CHICAGO — It was a little jarring to hear Tina Turner’s “Simply The Best” blaring from the Blackhawks’ dressing room on Thursday night. Then again, it was a little jarring to hear any music coming out of there after a home game. After all, the 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers was just Chicago’s third home win all season.
So you can forgive Nick Foligno, elder millennial that he is, for having a little fun with his younger teammates with his postgame music choice.
“Literally half our team doesn’t know who she is,” he said.
Hey, they still got into the song. Nothing was going to dull the team’s mood after this one. Two days after blowing a 2-1 third-period lead to the lowly Anaheim Ducks, the Blackhawks held on to a 2-1 third-period lead against the defending Stanley Cup champions long enough for Foligno to pounce on a lazy Panthers pass to knock in an empty-netter with 60 seconds left to seal it.
“That’s hockey, right?” Foligno said of the nervy ending. “There’s some uncomfortable (moments), but you just don’t want to give away momentum. Make them take it away from you. That was the big thing the other night, where we just gave away momentum. We just allowed that team to come back and beat us, and that was what was so disappointing. Tonight, that’s a hell of a team over there. They push, but we don’t get to give in.”
The Blackhawks got a huge penalty kill after Wyatt Kaiser sent the puck over the glass at 12:22 of the third, and Petr Mrázek was excellent down the stretch, finishing with 32 saves.
“That was nice,” said Craig Smith, who roofed his fifth goal on a second-period breakaway, sprung by Pat Maroon. “It’s nice to do it at home, especially. We’ve been away quite a bit. This is the place where we have to be hard to play against. They had a couple looks but we held them, so it was a great win.”
Coaches are always loath to change their lineup after a win, especially after a good win over a good team. But Luke Richardson might have to reconsider his top line of Connor Bedard, Jason Dickinson and Joey Anderson after Bedard failed to get off a single shot attempt in 19 minutes, 32 seconds. The line as a whole went without a shot on goal. Bedard hasn’t scored in his last 11 games. Foligno’s empty-netter gave him twice as many goals on the season (six) as Bedard (three).
It’s a tricky line Richardson is walking with the current top trio. Dickinson has proven he’s capable of playing with elite offensive players. He blended surprisingly well with Patrick Kane during the 2022-23 season, and Bedard had markedly better underlying numbers playing with Dickinson last season than without him. Dickinson scored a career-high 22 goals last year, too — and had two more goals off Bedard primary assists on Tuesday against Anaheim — so he can fill the net.
So why not always keep them together? Because Dickinson, good as he can be offensively, is far more valuable defensively. There’s a reason he got Selke Trophy votes last season.
Prior to the Anaheim game, Dickinson had been used in an exclusively shutdown, third-line role. And rather than have Dickinson abandon his defensive assignment to focus on offense with Bedard, Richardson prefers to keep Dickinson in his defensive role — and include Bedard in it. It’s part of the process of turning Bedard into a well-rounded player, not just an offensive weapon. But it also makes it even tougher for Bedard to find his offensive groove.
“There’s another responsibility there — it’s not just to create offense, it’s to check against the best lines, and they’ll find that out (against Florida),” Richardson said before the game. “Sometimes, that’s a great challenge that lifts you up and you get two responsibilities out there: trying to stop the other team and not cheating on that to get to the offense. Sometimes good players on the other team get frustrated if you check them well, and then that opens it up for you to make some plays and score some goals, which last game they did a great job (of).”
Indeed, they managed pretty well against Anaheim’s top line of Alex Killorn, Trevor Zegras and Leo Carlsson. But it was a different story against Florida’s elite top line of Evan Rodrigues, Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart. That trio swamped the Bedard-Dickinson-Anderson line to the tune of a 15-5 edge in attempts, a 7-3 edge in scoring chances and a 3-0 edge in high-danger chances.
They didn’t score, though, and Richardson had no complaints.
