The mental fragility King referenced of the team he inherited after the last outing in Winnipeg has been well documented as a missing element in the months since. He's also shown a unique ability to get an almost immediate response from the group at crucial moments, often the very next game after a disappointing performance.
Both elements were on display in the full-circle rematch in Winnipeg.
The Blackhawks could've lapsed after the Jets tied the game early in the third period off a fluky deflection in front, but they didn't. And the team's fatal flaw from Saturday in St. Louis -- not shooting the puck with a season-low 16 shots -- was turned around into the definitive measure that sealed the game just 48 hours later.
Off a neutral-zone turnover minutes after the equalizer, DeBrincat immediately turned the play back into Winnipeg's end with defensemen caught deep in the zone and on their heels, walking into the high slot ripping a wrister from the high slot past the blocker of Connor Hellebuyck for a 2-1 lead.
"That's what we talked about from the last game," King said. "He wasn't shooting those pucks, he was cutting across the blue line and looking for somebody late or a lateral play and the play would get knocked down and they'd go back the other way. What does he do tonight? He starts shooting more, he doesn't do the lateral plays. We played with our structure and he played within himself. He's a shooter."
"What makes it so hard is he can fire it off so many different places around his body. He seems to snap it harder than anyone winding up when he can do it just off his front foot," defenseman Connor Murphy explained of DeBrincat's play. "I think as a D-man, when you're gapped out a little bit like that, you're always trying to get a stick on his release or get your legs in the way of a shot, but you can't read it when he releases it so deceptively like that. It's a dangerous shot. It's hard for D-men and goalies to stop."
