The Chicago Blackhawks took on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night at the United Center. It was a 7-3 blowout that ended any goodwill earned in their Saturday night shootout win over the Dallas Stars.
After giving up four goals on seven shots, Spencer Knight was pulled. The team didn’t get the spark that Jeff Blashill was looking for offensively, so he put Knight back in for the third.
Penguins Skate Out Of Chicago With 7-3 Victory Over Blackhawks
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After the game, Blashill didn’t sound like the head coach of a team that was just blown out in the second half of a back-to-back yet again. Instead, he sounded like a coach who was satisfied with the effort and process.
‘‘It was a night their chances went in, in the first, and our chances didn’t,’’ Blashill said. ‘‘Then you’re just digging yourself out of a hole that’s difficult to dig out of.”
Spencer Knight was leaky, and the Blackhawks did have a couple of chances in the first minute of regulation. Blashill, based on his words, thinks that if Knight was as sharp as he’s been this year, and maybe they buried one of their earlier chances, that the game would have gone much differently.
‘‘We probably had more quality chances than we did last night, especially in that first part,” Blashill said. “We probably gave up similar stuff. Theirs went in, and ours didn’t. That’s hockey.’’
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The fact of the matter is that it’s another four-plus goal defeat that came on the second leg of a back-to-back situation. They are 0-4 in those games, and all of them have been by four or more. They allowed seven or more in three of them. With eight more of these remaining, including this upcoming weekend, it is worth analyzing.
Wyatt Kaiser and Nick Foligno spoke after the loss, and each of them tried to diagnose what the problem is. If they knew for sure, they would have corrected it already, which is a common answer when an NHL player is asked how something can be fixed.
Even after tough losses, and this has been said a lot so far in 2025-26, Jeff Blashill is not going to get up to the podium and blast his players unless there is a serious problem. He believes in them up and down the lineup.
‘‘I like who they are as people. I like who they are as competitors. I like who they are as hockey players. And I like the potential in the group, even for the rest of this season.”
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It is going to be a tough run of hockey. They don’t have Connor Bedard or Frank Nazar right now due to injury, and that makes it harder to win. However, sticking to the process that allowed them to have success earlier in the season will do them good down the stretch as they try to come out of this slump.
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