Chicago Blackhawks: Dominik Kubalik’s big day leads to upset win

Dominik Kubalik’s big day leads to an upset win for the Chicago Blackhawks.

It is fair to say that the Chicago Blackhawks went into this series as major underdogs. They were lucky to be in this tournament at all as they were well out of the playoffs at the time of the NHL’s pause. They were given a breath of air when it was announced that they will play the Edmonton Oilers in the qualifying round. Well, when Connor McDavid came in and scored a power-play goal early in the game, it looked like it was going to be a real short series in favor of the Oilers.

From that point on, it was all Blackhawks. The Oilers looked slow and unready to play the game while the Blackhawks had the speed that we all expected Edmonton to have. The Hawks were also much more tenacious on the puck which led to a lot of goals. They looked dangerous on a lot of their shifts early and took advantage.

One thing that was a bit weird about the game was the fact that the Oilers coach, Dave Tippet, went with Mike Smith as their starting goalie. He was a very good goalie in the past and had some success against the Blackhawks in the playoffs in 2012, but he is not the same guy anymore. Mikko Koskinen was a much better goalie in the regular season than Smith but didn’t come in until Smith gave up a five-spot.

The most noticeable Hawks player in this game was Dominik Kubalik. He had two goals and three assists for five points in this game. It was a remarkable performance for the Calder Trophy nominee. He clearly didn’t miss a beat during the pause and is ready to help the Hawks win some games here. It is so important for the young kids to support their legendary veterans and Kubalik is the leader of that movement right now.

Everyone knows that Edmonton lives and dies with the play of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. They were the NHL’s two leading scorers of the 2019-20 season so you would absolutely expect them to be impactful in this game. Well, they were impactful on the power play. Each of them had a goal and an assist (McDavid had two) on the power play but they were almost contained to the max at even strength. McDavid and Draisaitl were out there for an even-strength goal during garbage time but that wasn’t good enough from them.

The Hawks need to stay out of the box as best as they can because Edmonton’s power play is one of the best in the league but they did a very good job at containing their two-star players. They also did it as the “road team” where the Oilers were able to control the matchups. If this continues, the Hawks might be able to make easy work of the Oilers.

Now, it was just one game. Dominik Kubalik had five points and they contained two of the best players in the world at even strength for the most part. It isn’t guaranteed to continue like that and the Oilers are going to come out flying in their next game. The Hawks and Oilers will be back for game two of this series on Monday night.