Blues take advantage of mistakes, waltz out with easy win over Hawks
Don't turn the puck over in the defensive zone.
Do not lose board battles behind the net.
And absolutely, positively do not take unnecessary penalties.
These are all absolute musts for the Blackhawks when taking on an opponent like the hard-hitting, uber-talented St. Louis Blues. They followed that script for much of the first period at the United Center on Sunday, but lost their way after that and the Blues took full advantage en route to a 4-0 victory.
Connor Murphy (turnover, lost board battle) and Caleb Jones (bad penalty, lost board battle) really struggled in the second period when the Blues (32-14-6) built a 3-0 lead on goals by Jordan Kyrou, Pavel Buchnevich and David Perron.
The Hawks (19-27-8) have dropped 12 of 16 overall and eight of nine at home. This was the sixth time they've been shut out this season (they were blanked just once in 56 games last season).
"We talked about that before the game - manage the puck," said interim coach Derek King. "You turn pucks over against these guys, they'll quick-hit you right away."
Murphy knows this, but it was his failed clearing attempt that led to Kyrou's goal at 2:26 of the second period. Murphy tried hoisting the puck out of the defensive zone, but it was intercepted at the blue line by Ivan Barbashev. Brayden Schenn and Kyrou then worked a gorgeous give-and-go (made easier when Caleb Jones' ill-timed slide took him out of the play) to make it 1-0.
St. Louis' next goal was even more galling for the Hawks. It came only seconds after a clean faceoff win by Henrik Borgstrom. Jones and Murphy retreated to fetch the puck, which had skittered to the end boards, but Jones was rubbed off the play by Robert Thomas. As Murphy stumbled and Jones got his bearings, Thomas hit a wide-open Buchnevich, who met no resistance and beat Marc-Andre Fleury top shelf at 6:56.
"That's what good teams do: they stay in the battles," King said. "They win battles - whether it's a won draw or lost draw or the puck is coming out of their end - they just win battles. They're a big, strong team and obviously we need to get in the gym."
Jones' weak holding penalty on Ryan O'Reilly at 16:30 then led to Perron's power-play goal and a 3-0 St. Louis advantage.
These little errors and lapses in judgment often lead to disastrous results, a lesson these struggling Hawks are still learning.
"I hope it's getting through our heads here," said Seth Jones. "It (stinks) losing like this, at home the way we're losing. It's not fun for us, for the fans, for anybody. ...
"Turnovers are a big part of the game. You see when they get it around the red line it's going in, they're getting hits, they're making it difficult on us."
King was careful not to put all of the blame on Murphy (4 giveaways, minus-3) and Jones (minus-3).
"They've been playing really good hockey for us," King said. "You're allowed to have a bad game in this league.
"But we can't afford to have three-quarters of our team have their off night at the same time. We can't do that. We don't have that luxury."
The Hawks went 1-3-0 against St. Louis this season and were outscored 12-4. They close out their six-game homestand against Edmonton (29-21-3) on Thursday.