Blackhawks continue to be dominated by Tampa Bay

The Chicago Blackhawks have lost yet another game to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who simply have their number for whatever reason.

Since defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, the Chicago Blackhawks just can’t seem to beat them in the regular season. That trend continued last night as the Blackhawks fell to the Lightning 4-2 in a game that they didn’t seem to have their legs. They are now winless in their last eight meetings with them (0-6-2) and 1-6-2 since beating them in the Stanley Cup Final. This is their second regulation loss in a row so hopefully, they are able to fix up the issues before their next game.

This loss hurts because of a few things that happened to Tampa Bay that work in the opposition’s favor. They started Curtis McElhinney in favor of Andrei Vasilevskiy who is probably the best goalie in the world. The Lightning also didn’t have the reigning Hart Trophy winner and scoring champion in Nikita Kucherov available either. Then, Steven Stamkos didn’t play at all in the second or third period so you would think that it is important for the Blackhawks to take advantage of that situation but they didn’t.

It is the depth that makes Tampa Bay so good and it showed in the absence of Stamkos and Kucherov. Corey Crawford played well despite the loss. He gave up three goals on 34 shots so he is not at fault for this loss at all. Every now and then, the Blackhawks are going to lose games like this and if they had a better start they would have had a much better chance to win.

It has been so long since the Blackhawks have defeated the Lightning that Patrick Kane‘s assist on Dylan Strome‘s goal was his 399th point since the last time they beat them. That assist was also the 600th assist of his glorious NHL career. He joins Stan Mikita and Denis Savard as the only players in Blackhawks history to reach the 600 assist plateau with the team. It also extended his point streak to eleven. There is no doubt that Kane is heating. If the Blackhawks go on a run he should be in the Hart Trophy conversation.

The Blackhawks head south to play the Dallas Stars on Saturday night. Those guys got off to a rough start too but have been hot as of late. They are a heavy team that also has lots of skilled players and a good goalie so they will be tough to beat as well. After winning four in a row the Blackhawks have lost two straight to drop their record to 9-9-4 so the next game is huge for them.