TAKEAWAYS: Blackhawks Fall Flat to Kraken

In a late-night matchup against the Seattle Kraken, the Chicago Blackhawks suffered another loss on the road in a tough 6-2 defeat on Wednesday.

The Blackhawks tried to keep things close in the first period as the Kraken led 2-1, but Joey Anderson felt that the team created more looks to even the score. However, a few defensive mistakes allowed Seattle to extend its lead even further. 

“I think we had more chances tonight to score but you can't give up the stuff we're giving up defensively tonight,” Anderson said. “You can't give those up and trade for offense. It's got to come the right way and tonight, we just didn't do it for long enough.” 

One of the positives that head coach Luke Richardson noticed included the team’s power play unit. After the team struggled to find the back of the net on Monday, Nick Foligno and the special team unit notched a goal to showcase their improvements.

With three power play opportunities throughout the contest, the second-year head coach knew they could have capitalized on those chances to change the momentum. 

“We're just having trouble bearing goals,” Richardson said. “I thought our power play looked like a power play and really shot the puck well and we could have got another bounce there…” 

This loss marked the 18th straight road loss for the Blackhawks, who last won back on Nov. 9 against the Lightning in Tampa. With two more road matchups on this trip, Philipp Kurashev explained some slow starts that can hurt the team in those games. 

“It's hard to [get wins], especially on the road I think we sometimes come out a little bit flatter than then at home,” Kurashev said. “So, we got to work on that to get better starts and then I think that's going to help us.” 

The Blackhawks will face their test on Thursday night as they take on the Edmonton Oilers, who are on a 14-game win streak. Kurashev mentioned that if the team can learn from their mistakes against Seattle, then they can provide some challenges against the Oilers. 

Richardson described the hard-fought games between Chicago and Edmonton earlier this season and knows this will make his team perform close to perfection in order to try and secure a win. 

“It's a good challenge for us,” Richardson said. “They're a big powerhouse and we got to be pretty much near perfect and we cannot have a miscue against them.”