The Chicago Blackhawks head to Detroit with a four-game losing streak. The Red Wings were defeated in a back-to-back set over the weekend. They’ve won just three of their last 11 games.
One of those Original Six teams will get back on track when they square off on Wednesday.
The Blackhawks are 0-2-2 during the slide, including a 2-0 blanking by Colorado on Monday. Chicago has scored just six goals in those four games.
“We need to find a way to produce a little bit, create a little bit more O-zone time and keep the puck a little bit more,” forward Patrick Kane said.
The Avalanche extended their home winning streak to 16 games, so the Blackhawks joined a parade of teams that have come up empty in Colorado. Chicago had 24 shots on goal, five fewer than the Avalanche, who broke the deadlock on a power-play tally midway through the second period. Colorado added an insurance goal at 6:41 of the third.
“It’s frustrating as a coach and I know as a player how it can be frustrating and it can creep in,” interim coach Derek King said. “We’ve just got to keep these guys, their energy up, keep their heads up. There’s no ‘poor me’ here, we just continue to build. We’re doing a lot of good things out there. Especially against these good teams, I think we raise our game.
“It’s trying to keep that raising the game to that level and we’ll get there. It doesn’t matter who we play. We’ll build from it and hopefully we go into Detroit and get some points going here.”
Marc-Andre Fleury did what he could to keep his team within striking range, making 27 saves. He has started nine of the last 10 games.
Chicago is wrapping up a three-game road trip before hosting Colorado on Friday. The Red Wings had no trouble solving Fleury in the teams’ first meeting this season in Chicago on Oct. 24.
Detroit scored four second-period goals en route to a 6-3 victory. Rookie forward Lucas Raymond recorded his first career hat trick and added an assist.
Opponents have gotten much more physical with Raymond over the past two months and his production has nose-dived. He’s scored just one goal since Dec. 1.
Detroit lost its most recent home game in overtime to Dallas 5-4 on Friday. The Stars tied the game with 1:03 left in regulation. The Red Wings then went to Nashville and dropped a 4-1 decision on Saturday.
“We should have won (Friday). We’re sitting there in position to win it and we should have won, and (Saturday) we could have won the game,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said. “It’s not like we were hemmed in and hanging on by any stretch. It was a fairly even game; they had a few more chances than we did.”
Detroit failed to convert on five power plays, including a four-minute man advantage spanning the first and second periods. The Predators scored the game’s first goal on one of their power plays.
“We let them have a power-play goal, and we didn’t get anything on ours,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “You lose the special teams game, especially on the road, it’s tough to win. It definitely played a part in it.”
–Field Level Media