One marquee name was missing from the matchup, but the host Detroit Red Wings had plenty of star power left to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-1 on Thursday.
Fans from both sides would have been salivating to see former Hawks star Patrick Kane play his first game in a Red Wings sweater — switching sides in the traditional rivalry — but he wasn’t quite game-ready after signing a one-year, $2.75 million contract Tuesday.
Kane was likely an afterthought not long after puck drop.
The Red Wings’ J.T. Compher scored a short-handed goal 2 1/2 minutes into the game and 19 seconds into a Hawks power play.
Lukas Reichel answered for the Hawks 51 seconds later with his second goal of the season, both on the power play. But it was all Red Wings after that.
Robby Fabbri finished the first period with a slick backhander off the rush. Ben Chiarot pushed the lead to 3-1 5:09 into the second, and Compher struck again less than a minute later with a power-play goal.
Any realistic hopes of a third-period rally were greatly undermined by Isaak Phillips’ high-sticking double-minor against Jonatan Berggren. With 16 seconds left on the Wings’ power play, Fabbri batted in his second goal of the game off Daniel Sprong’s rebound.
The Hawks got into a track meet, trading rush for rush, but that style mainly worked for the hosts.
“They use each other very well, give-and-go’s, makes it difficult to defend,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “(Kane’s) just going to add to that. We’re glad he wasn’t here tonight just to see another problem for us.”
It was a rough night for Hawks special teams, which gave up a shorty and 2-of-4 on the penalty kill.
Once again, the Hawks failed to piece together a second straight win, a mark of futility that has stretched 21 games into the season.
The Hawks outlasted the Seattle Kraken 4-3 on Tuesday but followed with a loss for the seventh time for a 7-14-0 record.
Richardson said players are frustrated with their inability to string wins together.
“We’re picking up (the) pieces right now after every loss,” he said. “We rebound pretty good. Give the guys good credit for playing hard and rebounding, but it’s to the point of the season we’ve got to try and make some ground.”
One area they can make strides is consistency, but the Hawks are as consistently inconsistent as a team can be.
“We’re on the road and we can play simple and hard-work the other team right into the ground and hopefully get a few bounces,” Richardson said.
Here are four takeaways from the loss.
The PK is going through a rough stretch. Opposing power plays have scored at least one goal in 11 of the last 13 games and have gone 13-for-43 over that stretch.
For the second straight game, the Hawks’ power play gave up a short-handed goal.
A young first unit wasn’t prepared to defend a breakout and Kevin Korchinski again found himself the target of a two-on-one, and Compher tucked it short-side.
The fact Reichel scored the equalizer less than a minute later doesn’t erase the setback. What should’ve been an opportunity to take an early lead was another scenario in which the Hawks had to chase or try to battle out of a tie.
“There may be a little tentativeness there,” Richardson said. “And the other teams smell that out and they take it to us.
“The only way we’re going to do it is to work a little harder and move the puck quicker. Sometimes we just hold the puck and look for the perfect play. You watch other nights, when the teams do it right, they shoot the puck and they recover rebounds instead of chasing things down the ice.”
When you’re chasing pucks back into your own zone “bad things happen,” Richardson said.
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In the second period, the Hawks got off to a good start on their second power play, but Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon fended off back-to-back shots by Philipp Kurashev and Bedard.
From that point, the Wings’ penalty kill cleared the puck out of their zone three times before the Hawks’ first unit got the hook with a minute left on the man advantage.
Bedard banged his stick against the wall twice and it snapped. He threw the broken shaft to the ice before skating to the bench.
It’s the first time Bedard looked vexed and taken it out on some defenseless part of the rink.
“I don’t really see it linger,” Richardson said. “He looks fine the next shift. I’m fine with passion as long as it’s not disrupting the team and yourself and your play.
Bedard finished with an assist and seven shots on goal.
On Fabbri’s first goal, Kaiser got faked out by the wall as Fabbri tapped the puck to himself behind Kaiser’s back as Fabbri cut inside and then skipped the puck off goalie Petr Mrázek’s pad.
Richardson said Kaiser should’ve at least bumped him.
“It probably would’ve slowed him down enough for everybody to catch up,” Richardson said.
In the second period, Kaiser dropped into a slide technique as the Red Wings’ Alex DeBrincat crashed the net from the opposite side. Perhaps Kaiser was trying to cut off a backdoor pass, but he slid too close to the net and into Mrázek’s pad as DeBrincat tried to stuff the puck underneath.
What’s worse, the puck slid under Kaiser’s legs to Chiarot, who lifted the puck as Mrázek had to climb over a pile of players.
“For you’re a young defenseman, especially, when things go poorly against a team and yourself, I think you’ve got to keep it simple,” Richardson said. “Take your man, maybe pin him for an extra second, then just take a look around behind you, see what’s going on.
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“When things start spinning around on you, play your position, don’t start running around and putting fires out all over the place, just do your job and know that at the NHL level you have to expect everybody else to do their job.”
During an intermission interview, Reichel told NBC Sports Chicago that Richardson worked with him directly on playing bumper, a role he never played before this season.
Something worked.
He was in the right place on the power play when Bedard circled around the back and dished low to high Tyler Johnson at the net, and Reichel cleaned up Johnson’s rebound.
As a top-six forward, Reichel’s scoring struggles this season have been well-documented.
“I saw a little jump in his stride after that,” Richardson said.
“Unfortunately, he got a penalty (hooking against Shayne Gostisbehere) in the second period that they scored on. He felt like he was being held up, so he was just trying to work his way around him. But he definitely skated well.”