Chicago Blackhawks: Youngsters starting to contribute offense

The Chicago Blackhawks weren’t particularly lucky in the shootout on Tuesday night as they lost the game to the Carolina Hurricanes by a final score of 4-3 in the previously mentioned shootout. They did, however, play well enough to take one of the best teams in the National Hockey League to the brink and came up ever so short. They are on a run of points collected as they have points now in seven of the last nine games. If they can keep up the way they play, they might not end up being the worst team in the division.

The Chicago Blackhawks need as much from their young players as possible.

Andrei Svechnikov of the Carolina Hurricanes is a former number two overall pick back in 2018. Now, he is one of the best players in the National Hockey League at just 20 years of age. He was a key factor in Carolina’s win over Chicago as he had one goal in regulation and the shootout winner. The Hawks, like Carolina, needed some young studs to take over in order to have a chance as well.

We all know what Patrick Kane can do. He is, even today, one of the best players in the National Hockey League. He is going to be the leader of Chicago’s attack every night. However, he can’t be the only guy contributing some offense if this team wants to win the hockey game. Against Carolina, he definitely had some help from the younger guys.

21-year-old Philipp Kurashev scored the first goal of the game. The primary assist belongs to Pius Suter who is 24 years old and was playing in his 11th NHL game. The secondary assist was given to Dominik Kubalik who was a finalist for the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie in 2019-20. This goal came late in the first period and cut a 2-0 Carolina lead in half.

Just a few minutes later, it looked like that deficit would come with the Hawks to the intermission. Well, with 18 seconds left in the period, Kane scored his fifth goal of the season. A single assist was given to Alex DeBrincat who is now in his 4th NHL season at 23 years old. The game was then tied for the time being.

When Carolina went up 3-2 in the third period, it felt like they were going to win in regulation because they are really good at holding down leads late thanks to their very good shot suppression (which sort of had an off night). Well, Dylan Strome wanted to play some overtime as he tied the game with assists going to the aforementioned DeBrincat and Kubalik. They didn’t score in overtime or the shootout which led to only earning one point but the youngsters were good.

Even the goalie, Kevin Lankinen, is a young guy with a lot of promise. At 25 years old, he has stolen the show in goal for the Hawks. That plan they had for Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia to split the net is pretty much out the window. They will keep playing him to watch and see if he becomes a future piece to the team.

In this game against Carolina, Lankinen had 38 saves on 41 shots which is not bad at all, considering who they have.  It is nice that he is playing so well because every team needs good goaltending. When you go over all of the players that helped them play well in this game, Lankinen is one of them.

Kane was the only player over the age of 26 to have a point in this game. All of these young guys are needed to take over as the years go on. A lot of them have bright futures and it is starting to show. Kirby Dach is also very young and will be back next year, along with even more great young players.

This game is just a glimpse of what the Hawks are trying to build. The youngsters mostly led the team and the result was somewhat positive. They didn’t win the shootout but they got there and had a chance. They will have their chance to beat them again on Thursday with a rematch at the United Center.