Minus: A tough start in the second
It's not that the Canes were bad in the second period - maybe they weren't as crisp or particularly dangerous as they were in the first period - and it wasn't as if the Blackhawks were good for any real stretch. They were just able to take advantage of a neutral-zone miscue and then scored a power-play goal, and ultimately, that was all they needed.
Hockey can be maddening like that at times.
"We gave them a few goals early in the second and had an uphill climb from there," Trocheck said. "We just weren't able to get those two goals."
Early in the second period, the Blackhawks broke up Skjei's up-ice pass in the neutral zone to spring an odd-man rush. Dylan Strome held onto the puck and scored just 29 seconds into the period to open the scoring. Three-and-a-half minutes later, Patrick Kane stripped Brett Pesce of the puck in the slot and dished to Alex DeBrincat for the tap-in finish on the power play.
All of a sudden, the Canes were facing a two-goal deficit in a game they otherwise seemed to be controlling.
"It was very, very frustrating. It's tough in the NHL to come back when you give teams goals," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "It's not like we played a poor game. We just had a couple hiccups there that cost us."
Plus: Vincent Trocheck
Trocheck returned to the Canes lineup after missing eight games with an upper-body injury. He finished the night with an assist, six shots on goal, one hit, a blocked shot and a plus-1 rating in 18:57 of ice time. Trocheck was also 10-for-15 (67%) in the faceoff circle.
"I thought I felt pretty good from the start," Trocheck said. "I just needed to get a few hits and feel the game a little bit."
"He was probably our best player," Brind'Amour said. "Every shift he was engaged. He worked hard and created a little bit of action, early especially."
Minus: Not getting anything out of the first period
The Canes' first period certainly wasn't a minus. They were dominant and controlled play, especially in the first 10 minutes.
"I thought our first was our best period by far, but we didn't build on that or continue that pace," Skjei said.
The minus was the fact that the Canes came out of that opening 20 minutes empty-handed. Despite leading 13-5 in shots on goal and recording seven high-danger scoring chances to the Blackhawks' zero, the score was 0-0 heading into the intermission.
That stung, which was only compounded when the Blackhawks potted two goals early in the next frame.
"We didn't fight hard enough to get the grade A's. We did OK at certain times," Brind'Amour said. "It wasn't like we gave up much. We just didn't do enough to win the game."
