Blackhawks feel outdoor fatigue in ’embarrassing’ Stadium Series loss
MINNEAPOLIS – The Chicago Blackhawks’ exhausting week of presidential visits and nationally televised games finally came to a close with a 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Wild during Sunday’s Stadium Series game at TCF Bank Stadium.
Because of their heavy schedule, the Blackhawks had every reason to come up with excuses for such an uninspired performance.
Instead, the defending Stanley Cup champions were hard on themselves in the disappointing defeat.
“There are no excuses in this room,” said goaltender Corey Crawford, who was pulled after allowing four goals on 23 shots on goal through two periods. “We’re professionals. Everyone has a tough schedule at some point. For us to do that is definitely no excuse to play the way we did. It was tough. It was a little embarrassing to be honest. To have our fans come and watch it was definitely a tough one to swallow.”
This is the organization’s fourth outdoor game, with their record now 1-3-0 since their first at Wrigley Field for the 2009 Winter Classic.
On Wednesday, the team played the New York Rangers in a nationally televised game, one of a league-high 21 this season. On Thursday, the Hawks visited the White House to celebrate their 2015 Stanley Cup. Sunday’s outdoor game was the end of Chicago’s most tiring week.
“It doesn’t matter, there’s always going to be off-ice stuff going on,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “When you look at this game there’s a lot of energy and a lot of excitement surrounding it and I think we talked about trying to focus on the task at hand, making sure we’re not too distracted by what’s going on around you.”
Their fatigue showed early and often.
Chicago went goal-less before Patrick Kane put a shot past Devan Dubnyk at the 12:05 mark of the third period to make the game 5-1. The Blackhawks showed an uncommon lack of discipline, going shorthanded six times, including a five-minute interference major on defenseman Michal Rozsival that merited a game misconduct.
By the time the second period ended, the Wild were up 4-0 and Chicago never could find a flow to their game.
“Yeah, it was disappointing. It was a tough start and it didn’t slow down,” said coach Joel Quenneville.
Did this have to do with the Wild’s overall enthusiasm for an outdoor game versus Chicago’s exhaustion for these types of events? There are always questions on whether the outdoor novelty has worn off for fans. But has it also for players and teams that have gone through multiple outdoor excursions like Chicago?
Overall, 12 Blackhawks players have gone through at least one of these contests. In reality, they’re just one of 82 games, but in essence they loom much larger.
“I guess you can maybe look at it that way, that they were really excited to be at home and maybe a first game for a lot of those guys,” Toews said. “Maybe they used that to their advantage. I think they came out really hard. You throw that into the mix – these are big games for us too. At the end of the day, I don’t want to forget about the importance of that. They’re playing with a lot of desperation. We knew we had to try to match that and didn’t quite do it. It was definitely a couple of factors in there.”
Also, the Wild had more to play for. They had fired their coach a little over a week ago and entered the game three points out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. While Chicago hasn’t played great of late, going 2-2-1 in their last five, to them the regular season is a portal to the playoffs. They’re in first place in the Central Division, and likely assured a postseason spot.
“It was just a game where nothing was going well,” Crawford said. “They were all over the place and I don’t know, it seemed like there was no chemistry and it was the other way. The other team felt like they had the puck. They were playing fast. It was just one of those games for us where we couldn’t get anything going.”
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
