Colton Dach carries the puck during the Chicago Blackhawks’ 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night. (Photo courtesy of the Chicago Blackhawks)

The Chicago Blackhawks came into Friday night’s action hoping to bounce back after a bad loss the night before in Chicago against the Seattle Kraken. Andre Burakovsky would not play in this game, swapping out for Landon Slaggert, with Arvid Soderblom taking the place of Spencer Knight between the pipes.

First period

After some back and forth through most of the period, with Buffalo dominating possession, the Sabres finally broke through. Tage Thompson, with his great puck control, found Josh Doan streaking to the front of the net. He was able to beat an outstretched Soderblom to put the puck to the back of the net, 1-0 Buffalo. After that, the floodgates seemed to open. Less than two minutes later, Buffalo would strike again. This time, Jack Quinn had a beautiful drop pass to Jason Zucker who wristed a shot right past the Blackhawks’ netminder, 2-0 Sabres. The Sabres would then get a power play on a high stick from Artyom Levshunov with 4:20 left in the period. They used the full time, but put another past the Blackhawks goaltender, with Bowen Byram getting the tip-in at the side of the net, 3-0 Buffalo.

The Blackhawks would get one back before the period ended to try to claw back into the game, however. Sam Rinzel got the shot from the point on net with Tyler Bertuzzi being there to clean up the rebound, making it 3-1 Sabres going into the intermission.

a goal in his 100th game as a Hawk✅ pic.twitter.com/YyOL3ObmLD

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Second period

This time, the Blackhawks did not make it nearly as far into the period without allowing a goal. With the puck in the Blackhawks’ defensive end, Zucker dug the puck out of the corner and fed it in front to a streaking Ryan McLeod, who buried the wrister, 4-1. EIGHT SECONDS later, they struck again. Just off the faceoff and initial dump in, the puck found its way back to Mattias Samuelsson, who wristed a shot from the point that beat Soderblom, 5-1 Sabres. Almost nine full minutes later, the Blackhawks would get one back. With Ryan Greene coming out of the corner with the puck, he fed it across to Alex Vlasic. He one-timed the puck that beat Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen glove-side, 5-2 Buffalo.

right on target🎯 pic.twitter.com/Bc1PELJ2um

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A few minutes later, Connor Bedard got a huge chance on a breakaway, but was stopped by Luukkonen with the pad. Buffalo would get another one on the board before the period was over. Rasmus Dahlin found Doan again on the 2-on-2 rush, and he potted his second of the game to make it 6-2 Sabres.

Third period

Still having some power play time left over from the second period, the Blackhawks started out on the man advantage. They were able to make something of it, with Bedard ripping a shot that Bertuzzi tipped in front, making it 6-3 Sabres early in the third.

teamwork🤝 pic.twitter.com/JtpV0SVeA2

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It was all downhill from there, as the Sabres would put three more goals past Soderblom, with Thompson putting one of his own past next. Then, five minutes later, it was Jack Quinn making it 8-2 Buffalo. The final goal of this beat down came from Jacob Bryson, on a beautiful move out in front to deke his way past Soderblom, with the final score in this one 9-3 Buffalo.

Analysis

This game had little in the way of good to come out of it. Many players, including Rinzel, Vlasic and Soderblom, had their worst games of the season, and it wasn’t even close. The Blackhawks looked gassed, outmatched and generally outclassed by the Sabres, who were able to skate circles around this team. They did not look remotely prepared to play this game at all. Back-to-back games happen, and you have to be ready to give it all you have got or else you will suffer a horrendous defeat like this game where nothing really went well from any metric you would like to look at. Hopefully, the team can rest up before their next game or else that could easily be a bloodbath as well.

The Blackhawks’ next game is on Sunday night against the Colorado Avalanche back home in Chicago. That game will be at 6 p.m. CST on NHL Network and CHSN.

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