CHICAGO – The Chicago Blackhawks came into Thursday night’s game feeling lousy as they were on a five-game losing streak (0-4-1). The Los Angeles Kings, firmly in a playoff spot, came in looking to avenge a bad loss the last time they were in town (a 5-1 loss on March 3rd).
The bad vibes for Chicago continued once the puck was dropped. Spencer Knight did a good job of keeping the Kings at bay for a while but about halfway through the period, Los Angeles scored two goals in under a minute. Trevor Moore's beautiful wrister and Alex Turcotte's neat direction put LA up 2-0.
In the second period, the Blackhawks played a little bit better. They were still outshot but Connor Bedard scored the only goal of the middle frame. It was a nice power-play one-timer off a feed by Tyler Bertuzzi.
Once the third period came around, the Hawks knew they needed an ugly one to get it tied for a chance to win. As Jason Dickinson said after the loss to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday, they need a gritty one.
In the final frame, the Blackhawks played their best period of the evening. It looked for a while like they were going to get that gritty goal to tie it up but they were unable to. Los Angeles deposited one into the empty net and took the 3-1 final to the bank.
Spencer Knight gave up two goals on 33 shots. It was a wonderful bounce-back performance after a tough one earlier in the week. Anders Sorensen went back to him one game later and it worked out well. Unfortunately for Knight, his team only gave him one goal in support of this marvelous performance.
With this loss, the Blackhawks are mathematically eliminated from postseason contention. It is just a formality at this point as it was clear in October that they weren't going to the playoffs.
The San Jose Sharks were the only team to be eliminated before them. Now that the Hawks have lost six straight, five in regulation, they are back in contention for the best draft lottery odds.
Connor Bedard scoring another goal is the one positive to come from this game. He now has 19 on the year and leads the team with 54 points.
Back-to-back games with a power play marker is good as he seems to be willing to shoot more when the opportunity presents itself. The man-advantage is a great place to gain confidence.
Chicago will hit the road for one as they have the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon. The Blues have continued to get better and better as the season moves along so breaking out of this losing streak won't be easy against them.
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