Look At The Positives, Look At The Positives
Yes, the Blackhawks squandered an enormous opportunity to take the first two points of this three-game series against an elite Lightning club, but there were still plenty of positive takeaways from Thursday's contest. First, for the opening 40 minutes, the Blackhawks were the better team and jumped out to a 2-0 lead during a dominant second period (shots on goal were 16-8 Chicago in the middle frame). Ryan Carpenter opened the scoring while the Hawks were shorthanded, ending Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy's 220-plus minute shutout streak. Carpenter now has three goals in the last two games after recording just one through his first 14. https://twitter.com/TalkinHawkey/status/1367660588625694726 Then, less than seven minutes later, Patrick Kane fired a wrist shot on net from the blue line, and Alex DeBrincat redirected the puck past Vasilevskiy to extend his point streak to seven games. DeBrincat has 10 points (four goals, six assists) during the streak and a team-high 12 goals on the year. https://twitter.com/CRoumeliotis/status/1367663637062631424 While the final result was less than ideal, the Blackhawks learned a lot about themselves on Thursday. The kids proved that they already can hang with the big boys, which is certainly encouraging for a team supposedly in the rebuilding process. The future is bright in Chicago, ladies, and gentlemen.Devastating Loss, But Another Point Picked Up
Of course, with a 2-0 lead heading into the third period, anything less than two points feels like a failure. Despite that unsettling feeling in your stomach right now, the Blackhawks at least earned another point in the standings, putting them at 29 points through 24 games. Currently, the Hawks sit in fourth place in the Discover NHL Central Division, which is four points ahead of the fifth-place Columbus Blue Jackets. Now, there is a long way to go in the season, but the Blackhawks cannot be upset in the slightest with their position in the standings at the moment. More importantly, they are finding ways to stay competitive against the top teams in the division. According to Colliton, that's all he is concerned with."I'm more focused on, 'How are we going to compete with top teams?'" Colliton said. "'How are we going to join that group?' And we were right there for most of the night. I loved how our team was playing. But you've got to finish the job. There are a lot of positives, and we'll take those. [But] we weren't quite ready to do what it takes, the whole night."







