Fell On Black Days: Kraken 6, Blackhawks 2
For the second game in a row, the Chicago Blackhawks lost a game 6-2, this time to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night at the United Center. This was also their fifth straight loss.
The Blackhawks went up 1-0 just under four minutes into the first period while on the power play. Connor Bedard was tripped after entering the zone and lost the puck backwards, but Artyom Levshunov kept the puck in well before getting the puck back to Bedard, whose wrist shot from a sharp angle went off Adam Larsson’s skate and in.
Power play goal for Chicago!Scored by Connor Bedard with 16:14 remaining in the 1st period.Assisted by Artyom Levshunov and Tyler Bertuzzi.Chicago: 1Seattle: 0#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/UCuRDsDzfH— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 19, 2025
Tyler Bertuzzi made it 2-0 with 2:47 left in the first period. Lukas Reichel won the offensive zone faceoff cleanly, then Alex Vlasic threw the puck on net from the far left corner, which Bertuzzi tipped past Joey Daccord.
Chicago goal!Scored by Tyler Bertuzzi with 02:47 remaining in the 1st period.Assisted by Alex Vlasic and Lukas Reichel.Chicago: 2Seattle: 0#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/x7ulm2q14f— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 19, 2025
The Kraken got on the board with 1:16 left in the opening frame. From the goal line, Matty Beniers set up Larsson for a one-timer in the right circle that beat Spencer Knight over his shoulder, bringing the Kraken within one.
Seattle goal!Scored by Adam Larsson with 02:16 remaining in the 1st period.Assisted by Matty Beniers.Chicago: 2Seattle: 1#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/QXMq8w6PUX— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 19, 2025
Jordan Eberle tied the game 2-2 about six minutes into the second period when Chandler Stephenson sent a beautiful saucer pass from behind the net to Eberle in the slot, who scored while falling to one knee.
Seattle goal!Scored by Jordan Eberle with 14:05 remaining in the 2nd period.Assisted by Chandler Stephenson and Jamie Oleksiak.Chicago: 2Seattle: 2#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/v0koh4T3Wh— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 19, 2025
Jared McCann gave the Kraken their first lead of the game 26 seconds later. Connor Bedard’s pass was picked off by Andre Burakovsky in the offensive zone, and he got the puck to Jared McCann, who skated the puck in and scored from the left circle to make it 3-2 Kraken.
Seattle goal!Scored by Jared McCann with 13:39 remaining in the 2nd period.Assisted by Andre Burakovsky.Chicago: 2Seattle: 3#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/yArc0IksIl— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 19, 2025
The Kraken doubled their lead to 4-2 at 12:53 in the second thanks to a slick cross-ice pass from Larsson that teed up a one-timer from Beniers from the right circle.
Seattle goal!Scored by Matty Beniers with 07:07 remaining in the 2nd period.Assisted by Adam Larsson and Vince Dunn.Chicago: 2Seattle: 4#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/PtCHAL6pRG— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 19, 2025
Shane Wright extended the Kraken’s lead to 5-2 with 4:37 left in the middle frame. Knight made two excellent saves on Michael Eyssimont from in close, but Wright backhanded the third puck in.
Seattle goal!Scored by Shane Wright with 04:47 remaining in the 2nd period.Assisted by Michael Eyssimont and Brandon Montour.Chicago: 2Seattle: 5#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/ubXW7NzMF8— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 19, 2025
Wright got his second of the game about seven minutes into the third period after finishing a cross-slot pass from Larsson and putting the Kraken up 6-2. This was, thankfully, where the bleeding ended.
Seattle goal!Scored by Shane Wright with 13:05 remaining in the 3rd period.Assisted by Adam Larsson and Andre Burakovsky.Chicago: 2Seattle: 6#SEAvsCHI #Blackhawks #SeaKraken pic.twitter.com/3wZVoSQCvN— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) March 19, 2025
Notes
I’m not going to give this game as much attention as usual because, frankly, it was irksome and I was too irked to take as many notes as usual.
This @MichaelMReaves photo just about recaps the night: pic.twitter.com/a1W97Viq94— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 19, 2025
The first period was a good one from the Blackhawks, not something you can say often this season. They dictated pace, had clean and crisp passes, played well defensively … everything you’d want from the team, outside of producing a lot of quality scoring chances. The Blackhawks had the quantity part down — they owned 59.46 percent of the shot attempts and 59.09 percent of the shots on goal at 5-on-5 — but on the wrong side of expected goals with 42.59 percent. To be fair, though, that was still close for how low-event the chances were in general: scoring chances were tied at nine while the Kraken had a 3-2 edge in high danger ones.
