The Chicago Blackhawks strong play in their 3-1 win against the Penguins at home on Sunday did not carry over when the two teams met again on Tuesday. They have now won just one of their last seven games and have been outscored 23-14 in that stretch. Tuesday’s final in Pittsburgh was 5-0 in favor of the Penguins, marking the second time that Chicago has been shut out this season.
To add onto this brutal stretch to close out the campaign, the Blackhawks have only won five games since March 1. Three of those five victories came in the first week of March, and their most recent win before the Pittsburgh game at home was the 7-4 rout over the Flyers on March 23. The youth movement is making it’s way up to the NHL level in the organization right now, and that can certainly be a main cause of the struggles that the team is experiencing right now.
Following the 5-0 loss on Tuesday night, a “long” team meeting was held among the players and coaches and a couple of veterans talked the media regarding what came out of the discussion.
Connor Murphy brought up why it was important to have a meeting
Connor Murphy kept everything honest when talking about why it was important to hold a meeting after a hard loss this late in the season.
“Sometimes it’s good to blow off some steam and not sit on it for days,” Murphy said.
The third period of Tuesday night’s game was the real back breaker for Chicago. They entered the final 20 minutes of play trailing 2-0, but the Penguins found the back of the net three times in the third to seal the deal in the final meeting between the two teams this season. Kevin Hayes scored the final two goals of the game to send the Blackhawks record to 22-46-10.
The primary team stats from both sides matchup pretty evenly, which makes the 5-0 outcome much more frustrating. The Penguins barely outshot the Blackhawks, 27-26 and Chicago won 43.8% of the faceoffs, so they didn’t get crushed too hard in the dot either. A main deciding factor in the contest came from a physicality standpoint. Pittsburgh outhit the Blackhawks, 15-7, and that wasn’t something that Chicago could comeback from.
Other Chicago Blackhawks spoke out following the loss
Ryan Donato believed that there was a lack of “buy-in” to the overall game plan on Tuesday, per reports. In the same regard, interim head coach Anders Sorensen said that it was “mind-boggling” that the team played as poorly as they did.
The meeting can be seen as a wake up call for the team and also as a good learning experience for all of the young players on the roster. A handful of guys have either made their NHL debuts within the last month or are in their first full seasons in the league and understanding that losses like these happen is important. Especially for a rebuilding group, knowing that the growing pains will be there on occasion is good to know.
Chicago Blackhawks veterans lash out at inexperienced roster after loss to Penguins
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