PRAGUE — The Blackhawks preached the importance of improved defensive structure throughout the preseason.
In their first game of the regular season, they didn’t even give themselves an opportunity to show that improvement.
A flood of self-inflicted turnovers doomed the Blackhawks in their 4-3 loss to the Flyers on Friday, gifting speedy Philadelphia with waves of chances in transition and giving the Hawks’ own defensemen no time to find their positions.
“You don’t have your structure,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “That couple seconds right after, if you misplay the puck or they steal it or whatever, it’s tough to defend. We put ourselves in bad spots repeatedly.”
Turnovers directly led to two of the Flyers’ four goals, with rookie Dennis Gilbert misplaying it at the defensive blue line to concede Travis Konecny’s first goal, and veteran Duncan Keith giving it away at the offensive blue line before Konecny’s second.
But the problem was more all-encompassing than just those two incidents. The Flyers registered 31 scoring chances to the Hawks’ mere 15, a horrible ratio even by last season’s standards.
For all the hype following the summer of additions and the training camp of Colliton acclimation, the Hawks opened 2019-20 looking like the same sluggish, mistake-prone, over-the-hill squad they have the past two years.
“We were turning pucks over at the blue [line], not getting the changes we needed, all the little things we talk about that help you conserve energy,” Jonathan Toews said. “You get one good shift, you feed off it. ... We weren’t doing that. We let them take control of the game.”
Offensively, per usual, the Hawks were dangerous, if not particularly dominant.
Patrick Kane tallied three points, including a goal with 2:07 left that gave the Hawks late life and kept the sellout Czech crowd engaged. Alex DeBrincat had earlier ripped a pretty one-timer on the power play, and enigmatic Alex Nylander had begun his Chicago tenure by scoring the team’s first goal of the season.
“It’s nice always to get the first goal out of the way quick and build off it,” Nylander said. “I’ve just got to keep going and keep shooting.”
Scoring was never destined to be an issue, though. Goaltending wasn’t, either — and although Corey Crawford wasn’t perfect, he made some big saves nonetheless to keep the Hawks competitive in what could’ve easily become a rout.
The issue is, as expected, the defense. And that unit didn’t show well at all Friday.
“There’s going to be times in the game where it’s not going your way,” Colliton said. “I don’t think we made many plays, especially in the second period. But we got to find a way to limit the damage, and I thought we [were]...a bit more exposed defensively.”
Grasping at straws, Colliton eventually switched up the D pairs to put Keith with Slater Koekkoek (who inadvertently gave the Flyers’ their second goal with a ricochet off his chest) and Dennis with Erik Gustafsson, preserving only the Olli Maatta-Brent Seabrook duo. Not even that shakeup worked, as the Flyers continued to attack in waves.
The Hawks will have an unprecedented seven days to stew on the loss before their home opener against the Sharks. But they’ll also have seven days to readjust to Central Time and the United Center’s hard surface (the ice at Prague’s 02 Arena was a problem all week), and potentially get injured Calvin de Haan and Connor Murphy back, too.
“You’re excited and you want to come out and start the season off with a bang, but good news is there’s 81 more,” Toews said.
