Anything, Anything (I’ll Give You): Avalanche 3, Blackhawks 2

1 day ago  /  Second City Hockey

A two-goal lead in the third period disappeared by the end of regulation, leading to the Blackhawks ultimately losing 3-2 to the Avalanche at the United Center on Wednesday night.



Nick Foligno put the Hawks on the penalty kill in the first period but Ilya Mikheyev took that as a scoring opportunity, finishing this odd-man rush himself to put Chicago ahead 1-0:



Short-handed goal for Chicago!Scored by Ilya Mikheyev with 05:21 remaining in the 1st period.Assisted by Frank Nazar and Connor Murphy.Chicago: 1Colorado: 0#COLvsCHI #Blackhawks #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/6nVrOJNaky— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 3, 2025



In the second period, Connor Murphy scored off a one-timer after a neat backhand pass from Connor Bedard allowed the veteran blue-liner to get all his weight behind the shot that made it a 2-0 game:



Connor Murphy blasts home a shot from the top of the circle for his 2nd goal of the season pic.twitter.com/cgacWuOWEA— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) April 3, 2025



In the third period, Cale Makar was given an extremely unnecessary amount of time and space, allowing him to spoil Spencer Knight’s shutout bid in the middle of the frame:



Colorado goal!Scored by Cale Makar with 10:43 remaining in the 3rd period.Assisted by Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin.Chicago: 2Colorado: 1#COLvsCHI #Blackhawks #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/BivTu9HV6p— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 3, 2025



Just when it seemed like the Hawks were going to steal another one from the Avs, Martin Necas tied the game with 11 seconds remaining:



Colorado goal!Scored by Martin Necas with 00:11 remaining in the 3rd period.Assisted by Cale Makar and Valeri Nichushkin.Chicago: 2Colorado: 2#COLvsCHI #Blackhawks #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/WRbKzrOxze— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 3, 2025



Overtime was scoreless, and the Avs took home a second point when Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen scored in the shootout while only Teuvo scored for the Hawks.



Notes



As soon as Colorado scored that tying goal in the final seconds of regulation, fellow SCHer Eric turned to me and asked, “Why is Bedard the one taking that faceoff?” Excellent question! The draw came after a timeout, so Sorensen had his choice, and Jason Dickinson is probably the guy going to the dot if healthy. There could be an argument for having Bedard exposed to that type of high-pressure moment in a game that ultimately means nothing and it’s also worth noting that Bedard has been better on draws in the last month (55-for-112, 49.1 percent) — although he was just 4-for-11 in this game. But this also feels a little bit like the Hawks trying so hard to turn Bedard into this mythical 200-foot player that isn’t necessarily his archetype.



Sorensen was asked about putting Bedard out there for that draw and said that Bedard was chosen for it because he’s a righty and the draw was on the right side of the ice.



Two games in, still haven’t seen anywhere near enough evidence for Sam Rinzel to be playing anywhere other than Chicago for the rest of this season and the start of next season.



In spite of the loss, still an excellent rebound performance from Spencer Knight in this game after a few weeks with some tougher outings. Check out that big blue circle directly in front of Knight’s net in the heat maps below for an accurate depiction of the quality chances that Colorado generated in this game.



Connor Murphy’s been a good soldier on a lot of bad teams while in Chicago and he probably doesn’t get enough moments of pure bliss like the one he had when he scored that goal this evening. Good for him:



Connor Murphy could be mailing it in and just getting to the finish line. But he was PUMPED on his goal. I asked him why:[image or embed]— Mark Lazerus (@marklazerus.bsky.social) April 2, 2025 at 11:55 PM



Ilya Mikheyev’s career has been so weird. He’s had three seasons with a shooting percentage at 13 or 14 and three others where it was 8.2 or less. His points-per-60 rate has been over two in three seasons, at 1.7 for two seasons and then was down at 1.3 in another season. Those wild fluctuations are probably why he received a contract with an AAV just over $4 million but then had his salary dumped in the trade that brought him to Chicago. He’s probably an early candidate for a flip at next year’s deadline should he continue to produce at his current rate of just under 36 points over an 82-game season, because some contending team will need his speed and defensively responsible game that also contains just enough hands and skill to get your hopes up to be something more (even if he ultimately never will).



Never felt more like a character in a horror movie ready to scream “HE’S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!” than in this very moment:







Makar’s only open by, what, 50 feet there? Let’s fix this in-zone coverage thing under the next coach, eh?



The idea of the Slaggert-Moore-Reichel line sounded good on paper given the speed that all three possess but the results were less encouraging. In 6:04 of 5-on-5 play, that trio was on the wrong side of every category: 11-2 in shot attempts, 5-1 in shots on goal, 5-0 in scoring chances and 3-0 in high-danger chances, all for an expected goal share of (brace yourself) 5.85 percent. Yikes! They also completely lost Makar on the goal referenced above, with that particular assignment seeming to belong to Slaggert.



The only line with a positive expected goal share was Bertuzzi-Nazar-Teuvo, which clocked in at an excellent 83.65 percent in their 6:58 together during 5-on-5 play. Nazar was especially energetic throughout this game and had the highest individual expect goal amount on the Hawks at 0.52, which was nearly double the next highest amount: Pat Maroon at 0.27.



Still feels like this team just lacks an overall structure, which is especially evident on a roster full of so many young players who are trying to figure out how to play at the NHL level. Here’s hoping the next bench boss for this side can install some guardrails for all of these kids that adequately guides them along the path toward lengthy NHL careers.



Game Charts















Three Stars




Martin Necas (COL) — 1 goal



Spencer Knight (CHI) — 29 saves on 31 shots



Connor Murphy (CHI) — 1 goal, 1 assist




What’s Next?



The Blackhawks take their turn on the traveling Alex Ovechkin Circus when they head to Washington to face the Capitals on Friday at 6 p.m....

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