Discover how the Chicago Blackhawks secured a 7-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators and the highlights of Connor Bedard’s performance.
The Chicago Blackhawks crushed the Ottawa Senators in a 7-3 victory that included Connor Bedard’s first NHL hat trick. Breakdown of Bedard’s night, Frank Nazar’s line, and some fancy stat talk down below.
Box Score: Blackhawks 7 – Senators 3
Game Notes
The Ottawa Senators were on the back end of a back-to-back night. The Blackhawks missed an easy win against the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday, who were in a similar position as Ottawa but struggling at the time. Ottawa was on a three-game win streak with 16 goals in their favor. However, they’ve had very poor goaltending and now have the third-worst team save percentage at 5-on-5 after tonight (.875). Considering the Blackhawks have an above-average shooting percentage (now 12.57% at 5-on-5, which will eventually regress towards the average of 10%), the math somewhat favored the Hawks tonight.
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Connor Bedard
Connor Bedard finally got his hat trick and could have scored it slightly earlier had he not hit Linus Ullmark’s knob. All three of Bedard’s goals were beautiful shots. The best goal, however, was his second. Bedard carried the puck end-to-end and entered the middle to snap a clean wrist shot. Bedard’s neutral-zone puck movement was great tonight, and his OZ entries were significantly improved. His on-ice metrics were a bit better with a 57.69% Corsi (big improvement), but also had a 27.43% expected goals share.
Frank Nazar’s Line
Frank Nazar scored a shorthanded empty net goal after the Senators pulled their goalie with around eight minutes left in the third. In all situations, Nazar had an impressive eight shot attempts but only two shots on goal. Teuvo Teravainen looked excellent tonight with a 73.08% Corsi and an 84.31 xG% (team best). Tyler Bertuzzi didn’t look horrible, except for a misread on Ottawa’s third goal. Wyatt Kaiser pinched, which should have triggered Bertuzzi to cover Kaiser (see below). Instead, Bertuzzi doesn’t support Kaiser, and Louis Crevier has to fend off a two-on-one. The line had an 80.86 xG% and a 16-4 shot attempt advantage.
Here’s where Bertuzzi should have gone on Ottawa’s third goal.
Extra Observations
While the Hawks dominated possession metrics (excluding their 32.14% Corsi in the second), their scoring chances never broke past the 50% mark in expected goals share. Looking at the heat map at the top of the article, you can see how the Blackhawks scored from the slot, but failed to take any shot attempts in front of the net.
Andre Burakovsky looked good out there. He was fast and made solid passes. Not an ideal linemate for Bedard, but better than what he’s had in the past. Burakovsky had an even 50% Corsi.
Louis Crevier was noticeable in the first two periods. He had a goal, an assist, and a 55.38 xG%.
Artyom Levshunov only played 12:25 minutes (the lowest outside of Sam Lafferty’s 9:07 minutes) and wasn’t great. Tonight, his 17.03 xG% was reflective of the eye test. According to Evolving Hockey, Levshunov took 83.33% of his faceoffs in the offensive zone and 31.25% of his shifts in the offensive zone (highest on the team).
Sam Rinzel had mediocre fancy stats (39.29% Corsi and 16.12 xG%). He had a solid chance in the first period, which I think we’ll see more of once Rinzel continues to grow. I did think he looked better than the numbers suggest. He’s just been turned into a meat crayon every night.
Hawks take on the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. Jonathan Toews awaits your presence.