The Chicago Blackhawks picked the worst time to fall into old habits.
Facing the Western Conference-leading Edmonton Oilers, who own the league’s second-best offense, the Hawks committed 12 turnovers, looked slow and uncertain on defense and gave up two short-handed goals to lose 5-2 Saturday at Rogers Place.
Connor McDavid scored the opening goal and assisted on the second one for the Oilers.
Alex DeBrincat gave the Hawks’ faint hopes a lift with a late first-period goal and another in the third on a two-on-none rush with Philipp Kurashev coming out of a penalty kill, but Leon Draisaitl’s short-handed goal 71/2 minutes later gave the Oilers more than enough insurance.
“We’ve got to clean up some areas,” Hawks coach Derek King said. “But the first 10 minutes I thought we were there. I thought this could be a good game for us. I think we could beat that team.
“But (the Oilers score a) power-play, 5-on-3 (goal), and then it just kind of snowballed a little bit. But I thought we bounced back.”
Here are five takeaways from the 5-2 loss.
1. The Hawks’ puck management left a lot to be desired.
The Hawks committed 12 giveaways and were knocked off the puck by an Oilers team that played bigger and faster.
There are plenty of places to point fingers, but one example was Seth Jones’ defensive-zone turnover on the first power play that turned into Kailer Yamamoto’s short-hander. It was the Oilers’ third goal within a five-minute span — and a backbreaker for the Hawks.
Colton Sceviour pressured Jones at the wall, and Jones’ attempt at a drop pass to DeBrincat ricocheted right to Yamamoto, who roofed a nice shot over Hawks goalie Kevin Lankinen.
“Can’t turn the puck over on anybody,” King said. “We give up two short-handed, give them the power play and then we take a slashing or hooking, whatever it was, go down 5-on-3 (on the penalty kill and) they score again. A good team like that, with the talent they have, you can’t do that.
“You’re going to turn pucks over. You make a mistake, you turn the puck over, it’s what do you do after that. You can’t let it snowball.”
2. It was a homecoming of sorts on both sides.
It’s in the books: The first time Duncan Keith played against the Hawks after spending 16 seasons in Chicago.
He got extra minutes with Darnell Nurse out with a broken finger and played a game-high 25:06 — just like old times — including on the power play and penalty kill. With the double duty, Keith paired with usual defensive partner Cody Ceci and Evan Bouchard.
Keith took three shots and had two blocks, two takeaways and a giveaway.
“Obviously a little weird playing the old team, had that jersey on for a long time,” Keith said. “Lot of fond memories with that team and that organization, especially (Patrick) Kane and (Jonathan) Toews. That was good to get that one out of the way.”
It was also the first time Hawks newcomers Caleb Jones and Jujhar Khaira played against their former team, and both received the honor of being on the ice for puck drop at Rogers Place.
“It’s a lot of emotions,” Jones said before the game. “They drafted me six years ago and gave me a chance to play in the NHL. I’ve known a lot of those guys the whole time I was here.”
3. A hat tip to defensemen Connor Murphy and Caleb Jones for enduring a marathon shift.
The Oilers had the Hawks absolutely hemmed in their zone and rolled through all four lines.
The Hawks seemed powerless to clear in the second period, and to make matters worse, Mike Hardman broke his stick and was without it for a good portion of his 3 minutes, 15 seconds.
Linemates Dylan Strome and Khaira were out there for 3:20, but Jones and Murphy were stuck on the ice for 4:50.
“It was long,” Murphy said. “We went through different waves of feelings during the shift. I thought they went east to west on us and they were holding off one of their bigger lines. It felt like you saw every forward line they have..
“Your heart rate peaks and it doesn’t have anywhere higher to go and it just starts going down and it just gets a little easier.”
King said: “Obviously that’s hard to recover after a five-minute shift. They were spent.”
Oilers coach Dave Tippett added: “That was interesting, yeah — and not score.
“When it doesn’t go in, all you’re thinking is now they’re going to go down and five seconds in our zone and puck’s going to bounce out and they’re going to get one.”
Jones and Murphy each had shifts within the next four minutes.
“They recovered quicker than I thought,” King said.
4. Troy Murray and other cancer survivors were honored before the game as part of #HockeyFightsCancer night.
Teams around the NHL observed a moment of silence for those lost or still living with cancer, part of the league’s monthlong awareness campaign.
