Chicago Blackhawks: Patrick Kane shines in 4-3 defeat

After a long offseason of hype, the Chicago Blackhawks failed to deliver in their 4-3 loss against the Philadelphia Flyers, in Prague. Where did the team go wrong? What can they learn from this loss?

First off, Blackhawks’ fans, calm down, it was only one game. The Chicago Blackhawks will be fine, it’s a new team, let them gel together a little bit more.

Patrick Kane was the key player to any success Chicago had in last night’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Kane added 3 points to the Blackhawks’ score sheet and came out firing. Kane did miss a few key changes, one being a two-on-one break where the puck was stripped from him, but besides that, he was solid. After his goal late in the 3rd period, Kane passed Sidney Crosby on having the most points since the 2010-11 NHL season with 711.

Kane became the first Blackhawk in history to tally a point in four different countries during regular season play after last night’s game. Those countries are Canada, United States, Finland, and now the Czech Republic.

Alex DeBrincat scored his first goal of the 2019-20 NHL season, his first points since signing that long 3-year, $19.2M extension with the Blackhawks. After one game this season, you can tell he has improved, and he should be worth every penny.

Alexander Nylander really impressed me with scoring his first goal in a Blackhawks’ jersey on his very first shot. If he can keep up his play and put up at least 50-points this season, that would be a huge win for the Blackhawks. Playing with Toews and Kane, Nylander should be able to crack the 50-point mark.

The Blackhawks’ problem comes on defense. They do have a few injuries on defense, including Calvin De Haan and Connor Murphy being out, but that isn’t an excuse for poor puck play by the other top-four defenseman.

There were a number of times where Brent Seabrook was sitting back and playing with the puck, instead of being aggressive and passing the puck to wide open forwards. Duncan Keith had the same problem, they both just couldn’t catch up to the speed of the game and decided to play with the puck instead of making a play with the puck.

Corey Crawford made some key saves during the game but gave up two soft goals, with another one being Slater Koekkoek‘s fault. It’s Crawford’s first time out there this season, it’s early, I personally will cut him some slack because the defense wasn’t helping him at all. He just needs to get better.

The ice in Prague was very bouncy and sloppy. Both the Blackhawks and the Flyers had problems controlling the puck, which makes both teams have to simplify their game. The Blackhawks just couldn’t simplify their game enough to compete with the Flyers. They were outplayed by a well-coached Flyers’ team.

My final notes would be to just stop playing with the puck, clean up the sloppy play, and work on the penalty kill. The rest should clear up on its own. This is a young hockey team and losses like this one when you’re in the game until the end will build character. This team is no stranger to adversity, they’ll bounce back.

The Blackhawks will host the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, October 10th, 2019 at 7:30 CT for their home-opener.