“I think he played a good game,” Richardson said of Bedard. “I thought he backchecked really hard to basically even up a two-on-one in the second period and stopped in front of the net. We didn’t get him here to be a defensive specialist, but the responsibility of playing against good lines comes first. … He did everything right on the defensive side of the game against one of the top centermen in the league, playing against Barkov’s line. It was a great game for him.”
Chicago got a big scare when Dickinson appeared to hurt his hand blocking a shot in the second period. He took just two shifts in the period, but returned for the third. Richardson said Dickinson will have to be evaluated, saying, “Hopefully, he’s all right.”
Paul Maurice has coached more than 2,000 NHL games, counting the playoffs, so he’s just about seen it all over the last three decades. And the Panthers coach had a helpful message for Blackhawks fans concerned that Bedard is suddenly playing on the wing instead of center.
“It’s highly normal for a young player to come into the league as a centerman and spend quite a bit of time on the wing,” Maurice said. “Completely normal.”
Maurice singled out Anton Lundell on his Panthers, and John Tavares in his early days with the Islanders, noting Tavares would take the faceoff before ceding nearly all center duties — including playing low in his own end — to veteran pivot Frans Nielsen.
“It’s normal,” Maurice said. “I’ve done it to a whole bunch of young guys. Mark Scheifele played on the wing (for Maurice in Winnipeg). All those young forwards play on the wing at some point early on.”
One other note for Blackhawks fans from Maurice: “You guys came to the rink for 20 years, won Stanley Cups and beat the hell out of everybody and you just assume that’s the way it should go every year. But you’ve got good young players, you’ve got a superstar. It’s just a matter of time.”
Teuvo Teräväinen’s first-period power-play goal, on which he set up Tyler Bertuzzi on the doorstep and then put in the ensuing rebound, was just his second goal in his last 17 games — after scoring three in the first three. Chicago can only hope it gets Teräväinen going, because the sluggish offense sorely needs him.
“He’s been good on the power play, and we haven’t had a lot of them lately,” Richardson said. “We got a fortunate bounce, but Teuvo’s in the right spot. You get good bounces if you’re in the right spot.”
It’s a question young players never really know how to answer. When do you stop being a prospect and start being an NHLer?
Nolan Allan doesn’t believe he gets to call himself that just yet.
“I’m still trying to show what I can do,” the 21-year-old rookie defenseman said. “I don’t think you can really say you’re an NHLer until you have a couple seasons under your belt or something like that. I’ve only got (16) games, so I’m still trying to show I can be here. I guess I’m getting a little more comfortable around the guys and stuff like that, but you never want to get too comfortable. You always want to be getting better.”
Seth Jones will be out for about four weeks with a foot injury; he’s still wearing a protective boot on his right foot. It’s a huge blow for the Blackhawks as a team, but it’s a huge opportunity for the Blackhawks defensemen as individual. And perhaps no player stands to benefit more than Allan. After playing a career-high 15:47 against Anaheim, Allan played 18:04 against Florida. He and partner Alec Martinez spent most of their night in their own end, but they were on the ice for one goal for and one goal against.
Mrázek said Allan’s play has improved steadily throughout the first quarter of the season.
“When you look at him coming him, playing his first games, you can tell the difference,” Mrázek said.
Allan was a bit of a long shot to even make the team out of camp, but now he’s starting to entrench himself ahead of the Blackhawks’ bevy of high-end blue-line prospects.
“My goal was to play NHL games this year, but I never really expected this,” Allan said. “I thought maybe I’d be down in Rockford a little bit more, so I’m obviously grateful that I’m still here. Being the first one here doesn’t mean I’m going to be here over (the other young defensemen) long term. It’s great that I’m here, but I’ve still got to work every day to improve to stay here.”
This was the third straight year the Blackhawks beat the mighty Panthers at the United Center, following a 5-2 win last year and a 4-2 win the year before. It’s something Maurice was well aware of. He even went so far as to (jokingly?) deem his team the underdog before the game.
“We haven’t f—ing won here in years,” he said. “It’s true, we’ve been awful in here. But they made us bad.”
(Top photo of Connor Bedard: Daniel Bartel / Imagn Images)
