhawks.
You know the pattern: Play poorly against a middling team — in this case, the Detroit Red Wings on Friday — then bounce back against a top-tier team.
That dynamic lasted for all of a period against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday — before David ran out of pebbles against Goliath — and the visitors rattled off three goals in the second period en route to a 4-3 win at the United Center.
“They pushed us back,” Hawks interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “We were on our heels a little bit. They’re a good team, so they’re coming at us in waves and we had a hard time kind of stopping that.”
The Hawks scored first for the 25th time this season, but it didn’t prevent them from dropping to 11-13-2 in that scenario and deepening their position at the bottom of the league standings at 14-27-2.
Teuvo Teräväinen scored the opening goal, then banked a pass off the back wall to Nick Foligno to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead, which the Hawks held onto to first intermission.
Through back-to-back periods (the third against the Red Wings and first against the Oilers), Teräväinen posted a total of three goals and an assist.
When the puck dropped on the second period, however, the Hawks let the Oilers back into the game immediately.
Vasily Podkolzin scored 22 seconds into the second.
Ryan Donato scored for the second straight game to make it 3-1, but Oilers answered with goals from Adam Henrique and Hawks pariah Corey Perry, who drew boos from among the 19,387 fans.
Arvid Söderblom didn’t allow a goal in the first period but faded after the Podkolzin goal as the Hawks skaters throttled down in the second and the Oilers took a 12-2 advantage in five-on-five high-danger chances.
In the third, the Oilers stymied any attempt at a Hawks rally, and Zach Hyman sealed the game with a power-play goal.
Meanwhile, the Oilers also snapped Connor Bedard’s point streak at nine games.
The third meeting of Bedard and Connor McDavid (Connor vs. Connor III?) never generated fireworks. McDavid managed just one shot on goal (with three misses) and Bedard didn’t land any on net (with two misses).
Here are five takeaways from the loss.
1. How did it go downhill so quickly?
The Hawks didn’t hoard the puck in the first period, but they didn’t let the Oilers either. They got into a bit of a track meet with the guests, but Jason Dickinson’s line (with Foligno and Teräväinen) helped keep McDavid at bay.
And those times the Hawks hemmed in the Oilers, they buzzed around until they saw a crack in their defense and capitalized on it.
Then the Oilers started turning back their advances at the blue line and stretching out the Hawks in their zone.
“When you get into a three-quarter ice or half-ice game with them, that’s where they excel,” Dickinson said. “That’s where Connor (McDavid) and Leon (Draisaitl) are exceptional at keeping their feet moving, finding the little soft areas to transition back on offense and put you back on your heels.”
Added Alec Martinez: “We got away from our game. Against a team like that, you’ve got to play a full 60 (minutes). They went to the final for a reason. Two of the top players in the world.
“We got away from what made us successful in the first period. You give a team like that opportunities, they’re going to capitalize.”
2. Alec Martinez shared his details of his scary neck injury.
The Hawks activated Martinez, one of their top defensemen, from injured reserve earlier in the day after a 15-game absence with a neck injury. Wyatt Kaiser was scratched to make room.
Martinez paired with Seth Jones for his first action since Dec. 7 against the Winnipeg Jets.
“He (hadn’t) played in almost a month now,” Sorensen said. “I thought he looked good, made some plays under pressure that we talked about.”
After the Hawks blew a two-goal lead, Martinez wasn’t in the mood to assess his game.
“Doesn’t really matter,” he said.
He did explain why his recovery took as long as it did.
“I had residual effects from taking that puck to the neck,” Martinez said. “They were worried about vascular issues and things like that. It was a bit of a scary thing, going to the hospital and everything.
“But I’m thankful the doctors handled it appropriately. All the ambulance staff, all the paramedics. There’s protocols in place for a reason, and I’m very grateful (for) those guys handling it in such a good manner.”
Meanwhile, the Hawks placed defenseman Connor Murphy (groin) on IR retroactive to Dec. 31.
3. The penalty kill looked frozen on the deciding goal.
The Oilers got just one power play, but that’s all they needed.
The PK didn’t attack, it just settled in and tried to cut off seam passes and backdoors.
But Draisaitl’s shot rebounded off Söderblom and drifted between Hyman’s legs, and Hyman quickly swept in the game-winner.
It was just an unfortunate bounce in Dickinson’s view.
“They’ve got some pretty lethal weapons, and the way that they move around is very unique and very hard to build a plan for because they’re so all over the place,” he said. “There’s so many looks that they’re going to throw at you because they just go out there and play hockey. …
“Maybe we were a little bit too passive in trying to read that and thinking too much about, OK, Leon is a really good one-timer from the dot, so we’ve got to keep it away from him. … Honestly, the goal that they scored — that’s a nothing play.
“That’s not something that they probably want. That’s maybe their D play.”
Small consolation, but the Hawks kill managed to cut off the Oilers’ primary options.
“So Leon starts stepping to the middle, and he’s feeling like he doesn’t have that pass to (Evan) Bouchard for a one-timer, so he puts the puck on net,” Dickinson said. “Simple play that just creates a rebound that can turn into something, and sure enough it did.”
4. The Hawks tried Lukas Reichel on a new line.
Reichel had spent 88% of his time at center, according to Left Wing Lock.
But on Saturday, Reichel shifted to right wing with Frank Nazar at center and Colton Dach at left wing.
Shades of Rockford?
“I want to get the young guys together but I also want to move Reichel to the wing,” Sorensen said before the game. “He’s played a lot in the middle here, so (we) want to see if we can get him going that way.”
Reichel had been held without at goal in the previous 14 games and put up two assists in that span.
Sorensen was willing to deal with any growing pains with putting Reichel, 22, with Dach, 22, and Nazar, 20.
“That’s part of it, right?” Sorensen said. “That’s part of their growth. Both Lukas and Frankie have played center, so there’s some responsibilities there, and whoever ends up down there first (on the forecheck) will stay low.
“They’re two fast players as well, and then Colton is a physical presence, so he can help them clear some space.”
After the game, Sorensen said there were some good moments, and “moments where we got to improve on.
“Just understanding who you’re playing against and things like that, the importance of winning lines and managing pucks against those guys,” he said.
5. Philipp Kurashev is back in the doghouse.
Kurashev was back to being a healthy scratch Saturday while Reichel returned to the lineup.
It’s no surprise. Kurashev has the worst plus-minus in the league at minus-28, and his lax, mistake-prone performance against the Red Wings didn’t help his cause.
“It’s the same areas we’ve talked about. Just a responsible game, compete,” Sorensen said.
He had activated Kurashev after sitting him for eight of the previous 10 games, and this was how he responded? Did Sorensen at least express his disappointment to him?
“I think he knows,” Sorensen said before the game. “We’ll talk to him today about it.”
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