Blackhawks<\/a> work through some serious defensive issues, they need stellar goaltending to have any chance to win.<\/p>\nAnd that\u2019s just to have a chance, as evidenced by the fact Spencer Knight\u2019s sharpness in net Sunday still wasn\u2019t enough to prevent a 5-3 loss to the Devils.<\/p>\n
Knight saved 35 of 39 shots in a bounce-back performance after a shakier night Thursday against the Flyers. But the Hawks weren\u2019t able to hold 1-0, 2-1 or 3-2 leads before falling apart late.<\/p>\n
Devils star Jack Hughes, who amassed a whopping 19 shot attempts, blew past Alex Vlasic for the game-winner with 5:09 left, just 19 seconds after Dougie Hamilton had tied the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goalies have been amazing all season,\u201d Ryan Donato said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to see them put in those situations where we\u2019re giving up that many chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hawks have now conceded 49, 33, 47, 42, 39 and 40 shots on goal in their last six games, winning just one. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to focus exclusively on the defense as the culprit there \u2014 and the defense has indeed been poor \u2014 but a lack of possession time in all three zones is simply giving opponents too many opportunities to exploit those defensive cracks.<\/p>\n
Coach Jeff Blashill believed the Hawks\u2019 approach, at least, was better Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur oldest center was 22, and our \u2018D\u2019 could be playing in the NCAA Tournament right now,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to make some mistakes, and we\u2019re going to have to be patient.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s part of where we\u2019re at. We\u2019ve got to keep grinding through and making sure, as we go through some of these frustrating moments where we gave up a lead late, that we\u2019re learning. There\u2019s nothing wrong with failure if you learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank Nazar, who recorded his first career two-goal game, expressed a similar sentiment at the end of a physically and emotionally tiring four-game road trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt in my mind that we\u2019re going to become a better hockey team,\u201d Nazar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have full belief in our team. I think our team can skate with any other team in the league. I love these guys, and I think everybody in here has the heart and skill to do it right. It\u2019s just, sometimes stuff like that happens and we\u2019ve got to learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
New ideas<\/b><\/h3>\n
Blashill experimented with a few interesting lineup changes. He put Anton Frondell at center in his fourth NHL game \u2014 even though he rarely played center in Sweden. He also deployed a five-forward top power-play unit quarterbacked by Connor Bedard.<\/p>\n
Both yielded dividends. Frondell tallied two assists, and the power play converted for the first time in nine games during a five-on-three.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWARK, N.J. \u2014 As the Blackhawks work through some serious defensive issues, they need stellar goaltending to have any chance to win. And that\u2019s just to have a chance, as evidenced by the fact Spencer Knight\u2019s sharpness in net Sunday still wasn\u2019t enough to prevent a 5-3 loss to the Devils. Knight saved 35 of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-usa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}