Say It Ain’t So: Kings 3, Blackhawks 1

1 week ago  /  Second City Hockey  /  Read Time: 6 minutes 6 seconds

Despite pushing back in the last 40 minutes of the game, the Chicago Blackhawks couldn’t overcome going down 2-0 in the first period, ultimately losing 3-1 to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at the United Center.



The Kings got their first goal of the game 8:45 into the first period. Trevor Moore skated the puck into the zone, slowed down as the Blackhawks players backed off, and then drove into the high slot to ring one off the post and in.



Los Angeles goal!Scored by Trevor Moore with 11:15 remaining in the 1st period.Assisted by Warren Foegele.Chicago: 0Los Angeles: 1#LAKvsCHI #Blackhawks #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/4tcrrGHGkV— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 21, 2025



Alex Turcotte expanded the Kings lead to 2-0 about a minute later. After several long shot attempts in a row, Turcotte moved just inside the left circle to redirect a point shot from Vladislav Gavrikov.



Los Angeles goal!Scored by Alex Turcotte with 10:16 remaining in the 1st period.Assisted by Vladislav Gavrikov and Jordan Spence.Chicago: 0Los Angeles: 2#LAKvsCHI #Blackhawks #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/rq2Bm21IV2— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 21, 2025



The Blackhawks got on the board midway through the second period while on the power play. Down low, Tyler Bertuzzi patiently waited for an open passing lane before sending a slick pass to set up Connor Bedard from the left circle, making it 2-1.



Power play goal for Chicago!Scored by Connor Bedard with 09:10 remaining in the 2nd period.Assisted by Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen.Chicago: 1Los Angeles: 2#LAKvsCHI #Blackhawks #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/mdLmnqA4Mi— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 21, 2025



Despite a good effort from the Blackhawks to find the equalizer in the third period, the Kings put this one away with an empty-netter from Joel Edmundson with 19 seconds left in the game.



Empty net goal for Los Angeles!Scored by Joel Edmundson with 00:19 remaining in the 3rd period.Chicago: 1Los Angeles: 3#LAKvsCHI #Blackhawks #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/3tU11fMUj0— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 21, 2025







Notes



The first period started where the last game ended, with the Blackhawks being dominated and unable to counter in any meaningful way. This felt a little bit more like the Kings just playing extremely well rather than the Blackhawks playing that poorly — though they also didn’t really help stop the bleeding against Spencer Knight either — but there was a definite gap between the two teams in controlling pace. The Blackhawks ended up being out-attempted 33-12, outshot 19-5, and had just 13.42 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. Sometimes the Blackhawks are decent at suppressing quality against, but this was not that game: they allowed 19 scoring chances in the first period, 10 of which were high-danger. Not the most in a single period, but in the top-five for the season.



Sorensen: "They took it to us in the first period. A lot of traffic, a lot of shots, a lot of extra rebounds and stuff. Spencer did a good job of keeping us in there. The last two periods, I think we had more quality chances but [they] didn’t go our way."— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 21, 2025



"They came out flying and I think they just took it to us, and we’ve got to try to take to them and set the tone early."—Connor Bedard on the Blackhawks’ 3-1 loss to the Kings pic.twitter.com/1joYHYt4gb— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) March 21, 2025



The Blackhawks responded well in the second period, despite being on the losing side of shot quantity — the Kings had three more attempts and two more shots on goal at 5-on-5. Part of this is because the Kings are generally happy playing low-event hockey because of how good they are defensively. It also suits the current Blackhawks team as well because they’re able to make the most of the limited shots they get. It did not result in any goals at 5-on-5 for the Blackhawks, but they did have a slight edge in scoring chances (5-3) and were even in high danger chances (2-2). Plus, they carried the solid play into the power play and scored against one of the top penalty kills in the league. That’s a nice period from this Blackhawks team.



The final 20 minutes saw even more pushback from the Blackhawks, and this time it felt more effective, despite shot metrics being basically even across the board at 5-on-5: 5-5 shots on goal, but a slight edge to the Blackhawks in attempts (9-8) and 50.86 percent of the expected goals. Considering the Blackhawks have basically laid down and died when the going gets tough in the last few games with no hope of recovering, the effort to stay close in this game was appreciated. It would have been even nicer to force overtime or possibly win, but I’ll accept baby steps at this point.



Even though this was the sixth loss in a row, it’s hard to be too upset about this particular game. Yes, they were outplayed and outshot, but the Blackhawks didn’t come off as a disjointed mess for 40 minutes of the game, which is a huge improvement over the last few games. The key to the end of this season is less about winning and more about making progress to be better individual hockey players.



“We’ve got so many young guys that every game is important, just for growth and trying to improve.”—Connor Bedard on the Blackhawks staying motivated pic.twitter.com/tvOtX3iner— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) March 21, 2025



I think I jinxed the Blackhawks before the game when I pointed out they’d won the other two games against the Kings this season. Sorry!



Sometimes the Blackhawks get in their own way when it comes to generating offense or driving play. Can they please stop with the drop pass so much?



