Blackhawks show defensive improvement in tough loss to Rangers
Hawks show defensive improvement in tough loss to Rangers originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
NEW YORK — The Blackhawks are clearly making progress under interim head coach Derek King, and it showed again on Saturday against the New York Rangers. But you’re not alone if you find yourself wrestling with how to feel about it.
On one hand, the Blackhawks allowed their second-fewest even-strength high-danger chances in a game this season at three. They generated 10 of their own. You’re going to win most games with that stat line.
On the other, the Rangers dominated in offensive zone possession time, according to Sportlogiq: 10:19 to 5:39. You’re not going to win many games with that stat line, although it should be noted New York had 9:26 of power-play time to Chicago’s 2:00.
“It was a tough loss,” said Seth Jones, who had two assists and played half the game at 29:34. “We did some good things. I thought we did a pretty good job tonight of really keeping them to the outside. We had good sticks in our D zone, took away a lot of their plays. They love to hit the seam in the offensive zone, cross-ice all the time, I thought we did a decent job of taking most of them away.”
It was, no doubt, a gutsy effort by the defense, which was without Jake McCabe (family reasons) and Connor Murphy (concussion protocol). Calvin de Haan drew back into the lineup after missing the last two games with back soreness and Ian Mitchell was recalled from Rockford to play in his first NHL game since Oct. 26.
In that sense, it was encouraging, along with another strong outing by Kevin Lankinen.
“Our D played really well,” interim head coach Derek King said following the 3-2 loss at Madison Square Garden. “Mitchy comes up from Rockford and has one of the better games I’ve seen him play in a long time, and guys were battling. Our D played really well in front of Lanks.”
Where the game turned was in the second period.
The Blackhawks led through one period in shot attempts (16-10),…
Source : yahoo
