The Blackhawks came within four minutes Thursday of ending their ridiculous road losing streak.
Then they fell apart — again — and watched that streak extend to 15 straight.
Gabriel Vilardi tied the game with 3:29 left, Nikolaj Ehlers ripped in the game-winner with 1:05 left and the Jets rallied to beat the Hawks 2-1.
The Hawks still haven’t won outside of Chicago since Nov. 9 and have now let second-intermission leads slip away in three of their last seven road contests, having also done so Dec. 23 against the Blues — in especially devastating fashion — and last week against the Devils.
“It is hard to win games,” defenseman Connor Murphy told reporters in Winnipeg. “Any team is going to pour it on you at the end, if you’re trying to defend a lead, and you’ve got to know how to play. We clearly didn’t show we know how to play.”
The Hawks have proven surprisingly competitive in the three games since Connor Bedard went down, compensating for their dire lack of offensive talent with plenty of work ethic. But they’ve now lost 2-1 in consecutive outings in spite of that grittiness.
Goalie Petr Mrazek did his best to alter the narrative Thursday, making big third-period saves on Morgan Barron and Vladislav Namestnikov — before Vilardi’s tap-in — in a futile attempt to make a second-period Murphy goal hold up.
“Subconsciously, you back off and try to protect the 1-0 lead, and then preserve [things] and try to get to overtime when they tie it 1-1,” coach Luke Richardson said. “They just kept coming, so...they got the good breaks at the end that they created for themselves, and we came away with nothing again.”
Fruitless 6-on-5 play
Not only has the Hawks’ power play seriously struggled so far this season, but the Hawks have also scored only one goal in six-on-five situations. They failed to add to that number Thursday after Taylor Raddysh, with Mrazek pulled, had a decent last-gasp look blocked with eight seconds left.
Their one goal was essentially meaningless, too. It merely cut a 3-1 deficit to 3-2 in an Oct. 14 loss to the Canadiens.
In other words, the Hawks haven’t tied a single game with the goalie pulled this season. Their one total six-on-five goal is tied with the Bruins, Sabres, Islanders and Golden Knights for fewest in the NHL; the Maple Leafs and Predators are tied for the league lead with seven goals each.
In about 29 minutes of six-on-five time — almost half a game all added up — they haven’t even threatened much, ranking 31st in shot attempts, 24th in shots on goal, 29th in scoring chances and 28th in expected goals per minute.
Again, that aligns with their conventional five-on-four struggles, but the two scenarios are slightly different, as Nick Foligno explained in December. It’s more chaotic with less space to exploit.
“Six-on-five is probably not practiced enough, and [the defending team] just tries to clog up the middle,” Foligno said. “In a lot of ways, as a defense, you’re hoping you’re going to get in the lane. A lot of times, those goals that happen are bounces off shin pads and they’re right to somebody in the backdoor position — [the] extra guy. So it’s a little bit different.”
Perry can sign elsewhere
Terminated ex-Hawks forward Corey Perry met Tuesday with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported, and he received approval to sign with any NHL team before the March 8 deadline.
That decision implies there won’t be any league-enforced discipline for Perry’s misconduct in November with the Hawks.
The 38-year-old definitely has some game left in him — he had tallied nine points in 16 games before getting booted out of Chicago — so he may receive some short-term free-agent interest if a team feels comfortable inheriting the baggage and scrutiny.
He also said in November he had begun seeking help for alcohol abuse; it’s unclear if that process is still ongoing.
