Oct. 15--The Blackhawks had played their best game of the season in trouncing the Islanders on Saturday, then followed that by playing their worst game in a 3-0 loss to the Flyers on Wednesday.
They committed six penalties and relinquished chances on the power play. Here are some notes and observations from the loss.
What was with the penalties?
The Blackhawks had the fewest penalty minutes per game through their first three games. For coach Joel Quenneville, the switch from the first three games to the second was baffling.
"It's the opposite of what we talked about (Wednesday morning), we took some careless penalties," Quenneville said. "We gave them momentum. They had pace and we stood around and watched a majority of the game."
The Blackhawks killed five of the six penalties, although one of the penalties came as a bench minor in the final seconds.
None of the penalties seemed to come when the Hawks were in danger in their own zone. And one, a hooking penalty on Jonathan Toews, came when the Blackhawks were on a power play. All the penalities were momentum killers.
Where's the scoring?
Artem Anisimov, Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin have accounted for six goals this season. Only one other Hawks forward has scored a goal this season (Teuvo Teravainen).
Quenneville has toyed around with who gets to play alongside Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa, but no combination has resulted in any goals.
"We just need the four lines to be contributing," Quenneville said. "Even if you're not scoring, at least you get some zone time and puck protection and get some chances off of that or offensive zone faceoffs. We didn't sustain that type of pressure and I think as a team that's something we thrive for, live for and look forward to doing."
Ryan Garbutt started the night on the top line, but later Quenneville gave Viktor Tikhonov a turn there.
Svedberg on the kill
Of the six defensemen, you would expect three -- Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Brent Seabrook to get a lot of time on the penalty kill.
But the Blackhawks need a fourth to help occupy the second pairing on the kill and of the three remaining defensemen. Quenneville has picked Viktor Svedberg, who logged 3 minutes, 54 seconds on the kill.
