Blackhawks 2, Wild 3 (SO) — Three Stars, Key Takeaways

Tab Bamford Tab Bamford
Oct 05, 2023
Oct 05, 2023
Chicago Blackhawks Nick Foligno
Chicago Blackhawks Nick Foligno

The Blackhawks’ preseason home finale had them as close to their opening night lineup as we were going to see during the preseason. Minnesota did them the favor of countering with most of their NHL players, so this looked and felt a lot like a regular season game. The Wild are expected to be a playoff team this year; the Blackhawks are supposed to be back near the bottom of the league. But what we watched was a pretty equal game until the Blackhawks absolutely took over the second period. The speed and skill of Chicago chipped away until they controlled the action for almost the entire middle 20 minutes.

But we needed a shootout to decide this one. Connor Bedard was the first man over the boards for Chicago. He tried to dance Marc-Andre Fleury but couldn’t get a shot off. Flower tapped him on the shin after he tripped after the non-attempt. Taylor Hall couldn’t convert either. Chicago needed Lukas Reichel as the third shooter to convert but he could n♔ot and🌊 the Hawks lost.

Star 1: Taylor Hall

Hall’s wife is due with a baby on Saturday so this will undoubtedly be his last preseason game. Ryan Donato made a nice play to get a puck up the ice to him and then Hall went to work. This was a vintage move with speed. If Hall’s going to finish like this… he might be in line for a big bounce-back season.

Star 2: Nick Foligno

During the first intermission, Caley Chelios chatted with Nick Foligno and asked him about playing against his brother, Marcus. Nick said tonight was the first time they both scored in the same game — and it happened in the first period. I asked for it and Nick delivered. Thanks!

Star 3: Kevin Korchinski

This Minnesota lineup was the most NHL regular season-like that the Blackhawks have faced to date and I thi🍸nk this was the most complete, confident game Korchinski has played against NHL competition. Late in the second period he got a puck and flipped an excellent outlet pass across the neutral zone off his backhand. He was skating confidently with the puck and using his speed to take away space. He skated 18:37 in regulation.

Key Takeaways

  • After a couple tough nights at the dot, Bedard won two of his three faceoffs in the first period. Even though the Blackhawks had to kill two minor penalties in the opening period, Bedard still skated 6:50. The Blackhawks had three power plays in the opening 25 minutes of the game — and Bedard drew all three penalties. He was at 20:24 of ice time and won half of his eight faceoffs before OT began.

  • Donato had a really good game. It looks like the Blackhawks prefer him taking faceoffs on power plays so Bedard can retrieve the puck and start the motion. After two periods Donato led all Blackhawks forwards in ice time at 14:25 (only Jones was higher). And he led the Blackhawks with six shots on net and had won all three of his faceoffs. If you didn’t read anything I’ve written about why Donato is a great fit on that top line, this performance was the coaching tape. Speed, defensive responsibility, playmaking and high volume shooting.

  • After the morning skate on Thursday, head coach Luke Richardson mentioned we might see more of Taylor Raddysh on penalty killing duty. When Connor Murphy went to the box early in the first period, Raddysh was out there and he did well.

  • Seth Jones blocked four shots in 8:28 in the first period alone. Jones blocked at least four shots in seven of his 72 appearances last year. He skated at least 22 minutes in each of those games. After two periods, Jones had skated 17:27 — five full minutes more than any other Blackhawks’ defenseman.

  • The physical play started to ramp up in the second period and the Blackhawks answered the bell. Reese Johnson dropped the gloves with Connor Dewar at one point, but nobody on the ice was backing away from a scrap. The result: the Blackhawks out-shot the Wild 17-6 in the second period.

  • The Blackhawks did a great job killing 76 seconds of a 5-on-3 starting with 13:28 left in the third period while clinging to a 2-1 lead.

    • written by

    Tab Bamford has been writing about the Chicago Blackhawks for almost two decades. He joined Bleacher Nation as the lead Blackhawks writer in May 2022. Tab is a member of the and is the author of three books about the Blackhawks: (Triumph Books),"100 Things Blackh🐭awks Fans Should K൩now & Do Before They Die" (Triumph Books) and "Chicago Blackhawks: An Illustrated Timeline" (Reedy Press, 2021). Find him on Twitter/X/Instagram/Threads𒆙 at @The1Tab

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