Chicago Blackhawks: Beautiful night despite a loss

The Chicago Blackhawks had a lot to celebrate in their final game before the bye week. It was a beautiful night despite the loss.

The Chicago Blackhawks had a big night of celebration on Tuesday. It began with the return of legendary head coach, Joel Quenneville. The man who led them to three Stanley Cups over his tenure along with plenty of winning season was back for the first time since being fired. He was honored with a beautiful video tribute from the Blackhawks. It was very cool to see Coach Q back in the building with his new team in the Florida Panthers.

Before that, the celebration was underway as the organization honored Patrick Kane for scoring his 1000th point on Sunday night. He received a couple of gifts, a touching video tribute, and a standing ovation for his incredible milestone. It was an awesome scene for fans and players alike. This team has clearly had a lot of success in recent memory

Oh, by the way, there was a hockey game to play. The Blackhawks went into the night on a five-game winning streak. They were impressive in most of the five games as well so all was well. Quenneville’s Panthers were able to get the best of the Blackhawks in this one though as they won the game 4-3. The Panthers did lead 4-1 at one point before letting Drake Caggiula and Patrick Kane make it interesting.

The Blackhawks Achilles heel in this game was the play of Florida Panthers forward Frank Vatrano. His hat trick led the Panthers into their bye week on a six-game winning streak themselves. There is no doubt that Coach Q had the Panthers ready to play against his old team. He also saw his goalie Sergei Bobrovsky play extremely well. It was the second half of a back to back for Bobrovsky and the Panthers so that made it even more impressive.

Going into the NHL’s mandatory bye week/All-Star break, the Blackhawks can still feel good about themselves. They outshot Florida in this game and came up just one goal short. They have won five out of their last six games which has gotten them back into the playoff race. The Vegas Golden Knights lost to the Boston Bruins and the Winnipeg Jets lost to the Carolina Hurricanes so Chicago didn’t lose any ground in the standings with the loss. Yeah, they could have won and been only one point out but there is a lot of hockey left.

The next Blackhawks game isn’t until February 1st against the Arizona Coyotes. It is a very road-heavy month for them so they need to take advantage of the rest they are about to get. This break will also see Patrick Kane head to St. Louis to represent the Blackhawks at the All-Star Game. He will be participating in the Skills Competiton on Friday night and then play for the Central Division All-Stars on Saturday night’s 3 on 3 tournaments. There is no doubt that this is going to be a fun week of festivities for hockey fans across the world.