INSTANT ANALYSIS: Khaira Injury Leaves Team 'Shaken' in Loss to Rangers

The Blackhawks dropped a 6-2 result to the New York Rangers on Tuesday night. The game was a competitive, back-and-forth game deadlocked 2-2 at the halfway mark, but a serious injury to one of their own shortly after shook the team's psyche and the Rangers put forth a four-goal third period to seal the win.
"It's not a game we want to remember too much as a team," captain Jonathan Toews said, referencing more than just the game play.

POSTGAME LINKS
GAMECENTER: CHI vs. NYR
RECAP: Blackhawks Fall to Rangers Late, 6-2
HIGHLIGHTS: Blackhawks vs. Rangers
GALLERY: Blackhawks vs. Rangers

TURNING POINT

The game changed midway through the second period when Jujhar Khaira took a hit up high from Jacob Trouba just inside the Blackhawks blue line. The forward immediately fell to the ice and remained there for several minutes while medical personnel attended to him and then stretchered him off the ice.
Khaira was taken to Northwestern Hospital to undergo further testing, but was responsive and alert.
"It's never something you want to see with any player, doesn't matter who it is, the other team or your team," King said postgame. "But he's up. He's talking. He's very responsive. He's done some tests already but he has some more tests to be done, so we won't know the extent of the injury until after these tests. He's still at the hospital right now, but he's talking, he's coherent. Scary situation to see."
The Blackhawks had a few chances on a power play opportunity a few minutes later, but the mindset of the team was obviously -- and rightly -- shaken at what had transpired, and largely couldn't find the same level the rest of the night.
"Personally, I was pretty shaken, not going to lie to you," Toews said. "Just glad to hear he's doing OK… I think we were trying to find that emotion to respond the right way. We could've had a better response as a team, but yeah, I think the guys felt that one a little bit."
The Rangers capitalized on an early power play of their own early in the third period and then netted three more in the final eight minutes of the game, including an empty netter, to take the game by the lopsided final.
"After [the Rangers' go-ahead goal], it just took the wind out of our sails," King said. "The way we were going, we just didn't have that extra jam to have a pushback."

OFF THE DOT

The left-side dot in the offensive end didn't find itself on the stat sheet, but it posted as close to a two-assist night as possible in Tuesday's loss. Both Blackhawks goals in the opening period originated its paint, with puck finding twine seconds after an offensive-zone faceoff.
Seconds after the Rangers' opening goal, Erik Gustafsson kept a clearing chip in following a draw at the dot, flicking a puck towards goal that eluded the glove of Alexandar Georgiev on its way into the top corner for a 1-1 tie. Six minutes later, a faceoff win by Dylan Strome from the same place was put towards goal by Alex DeBrincat, hitting Kirby Dach on the way in before the forward found the rebound at his feet and smacked a shot into the net to snap a 17-game goal drought and a 2-1 lead.
"It's nice for him to get the feeling more where he's scoring goals and he's around the net," Toews said of Dach's first goal since Oct. 27. "For a guy like that, he's a big part of our offense. Building that confidence is good for him."

MCCABE A LATE SCRATCH

The Blackhawks blue line, which after morning skate appeared to be regaining the services of Jake McCabe after missing a pair of games for personal reasons, continued to dig into the depth of the roster on Tuesday night as Wyatt Kalynuk, who was recalled from Rockford earlier in the afternoon, replaced him in the lineup from Sunday's contest.
McCabe,
who shared last week
that he and his wife are expecting their second child, was a late scratch again on Tuesday for personal reasons.
Caleb Jones missed the game with a non-COVID illness that also held him out of morning skate. Connor Murphy returned to the ice ahead of the game after missing the past two games in concussion protocol, but he was still not cleared to return to game action quite yet.
"It's tough," King said of facing one of the league's hottest teams without three top defensemen. "It's a good hockey team. It's a challenge for us to play teams like that… Our young guys battled hard. They gave us what they had and that's all we can ask for."
McCabe joined the Blackhawks Insider podcast last week to discuss his season, the team's improvement under King and the newest addition to his family.
Take a listen here
.