CHICAGO — Petr Mrázek was leaning all the way to one side, his right skate out of the blue paint and his left leg crumpled underneath him as the puck slid from the left circle to the right. Mrázek’s head swung left first, his eyes tracking the puck before his body could respond, but that response didn’t take long. Pushing off the blade of his right skate, Mrázek got just enough momentum to get himself fully back in the crease — albeit still a long way from the far post. So he flung out his left arm as far as it could go, somehow snaring Kent Johnson’s shot in his glove as he flopped face-first onto the ice.
Johnson looked to the roof in disbelief. Connor Murphy offered the goalie a congratulatory tap on the chest. The United Center crowd gave him the biggest ovation of the night.
It was a reminder of just how good Mrázek — a supposed throw-in, a stopgap, a warm body with a cap hit that could help the Blackhawks reach the salary floor — has been since he was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in the summer of 2022. As rough as the last 14 months have been for the Blackhawks, imagine how bleak things would look with a replacement-level goalie back there instead of Mrázek, who has saved 14.39 goals above expected in that span.
The Blackhawks have leaned heavily on Mrázek. Perhaps too heavily, because suddenly the 32-year-old goalie isn’t looking like himself. He gave up a soft goal to Jared Spurgeon in a 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Friday, and had one of his worst outings — despite the save-of-the-year candidate — in a 6-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday afternoon. Mrázek was beaten from long range by Ivan Provorov, Johnson, Dante Fabbro and Kirill Marchenko.
Pinning the loss solely on Mrázek would be foolish, given the turnovers and defensive gaffes by the Blackhawks in allowing response goals within three minutes of all three of their own power-play goals. But when Mrázek isn’t nearly perfect, it exposes the Blackhawks’ many flaws.
“He played great,” captain Nick Foligno said. “So it was just everybody tonight. It just wasn’t good enough.”
Veteran backup goalie Laurent Brossoit was signed to a two-year contract to ease the burden on Mrázek this season, but Brossoit has yet to play a game and won’t for at least six more weeks — likely more — after undergoing a second procedure on his right knee. Mrázek has started 18 of the Blackhawks’ 24 games, on pace for 61 appearances — breaking the career high of 56 he set just last year.
And it’s just too much.
It’s easy to understand why Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson has ridden him so hard. If Arvid Söderblom makes four more appearances, he’ll no longer be waiver-exempt. The promising 25-year-old surely would be claimed by a goalie-needy team if the Blackhawks tried to sneak him through to Rockford at that point, which leaves the team in an obvious pickle. No team wants to carry three goalies, but the Blackhawks won’t have much of a choice if and when Brossoit returns.
But that’s going to happen regardless now. There’s simply no way Söderblom can be held to three starts or fewer between now and whenever Brossoit is back. The Swede will start Monday in Toronto, and while there are only two more back-to-backs between now and the 4 Nations Face-Off break in mid-February, it’d be utter lunacy to expect Mrázek to start all but two of the next 30 games, especially given his lengthy injury history.
Söderblom will get his 60th game before Brossoit returns. There’s no way around it. So the Blackhawks would be wise to get him there faster, before they run Mrázek into the ground or, worse, get him injured.
Richardson demurred when asked if Mrázek was feeling the workload, noting (correctly) that the Blackhawks did him no favors on Sunday.
“I don’t know,” he said. “He wants this workload. He wants his games. He feels healthy. He made some spectacular saves again tonight.”
Of course, he wants to play. But he shouldn’t. Not this much.
Ideally, the Blackhawks would have had Mrázek and Brossoit playing 41 games each this season. That’s how modern goaltending works. Only a few goalies can play as often as the Martin Brodeurs and Patrick Roys of yesteryear did, and it’s not a positive sign that Mrázek has played as many games as Connor Hellebuyck and just one fewer than Andrei Vasilevskiy this far into the season.
Mrázek is not that guy. He can’t be used in that way. It’s bad for him, and what’s bad for Mrázek is bad for the Blackhawks. Sometimes, less is more. The three-goalie conundrum is coming no matter what. The sooner the Blackhawks accept that, the better off they’ll be.
Connor Bedard’s crisis of confidence appears to be over. Sure, you’d like to see him shoot the puck on a two-on-one rather than force a pass to Philipp Kurashev, but Bedard had a goal and an assist, scoring on an early power play and triggering a nice passing play for Nick Foligno’s power-play goal in the third. He also had a brilliant drive to the net, stickhandling through heavy traffic to create a scoring chance. He has two goals and two assists in his last three games.
“The last two games, he’s looked really good,” defenseman Alex Vlasic said.
Bedard also was on the ice for four goals against. So while Richardson liked his effort on the backcheck on the back-breaking fifth Columbus goal, it wasn’t a perfect night.
“He definitely looks more like himself the last few games, but on the defensive side of things, we have to be better, and so does he,” Richardson said. “He can’t score one and give up two, right? Same as anybody else on the team.”
Foligno has been frustrated by the Blackhawks’ situational awareness all season, particularly in shifts following goals. So the fact Columbus scored within three minutes of each of Chicago’s three goals (all power-play goals), thanks in large part to sloppy passes and loose defense, had him steaming.
“That was the disappointing part,” Foligno said. “Felt like we couldn’t get anything rolling. Especially after that first power-play goal, you think you’ve got some momentum, and then they come back with two quick ones. It’s the lulls in these games that are hurting us.”
Vlasic continues to be a surprising offensive weapon for the Blackhawks. He had six shots on goal and picked up his third assist in the last five games. He even had two daring drives to the net that resulted in quality chances. With 10 assists on the season, Vlasic is on pace for a 34-point season. He had just 16 points last year.
“On the power play, that’s a big aspect of why I’m there,” Vlasic said of his shot-first mentality. “Just keeping it simple and getting pucks to the net. Had a number of good looks. I think I’ve got to do a better job of scoring. … I’m just trying to contribute offensively since we’ve been struggling a little bit.”
(Top photo of Petr Mrázek’s highlight-reel glove save on Sunday against Columbus’ Kent Johnson: Chase Agnello-Dean / NHLI via Getty Images)