Mikheyev, on a breakaway, elects to drop pass rather than shoot pic.twitter.com/5981Vjl1Te— CHGO Blackhawks (@CHGO_Blackhawks) March 21, 2025



The Bedard, Frank Nazar, and Jason Dickinson line needs to be retired because it’s been out-worked every game the trio has been together. I love Dickinson, but he’s not been particularly effective since coming back from injury, so maybe allowing him to play softer minutes while he gets back up to game speed would be better. The Blackhawks had the second most lopsided shot stats while the trio was on the ice: out-attempted 15-4 and outshot 8-2, for a measly 19.14 percent share of the expected goals. Dickinson had two shots on goal but one of those came away from his regular linemates, and neither Bedard nor Nazar got anything on net at 5-on-5. This line mostly faced the Kings’ third line of Quinton Byfield, Alex Laferriere and Kevin Fiala, so it was facing solid competition but not the highest by any means.



The only line that performed worse was the Joe Veleno, Lukas Reichel, and Tyler Bertuzzi line. The Blackhawks had zero attempts when they were on the ice, but the Kings had 10 attempts, six shots on goal and over 70 percent of the expected goals. Their main opponents were Alex Turcotte, Tanner Jeannot, and Samiel Helenius, which is the Kings second best defensive line, but it was still the battle of fourth lines and the Blackhawks group lost handily.



The other Blackhawks lines were more evenly paced with the Kings, at least. I especially liked Teuvo Teravainen and Landon Slaggert in this game, though the former needs to stop over-passing and the latter needs to work on getting his shot through. Teravainen had the puck on his stick maybe more than any other player, but often opted to swing it to a teammate instead of shooting himself. He ended with two attempts but none on goal. Slaggert was also really good at driving play this game, but of his five attempts, only one was a shot, two were misses, and two were really obvious blocks.



Colton Dach was having a solid game tonight, but it was cut short near the end after hitting a Kings player awkwardly. There is some worry that he broke his wrist from the angle of the video, but Sorensen did not clarify beyond saying that Dach had X-rays taken to see what the damage was.



This doesn't look good for Colton Dach, who heads to the locker room. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/0xv05K9CuP— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 21, 2025



Sorensen said they'll see tomorrow on how COLTON Dach is. Upper body injury. Looked like Dach was favoring his left arm and he did go into the X-ray room following the game.— Tracey Myers (@Tramyers_NHL) March 21, 2025



This was Levshunov’s worst game since being called up to the Blackhawks defensively. He had the occasional bright spot with a pass or shot attempt, but his timing was off most of the game when it came to coverage, defending the blue line and gap control. He also still really needs to learn how to process when to shoot: he had five attempts but only one on goal, and several of the attempts were just giving up possession instead of working for a better shot or passing instead. His shot selection has been an issue in the AHL too because, while he shoots a lot, it’s basically a coin flip if it’ll be in a meaningful way. One caveat about deployment: Levshunov start in the offensive zone as much (just 55.56 percent of the time) this game as in the past few because the Blackhawks didn’t start in the O-zone as much, and he did match up a lot with the Kings best defensive line featuring Phillip Danault. I’m actually not sure why Sorensen didn’t try to get him away from Danault: the Blackhawks were out-attempted 14-4, outshot 9-4, and had just 26.75 percent of the expected goals when Levshunov faced Danault, the most lopsided defense matchup of the game.



I enjoyed his reaction to Bedard’s power-play goal this game too: still shades of golden retriever but not bulldozer levels.



Artyom Levshunov celebrates again with Connor Bedard but this time skates in less aggressively. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/ggLeCLngnh— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) March 21, 2025



Now, this isn’t a pick-on-Levshunov point because he was far from the only defender having issues tonight. For example, I thought Alex Vlasic was off the mark most of the game as well in terms of his individual defense. Vlasic has been made into the de facto No. 1 on this team after Seth Jones was traded, and he did well while Jones was absent in the past, but the latest string of games have not been his best. Not sure if it’s just a sophomore slump, how the season has been going or the constant rotation of partners lately, but Vlasic just hasn’t looked quite right.



His main partner tonight, Wyatt Kaiser, was quietly effective and bailed out Vlasic a couple of times even. Arguably, he’s been the best defensemen for the Blackhawks during this losing streak, too. It’ll be interesting to see what direction the Blackhawks go with their defensive prospects in the near future. They have four currently — Kaiser, Ethan Del Mastro, Nolan Allan, and Louis Crevier — who have all put together streaks of playing like legit top-four defensemen, but not a full season like Vlasic did last year. The Blackhawks have Levshunov and Sam Rinzel impacting in the next year or two and Kevin Korchinski waiting in the wings, too.








Game Charts





















Three Stars




Alex Turcotte (LAK) — 1 goal



Trevor Moore (LAK) — 1 goals



Connor Bedard (CHI) — 1 goal










What’s Next



The Blackhawks are on the road Saturday, heading to St. Louis for an afternoon tilt against the Blues at 2 p.m.




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