The Chicago Blackhawks saw their point streak snap Sunday night, unceremoniously falling 5–1 to the Florida Panthers at the United Center.
After a scoreless first period, the Panthers opened the scoring 15:33 into the second. Following a faceoff win by Cole Schwindt, Tobias Bjornfot circled around the back of the net and tucked in a wraparound at the right post to make it 1-0 Florida.
a round of applause for Toby’s first goal in five years 👏 pic.twitter.com/J46ZdqhkPe
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) January 26, 2026
The Blackhawks responded with 1:30 left in the middle frame. Wyatt Kaiser kept the puck in at the blue line and moved it to Ilya Mikheyev, who fired a shot-pass toward the crease. Tyler Bertuzzi was there to corral it and maneuvered around Daniil Tarasov, slipping it home to tie the game at 1-1.
a beauty from Bertuzzi🤩 pic.twitter.com/Yni2vu7H5W
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) January 26, 2026
Mackie Samoskevich put the Panthers back in front just over five minutes into the third period. A poor zone exit by the Blackhawks was quickly turned back the other way in the neutral zone by Gustav Forsling, and Samoskevich followed it up with a wrist shot from the right circle that trickled over the goal line for a 2-1 lead.
absolutely MASSIVE from Mackie 🙌 pic.twitter.com/iMcN8bLdoc
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) January 26, 2026
Carter Verhaeghe extended it to 3-1 at 7:24, hammering home a one-timer from the edge of the left circle. Puck chasing by Andre Burakovsky left Verhaeghe wide open, and Evan Rodrigues easily found him in the slot.
SWAGALICIOUS pic.twitter.com/IuYK7ijYZE
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) January 26, 2026
Sam Reinhart added an empty-net goal at 18:11 to make it 4-1. Connor Bedard dumped the puck in deep, but Florida won the race to it, and Eetu Luostarinen chipped it ahead to Rodrigues, who set up Reinhart for the finish.
Reinhart ices it pic.twitter.com/SmUf93yVaY
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 26, 2026
Bjornfot capped off the scoring with 22 seconds left, jumping into the rush and wiring a wrist shot from the circle off a feed from Verhaeghe, putting a bow on a 5-1 Panthers win.
BJORNFOT MULTI-GOAL GAME ALERT 🚨 pic.twitter.com/I5uaeEy8rb
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) January 26, 2026
Notes
Much like in other recent games, the Blackhawks started this one on the wrong side of both possession and quality chances in the first period. But also like those games, they managed to keep the actual shots against fairly even, which — along with strong goaltending — was enough to keep the period scoreless. The Blackhawks owned just 36.67 percent of the attempts and 23.48 percent of the expected goals, but shots on net were only 7-6, a familiar case of weathering the initial storm.
The second period was much more even overall, though the Blackhawks arguably had the better of the chances despite again being on the losing side of possession. That might seem counterintuitive, but it almost felt like the early penalty kill helped, since this team always seems to get locked in after a good one — and they’ve all been good lately. Attempts (13-11) and shots (8-6) favored the Panthers, but the Blackhawks controlled 54.56 percent of the expected goals. Much of that came from keeping the overall chance volume low and edging Florida in high-danger looks, especially off the rush. The fact that both teams scored reflected just how even the period was.
Unfortunately, despite a strong start to the third period and a decent push after the third goal, defensive breakdowns and miscues began to pile up, and there were some unlucky breaks too, leading to a few too many goals against. The Blackhawks held a 12-8 edge in attempts and 57.51 percent of the expected goals, but the Panthers limited them to just five shots on goal and only one high-danger chance. Not ideal, especially when chasing most of the period.
Here’s Kaiser discussing those little things and how they added up to contribute to the loss:
Hear from Wyatt Kaiser after tonight’s 5-1 loss to the Panthers
— CHGO Blackhawks (@CHGO_Blackhawks) January 26, 2026
The bigger issue with playing the kind of suppressive style they did early in the game and in others recently is that the Blackhawks simply aren’t well-rounded enough to generate offense consistently the other way when doing so. Even when they control the chance share, like they did in the second period, it comes at such low volume that the margin for error is tiny. Maybe that’s just the curse of this season’s team: either they play fast and chaotic, like early in the year, or structured and defensively sound, but with an offense that feels capped. And if there are any mistakes in the defensive structure, the result is poor, like tonight.
Going to focus on one positive, one mixed bag, and two negatives tonight.