Oilers players wore lavender warmups and both the Oilers and Hawks players stood on the ice during a pregame tribute holding “I fight for” cards with names of those who have fought or are fighting cancer.
“It was a pretty cool moment to see everyone have their people who’ve gone through tough times,” DeBrincat said. “This night was for them. This month is for them in the NHL.”
Oilers play-by-play broadcaster Jack Michaels held up a card that read, “I fight for Troy Murray,” and Hawks analyst Colby Cohen held up one for Murray, “Edzo” (Eddie Olczyk, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 colon cancer in 2017) and Flyers winger Oskar Lindblom, who overcame bone cancer.
Murray, the former Blackhawks great and radio color analyst, revealed in August he was diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer.
Tippett played with Murphy at the University of North Dakota from 1981-82.
“Playing Chicago tonight, it’s with a heavy heart that I know Troy Murray is battling away, an ex-teammate of mine,” Tippett said. “You wear these things (lavender ribbons) with pride because you understand the level of concern and what people are going through.
“Anything you can do to bring attention, whether it be fundraising or just awareness to it, that’s a good thing because you’re helping people.”
5. Well, Derek King is apparently beatable after all.
It was a fun four-game winning streak in King’s coaching debut, but as the Hawks interim coach observed: “You know I would’ve like to have won every game. But you lose a game, and you see the areas we need to improve after tonight.”
Of course King was going to see a loss sooner rather than later — the team didn’t dig itself into a 1-9-2 hole simply because of former coach Jeremy Colliton.
But it’s alarming how much King’s Hawks looked like Colliton’s Hawks while allowing a four-goal first period to the Oilers.
The Hawks settled down and held the Oilers scoreless in the second, and Lankinen made some terrific saves.
DeBrincat called his two-on-none goal with Kurashev coming out the penalty box “lucky,” but it came after DeBrincat’s takeaway and is the kind of smart sequence you’d like to see more often from the Hawks.
The five-on-five scoring has gotten better — 12 in the last five games — but the power play has cooled off (one goal in the last 21 opportunities and two short-handed goals allowed).
“We were actually playing pretty well for stretches the first 11 minutes or so and then we gave them the chances,” Connor Murphy said. “We knew going into the game important things — Kinger make that really clear to us. That’s just on us to execute better.”
Here is more game coverage.
Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid led a four-goal first period, and the Chicago Blackhawks’ rally wasn’t enough to prevent a 5-2 road loss Saturday at Rogers Place.
The setback breaks a four-game winning streak and is interim Hawks coach Derek King’s first loss.
To illustrate the kind of night the Hawks had, two of the Oilers’ goals were short-handed.
The Hawks held their own in the first 10 minutes of the game, but the Oilers’ forecheck, speed and passing eventually overwhelmed them in the second half of the opening period.
That was the story on McDavid’s goal that opened the scoring.
McDavid knocked Seth Jones off the puck below the goal line, and it found its way back to him at the doorstep. He chipped it past Kevin Lankinen.
That was a little of right-place, right-time for McDavid, but the Hawks shot themselves in the foot on the other goals.
Philipp Kurashev and Jonathan Toews committed back-to-back penalties to create a 5-on-3 for the Oilers, and Tyson Barrie blasted a power-play goal from the slot.
Four minutes later, during a Hawks power play, Seth Jones tried a bad drop pass to Alex DeBrincat that bounced off the wall right to Kailer Yamamoto.
Yamamoto took the turnover and scored a short-handed goal.
The Hawks also lost track of Ryan McLeod, who came free down the slot to punch in Warren Foegele’s feed from below the goal line. But the Hawks answered with 20 seconds left in the first.
Seth Jones’ shot from the point was redirected by Kirby Dach and Alex DeBrincat for DeBrincat’s 10th goal of the season.
He scored again in the third.
DeBrincat stole the puck and raced ahead of the Oilers just as Kurashev left the penalty box, and they worked a two-on-none against Stuart Skinner.
But Leon Draisaitl erased any hopes of a comeback with a short-handed goal with 3 minutes, 32 seconds left.
Lankinen and Skinner each had 28 saves.
Brandon Hagel returned to the ice for the first time since injuring his left shoulder Nov. 7 against the Nashville Predators. He appeared to have reinjured the shoulder after Duncan Keith plowed him into the corner, forcing him to skate off with 31/2 minutes left in the second period, but Hagel returned to start the third.
