Spencer Knight’s stellar play lifts the Blackhawks to an OT point against the Devils despite key injuries.

The Chicago Blackhawks extended their point streak to four games after a 4-3 OT loss to the New Jersey Devils. New Jersey collected their two points to remain on top of the Metro, and Chicago still holds a playoff spot with 20 points.

Analytically, the Blackhawks once again were on the bad side of possession stats. The Hawks owned 31.18% of shot attempts and struggled to generate meaningful scoring chances with a 32.97% expected goals share (xG%). The fact that this game went to overtime with a serious playoff team speaks volumes to Spencer Knight and a couple of other Hawks as well (I’ll mention them in a second). And let’s not forget, Frank Nazar and Andre Burakovsky were both out with injuries, forcing players to play up the lineup.

Because of those injuries, it makes sense that head coach Jeff Blashill might want his players to play it safe. And we saw a lot of that. The Blackhawks’ 1-1-3 neutral zone forecheck, which has been looking more passive as of late, was extremely passive last night. I don’t recall seeing the defensemen standing up the blue line, if at all. And that’s fine given the circumstances. They let the Devils carry the puck into their zone and relied on Spencer Knight to bail them out.

Once in the defensive zone, Hawks fans got a real long look at their man-on-man system. What I noticed was that it’s much improved since the beginning of the season. Not perfect, however. In the first goal against, both defensemen stuck with their man, as did Tyler Bertuzzi. Simon Nemec, who had Connor Bedard trailing him, found space and scored. Louis Crevier ended up putting himself way out of position.

Left circle is Bertuzzi, right is Crevier

Story continues below.

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On Simon Nemec’s game-tying goal, their defensive structure failed completely. Alex Vlasix, Louis Crevier, and Connor Bedard all outnumber the Devils’ offensive zone entry. However, Stefan Noesen identified space, received a pass, and found Nemec for his second of three.

But this is all part of the process. If Blashill is going to use a man-on-man (and that’s fine), we’re going to have to live and die with these mistakes early on. Had it not been for Spencer Knight’s spectacular performance, this game could have easily been ugly. Knight stopped 33 of 37 shots on goal (.897 SV%). His high danger save percentage was a perfect 1.000 SV%. Knight stopped all nine of New Jersey’s high-danger shots on goal.

Extra Observations

Connor Bedard extended his goal streak to four and his point streak to 10. Bedard finished the night with two shots on goal and six shot attempts.

Matt Grzelyck had some good looks last night (despite taking part in the Devils’ second goal).

Louis Crevier (as evidenced in the screenshots above) had a rough game. In the second period, Crevier killed the Hawks’ rare offensive momentum of the night with a questionable offside.

On the topic of questionable decisions, Artyom Levshunov’s chaotic decision-making was on full display in the neutral zone when he gave the puck away and ended up getting it back.

Tyler Bertuzzi had four shots on goal and five shot attempts. For every time I badmouthed him last season, I owe him recognition when he’s played solid (not that he cares, I’m just a guy).

The Blackhawks take on the Toronto Maple Leafs this Saturday at 6 p.m. CT. There’s blood in the water as the Leafs have been quite “garbage.”