Hawks’ Philipp Kurashev scores a goal on some beautiful puck movement from Cole Guttman and Connor Bedard that gets Stars’ goalie Scott Wedgewood going the wrong direction
DALLAS — The Chicago Blackhawks were blown out 8-1 against the Dallas Stars on Sunday, which matched their worst loss of the season. The defeat came two nights after they clawed back from a multi-goal deficit — after squandering a 2-0 lead, albeit — to pick up a point.
Nick Foligno was not happy about the effort in the second game. Not one bit.
"You don't," Foligno responded when asked to explain the loss. "I don't know. That is really, really disappointing. Because we talked about how we were trending in the right direction.
"My only hope for a game like today is we just finally hammer it through our thick heads of how we're going to need to play, and that is not it. That is just not who we are, not who we can be. That's not what we expect in the room; that's not what our fans should expect. That's what pisses me off.
"That's not a winning team; that's just a team hoping. Hoping, 'Ah, maybe it's an easy night. Maybe the other team doesn't have it.' Are you kidding me? That team's record, and we're going to play like that? I'm sorry, just that one is really really frustrating with the strides we think we've been making."
This wasn't the first lopsided loss for the Blackhawks this season. They lost to Arizona 8-1, Columbus 7-3, and Seattle 7-1.
The loss in Dallas, however, seemingly stung the most for Foligno.
Chicago Blackhawks
"There's different circumstances to those ones where you're finding yourself or you're still learning what you need to do," Foligno said. "We got embarrassed in St. Louis, and then we came back after the break and it looked like we were a different team, different mindset. That's what I want to see: that has to stay.
"You can call it immaturity or whatever, but that's how you play in the NHL, that's how you become NHL hockey players. There's guys that are still trying to find their way in this league, and that's the recipe. So I just don't know why we fall back on the other way, wanting an easy night. That's just what it seemed like to me, and against a team like that, an easy night? Yeah right. And that's what happened."
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To be fair, the Blackhawks are decimated with injuries — Tyler Johnson and Taylor Raddysh are the latest players to be added to the list. But Blackhawks head coach Luke Richardson still wants to see urgency, and they didn't get that on Sunday.
"There's no point in coming to the bench and breaking sticks and kicking doors on the way into the dressing room," Richardson said. "That’s too late, the game's over. I'd rather take a penalty and try and kill it off with playing with that kind of ‘urgency,’ is the word to use.
"Like early in the game and play some fire and try and corral that a little bit, where tonight we didn't have any of that. I can't see any of that. There's a couple guys that did for sure, but 20 guys, it just wasn't there tonight. So there was no reason. We prepared the way we prepare for every game, and we've come out pretty good in games, but now we have to be better in sustaining through 60 minutes."
Foligno is the Blackhawks' de-facto captain. He has been all season long, and he leads through his actions and words. His words were strong after Sunday's embarrassing loss.
He wants to see a response on Tuesday in Nashville, from himself too.
"There has to be a sense of urgency," Foligno said. "And a respect factor in the league. Just becoming professionals. That’s the fight we’re going to have. We understand where we’re at and where we’re trying to get to, but we need commitment at that part of it, where every day you’re preparing, your consistency in how you prepare, your ability to understand the team you’re playing, what you need to do to get yourself ready.
"That’s not on coaches. They’ve done a hell of a job giving us a game plan and what we need to do and the time off that we need to rest and recover. That’s on us. And that’s the thing that drives me nuts as one of the older guys in the room. We need to figure that out soon. That to me is immaturity or ignorance. It borderlines a little bit.
"I don’t want it to bleed into ignorance — ‘Oh, we’re young, or this.’ That’s excuses to me. And that’s not a team we’re going to be built on. We owe it to ourselves and to our fans to be a better version and every game we have to strive for that."
