TAKEAWAYS: Fatigue and Frustration Factor Into Blackhawks Loss to NYI

The Blackhawks on the second leg of a back-to-back found themselves on the wrong side of a 3-0 shutout against the Islanders.

O-Zone Equals Off

The Islanders bullied the Blackhawks on the offensive end. New York generated 36 scoring chances and 40 SOG through the three period. Chicago paled in comparison with just 27 scoring chances and 21 SOG.
"They doubled us in shots, kind of outworked us," said forward Colin Blackwell after the game. "That can't happen. Doesn't matter if we played the night before, that's just an excuse. You gotta build off some of the stuff that we worked on and put together last night."

Arvid Smotherblom

Goalie Arvid Soderblom had a standout performance in net. He kept the game scoreless through the first period thanks to blocking 10 shots on 14 scoring chances from the Islanders that period. In total Soderblom saved 37-of-40 shots he faced tonight.
"He was unbelievable tonight," said defenseman Connor Murphy. "He made saves … that speaks more to a veteran goalie. So he's showing signs of that right away - of having that poise on the road."
This season Soderblom has posted a 3.21 GAA and .906 save percentage in 11 appearances (nine starts).
"[Soderblom's] been great in every appearance that he's been in," said head coach Luke Richardson. "We just got to give him a little more goal support obviously, and a little bit better structure in front of him so he doesn't have to be exerting himself on big saves too much."

Momentum and Fatigue

The game shifted half-way through the second period after a video review overturned an original no-goal call in the Blackhawks net, giving New York the 1-0 lead. The score opened the floodgates. The Islanders scored two more times in the second period with less than a minute apart between the goals. The other two goals scored by the Islanders that period occurred less than a minute apart from one another.
"The call took a little momentum out of us on the first goal," said Richardson. "Unfortunately we are at that point we're gassed physically and then not thinking straight. We just got off our game plan a little bit after that. We didn't play together I thought like we did last night."
Tonight marks the fourth shutout loss by the Blackhawks this season.
"We're hungry to string good games together," said Murphy. "It's not an excuse for us to have a good game and be able to let one off the next night. We showed that we started the game okay. We just got to know what works for us."