Dominating shift from the Bedard line with Murphy and Del Mastro keeping the play alive pic.twitter.com/1MDZfLd8Gu— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) March 19, 2025
Everything good about the first went out the window in the second with the bad breakouts, missed passes, coverage issues, turnovers, poor puck decisions … the list goes on. Interestingly, it didn’t really result in a lot of shots against to start the period, but that had more to do with the Kraken lacking cohesion themselves more than anything the Blackhawks were doing. But once the Kraken started to figure it out, it was kind of over. Yes, Spencer Knight wasn’t great in this period, especially with those two quick back-to-back goals, but the defensive breaks in front didn’t help. You’d hope Knight could bail them out on one or both those, but it wasn’t his night — and the goalies are allowed an off night here or there. The issue is still more at a team level than in net for this game, in my opinion. Blackhawks had just 39.47 percent of the shot attempts, 31.58 percent of the shots on goal, and 40.06 percent of the expected goals.
"I don't think anything is on him here. I think it was the group in front of him."–Anders Sorensen on goalie Spencer Knight's performance in the 6-2 loss to the Kraken pic.twitter.com/1vyP3kdexQ— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) March 19, 2025
As for the third, the Blackhawks finished with the better expected goal share (67.89 percent), but that’s basically because the Kraken didn’t do anything except play keep away. Actual scoring chances were the lowest of the game: 6-4 scoring chances and 3-2 high danger in favor of the Blackhawks but, again, not really all that much happening. The Blackhawks were still out-attempted 14-9 and outshot 8-6. That’s all I’m going to say about that period because the less spoken about it, the better.
Sorensen: "We didn’t get stops enough in the D-zone quick enough… They rim it around, [pass it] east-west, and all of a sudden it opens up a bit. We have to be quicker to close out and kill those plays."— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 19, 2025
I’m going to put some observations from the beat writers and post-game quotes below but otherwise my brain wants to wash this game from it’s existence.
I do not understand fighting immediately after the opening faceoff — like nothing has happened yet to warrant fisticuffs.
Fisticuffs off the opening draw!John Hayden and Pat Maroon drop the mitts to start this one off. pic.twitter.com/dBmG1kfP1Y— Emerald City Hockey (@EmeraldCityHky) March 19, 2025
Some thoughts on the two quick goals in the second period:
On the Kraken's second goal, there was no low forward to pick up the slot and Kaiser was stuck choosing to defend either the passer or the shooter.— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) March 19, 2025
On the Kraken's third goal, Levshunov jumped up in the offensive zone. Bedard was the high forward, but he was also shooting. So when his shot was blocked and the puck went the other way quick, the right side was vulnerable and Vlasic couldn't get there fast enough.— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) March 19, 2025
Jason Dickinson was (correctly) tough on himself postgame:
Jason Dickinson: "[I'm] not contributing, and it's driving me nuts. I expect a lot more of myself, and it's increasingly frustrating."— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) March 19, 2025
He also broke down the Blackhawks defensive issues throughout the game well:
Hawks C Jason Dickinson on the 6-2 loss to Seattle: "A few too many turnovers; soft on pucks, which is kind of tied in to turnovers; and we didn't protect the slot at all. … There were too many high-danger scoring chances. You can't expect the goalie to stop everything."— Illinois Golfer (@IllinoisGolfer) March 19, 2025
#Blackhawks Jason Dickinson was extra grumpy in his postgame presser.He admits that he is frustrated with himself for not producing more. According to him, it’s going to take a gritty/no fun win to break this slump. pic.twitter.com/Ny0wyQTvat— Vinnie Parise (@VinnieParise) March 19, 2025
And did not care to give any credit to the power play for scoring because they still played so poorly defensively that they lost 6-2:
"Let's get our cookies on the power play, but let's go win a freaking game."–Jason Dickinson when I asked him about the power play pic.twitter.com/yKtjlRf9j8— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) March 19, 2025
Vlasic spoke about the frustrations in the locker room right now:
Alex Vlasic says the frustrations and morale are probably “the worst they’ve been all year” after the Blackhawks 6-2 loss to Seattle pic.twitter.com/9LI4eRGSq9— CHGO Blackhawks (@CHGO_Blackhawks) March 19, 2025
Bedard scoring was nice, at least — made a little history too:
Bedard 🤝 CrosbyOver 100 points before turning 21! pic.twitter.com/8SujAgOrMk— ESPN (@espn) March 19, 2025
Seeing Levshunov and Bedard combine for a goal, especially after a nice little keep-in play by Levshunov, was also nice.
BEDSY AND ARTY 🤩 pic.twitter.com/eXsixDtiaC— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 19, 2025
FUTUREEEEEEEEEEEE pic.twitter.com/ChvrRble5D— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 19, 2025
Seriously, that was the high of the game and it basically went downhill after that, so I’m just going to live in this moment instead of thinking about the rest of the game.
Game Charts
Three Stars
Adam Larsson (SEA) — 1 goal, 2 assists
Shane Wright (SEA) — 2 goals
Matty Beniers (SEA) — 1 goal, 1 assist
What’s Next
The Blackhawks host the Los Angeles Kings at the United Center on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.
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