Blackhawks finally showed life in season-opening loss to Utah: Notes

SALT LAKE CITY — Apparently, the Chicago Blackhawks need a full preseason and one period of the regular season to get started.

In the first 20 minutes of Tuesday’s season opener against the Utah Hockey Club, the Blackhawks looked like they did all preseason. They lacked energy, structure and, most importantly, attack. The Blackhawks found themselves down 2-0 and only three shots on goal in the first half.

There was a lot of panic on social media that the season would be too long.

And then the Blackhawks showed some life. It was a shift here, a shift there, and then it became more consistent. The Blackhawks ended up losing 5-2 in Utah’s opener, with Utah adding an empty net goal and another goal in the final minute. But the Blackhawks showed more fight, structure and offense as the game went on and outlasted Utah in the final period.

The Blackhawks don’t want to be in a morale situation this season, but it’s something they can build on. Chicago’s power play must improve.

Let’s dig deeper.

Where does Alex Vlasic think he can take a step forward in his second season? He said Tuesday morning that it was his crime.

“I think I have to keep my defensive style as it was last year,” Vlasic said. I’ve been very happy with that, and there’s always room for growth there. But I think, for me, my offensive game is something I want to try to continue to work on and get better at because I feel like the more well-rounded player I can be, the better.

“I think continuing to use the skate, joining the rush, is kind of creating those rush opportunities. I thought I had a couple of instances last year where I could have done that. I looked at some video before the season started and tried to see where I could contribute in a way.” Bigger In the offensive zone as well, I think the blue line has a shot-first mentality a little bit like Brent Burns, how good he is at getting pucks to the net and getting them out quickly and how much he produces that in front of the net.

Just hours later, Vlasic contributed to Nick Foligno’s goal with a shot at the blue line.

Let’s look at Utah’s first goal. Utah’s Michael Kesselring carried the puck through the neutral zone. Philipp Kurashev swung and missed the ball, taking himself out of position and giving Utah an easy entry. From there, Utah had room to work with. Taylor Hall may have needed to shut down Dylan Guenther, but the Blackhawks were trying to sort it out. Guenther received the puck and beat Peter Mrazek, who may have been checked.

Utah’s second goal began when the Blackhawks’ Craig Smith turned the ball over while trying to exit the offensive zone.

Finally, we will look at the third. It was a nice tip in the end, but Chicago didn’t touch Utah from their breakout to their entry. It can’t be that easy.

The Blackhawks started to show some life in the second period, and the second line of Hall, Kurashev and Tyler Bertuzzi had a big hand in that. The streak came quickly and aggressively in the second half.

Kurashev in particular had some notable moments in this period, as seen below.

It wasn’t an impressive game for Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen, but they combined to score the Blackhawks’ first goal of the season. It came moments after Bedard became frustrated with himself for not finishing off Bertuzzi’s pass.

Bedard tried this too:

Strong start

Nolan Allan looked solid in his NHL debut. He had a tough transition in the second half when he lost the puck in the offensive zone and lost his footing while trying to defend in transition. Other than that, Alan didn’t look out of place.

Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson spoke about Allan’s development earlier today.

“It seems really quiet out there,” Davidson said. “One of the things with Nolan is he plays a calm, tough game, and he continues to develop that. With his game he plays within himself. He doesn’t try to do too much; he doesn’t beat himself up. That’s a great trait for a defenseman. He’s earned the trust of the coaching staff, and that’s not easy.” For a young defenseman, so he’s earned a spot in the inaugural lineup, and we’ll see where things go from there.

Plan ahead

As expected, Lukas Reichel and Andreas Athanasiou were the healthy scratches in the season opener. The Blackhawks won’t give Rachel much leeway this season.

“For Lucas, if he’s in the lineup, that’s his job, and he’s been around long enough to know he’s got to play well enough to keep that position,” Davidson said. “If he’s not in the lineup, he’s got to work and get to the point where if the opportunity presents itself, he’ll jump in and take advantage of it. He’s been around enough to know what to do in any situation he’s put in, so we expect he will do that.

He added: “He has to show up and play a certain way and train and have the habits that, if that’s in practice, he shows that he deserves to be in the lineup, and if he’s in the lineup, he plays in a certain way that we expect of him.” You will hold a place. It’s in his hands. …When the opportunity presents itself, he will make the most of it.

Richardson was asked if he plans to rotate his forwards with 14 forwards this season.

“It’s going to be about playing and being healthy,” Richardson said. “If someone doesn’t perform well, we have more depth now, so we won’t have as much restriction with everyone. These guys have speed, good talent, youth. If someone doesn’t perform well, those guys are going to get targeted.” “

Player updates

Davidson didn’t have many updates on Laurent Brossoit and Artyom Levshunov. He expects both to return sometime this month.

“Brossoit has always been a little ahead of Arty, and there’s no information to change that,” Davidson said.

CHSN broadcasts

Tuesday’s game was shown on ESPN, giving the Chicago Sports Network a few more days until its first broadcast of the regular season. But for Friday’s game, there’s no guarantee CHSN will be anywhere other than where it is now.

As a reminder, if you’re in the market, you can get CHSN over the air with a digital antenna and through the pass-through services on DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, U-verse, and Astound.

Nothing is final yet. If you were hoping for CHSN to appear on YouTube TV, it’s unlikely to happen. YouTube TV doesn’t seem interested in adding regional sports networks.

CHSN will likely be on Comcast. It’s unclear whether that will happen by Friday night. The two parties are negotiating and are expected to continue negotiating this week.

This is something we will be monitoring throughout the week. CHSN should know that Friday is an important deadline.

(Tyler Bertuzzi Image: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)