Young Blackhawks have a lot of work to do |
TAMPA BAY – The NHL season returned Wednesday night as 10 teams kicked off their first of the 56-game slate. One of those teams was the Chicago Blackhawks as they open the season with two games on the road against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
What is expected to be a season full of growing pains, the young Blackhawks entered the season with optimism despite their fair share of injuries. If game one is any indication of what to expect this season, the Blackhawks have a lot to work on as the Lightning made quick work of Chicago 5-1 to open their title defense. One of the Blackhawks roster's most significant changes this season is in net as long-time goalie Corey Crawford signed with the Devils this offseason and has announced his retirement. With a slew of unproven goalies looking to make an impression, Chicago went with Malcolm Subban in game one as he is the most experienced of the group. Like most of the team, Subban struggled in his first start of the season, yielding five goals on 33 shots in the losing effort. It wasn't all bad, however, as Subban played well after the first period. He held his ground over the first 10 minutes before the floodgates began to open. At 10:39 in the first period, Ondrej Palat gave the Lightning the lead for good as this was just the beginning of the offensive output. Tampa Bay put the game away later in the first, scoring two goals in less than two minutes, with Mathieu Joseph and Anthony Cirelli lighting the lamp to give Tampa a 3-0 lead after one period of play. As mentioned above, the Blackhawks are not only young and inexperienced, but dealing with their fair share of injuries now, so coming back from three-goals was not going to be easy. The rest of the game saw the Blackhawks not only play well but match up to whatever the Lightning threw at them despite putting up just 23 shots on goal. After an impressive first period, the Lightning offense didn't have the same flow in the second period and managed to pick up just one goal. That goal came midway through the period when Steven Stamkos Picked up the power-play goal to extend the lead to 4-0. Victor Hedman and Brayden Point were in on the assists as that line will be a nightmare this season. Speaking of Point, he played a phenomenal game and proved to be just as important in the shooting side of things as he was in terms of passing. Less than seven minutes into the final period, Point picked up his second point of the night, this time on the goal side of things. His power-play goals was the second of the night for Tampa and gave the Lightning a commanding 5-0 lead. Stamkos picked up his second assist on the play with Mikhail Sergachev. Looking for some momentum to take into Friday's contest, the Blackhawks offense started to show more signs of life in the final five minutes. That resulted in their only goal of the night, with Dylan Strome putting an end to the shutout bid. Fresh on a new contract, Strome will play a significant role this season, especially early on. Andrew Shaw and Adam Boqvist were credited with the assist as the Blackhawks dropped their opening game 5-1. Both Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy had phenomenal games, with Stamkos picking up a goal and two assists and Vasilevskiy stopping 22 of 23 shots in goal. Strome took home player of the game honors for Chicago with his goal. Chicago returns to the ice tomorrow for game two with Tampa, with puck drop set for 6 PM.