We can probably all agree that Kaiser was one of, if not the, most noticeable players in a positive way tonight, right? At this point, we’re almost running out of ways to compliment his recent performances because he’s been that consistently strong. The lone Blackhawks goal was credited to Bertuzzi, but a lot of the real work came from Kaiser’s beautiful keep-in at the blue line and the perfectly timed pass that followed. What’s especially interesting is that Kaiser has always been a strong transition defender and passer, but his offensive zone impact used to feel a bit more limited. This season, though, he’s clearly taken a step forward in that area, to the point where giving him more offensive responsibility — like time on the power play, which will be discussed more below — wouldn’t feel out of place at all.
GOAL: Kaiser keeps it, Mikheyev feeds it, and Bertuzzi finishes to tie the game late in the period! pic.twitter.com/OvkOAcsX7o
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 26, 2026
Kaiser is so strong positionally, uses his body extremely well despite not being the biggest defender, and is incredibly smart about combining his skating and stick to disrupt plays. He reads the game at a high level, closes gaps quickly, and rarely looks rushed or panicked with the puck. On top of that, his reaction time in scramble situations is elite, like the diving play he made to break up a cross-ice pass on the penalty kill tonight. He also saved at least one goal at the goal line and nearly saved another.
At this point, Kaiser has a very real case as the Blackhawks’ best and most consistent defenseman this season, and especially so since the calendar turned. He’s not flashy in the traditional sense, but his skating, processing speed, and ability to quietly tilt the ice make him exactly the kind of modern defender every team needs.
I think we all know who the mixed bag was tonight: Levshunov. His performance is often so hard to judge because, on the whole, it was fine, but it featured both some really high and really low moments. Offensively, Levshunov was one of the only players consistently pushing the pace and trying to get things going. He finished with four attempts, three scoring chances (one high-danger), and one shot on goal, and his offensive passing at 5-on-5 was better than it’s been in a handful of games. The Panthers did an excellent job clogging up the neutral zone, and Levshunov was one of the very few defenders — along with Kaiser — who was able to consistently get through in transition. The rush sequence below was one of the best of the night from anyone, and that little chip around the Panthers player to himself was especially slick. There’s an argument to be made that Levshunov should have passed to a wide-open Jason Dickinson, but it’s also understandable why he opted to take the shot himself in that situation.
Nice rush by Levshunov to get a shot on net pic.twitter.com/QfgfRb2QbC
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 26, 2026
Levshunov had some good moments defensively as well, though less so than offensively, even if others occasionally undermined his efforts. For example, on the Verhaeghe goal, Levshunov actually did a great job closing the gap between himself and Rodrigues, and there may not have been a goal against at all if Burakovsky hadn’t opted out of defending in favor of interpretive sliding.
The down moments were mostly due to a lack of experience. Levshunov sometimes swings too wildly between aggressive and passive — even within the same game — because he’s still learning what he can and can’t get away with given his natural tools and skill set. He had at least four giveaways in this one while trying to force plays or pass through traffic, mostly in the defensive zone, and it often felt like he was just attempting to do too much. On the flip side, Levshunov has also been caught on the wrong side of pinches and trying to go one-on-one in recent games, so that likely explains why he was a bit too tentative defensively at times in this one. It’s the classic rookie defenseman dilemma: figuring out where the line is between trusting your instincts and knowing when to live for the next shift.
Kaiser covering for Levshunov who should have been pinching here… pic.twitter.com/3ZJxLaeAAY
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 26, 2026
On to the two negative, one team-focused and the other about a player …
After being top-10 for most of the season, the power play has been sinking like a rock thanks to inept passing, terrible shot selection, poor rebound attempts, and being a general mess when trying to enter the zone. What was once a genuine strength has somehow turned into a momentum killer, with possessions dying on the perimeter, passes getting picked off with alarming regularity, and shots either blocked instantly or fired harmlessly into the goalie’s chest. At this point, it feels less like a power play and more like two minutes of controlled chaos, where the main objective is simply to avoid giving up a shorthanded chance. The lack of creativity and urgency is glaring, and instead of forcing defenses to adjust, the Blackhawks are the ones doing all the reacting — slowly, predictably, and usually unsuccessfully.
#Blackhawks are 0-for-17 on the power play over their last 7 games.
They were 30-for-129 in the 45 games prior to that for a 23.3% success rate, which ranked 7th in the NHL.
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) January 26, 2026
Blashill isn’t one to overreact to a single game and shuffle lines or special teams willy-nilly, but changing up the power play has been a long time coming, and luckily he finally seems to be on board with that idea. In my last recap, I mentioned moving Levshunov off the top unit (to the second where he can’t defer to Bedard), but maybe also swapping in Nick Lardis and/or Oliver Moore into the top group would be good too. At this point, loading up the top unit with the kids and seeing what happens feels like a worthwhile experiment. As for the defensemen, Alex Vlasic did an admirable job running the power play last season when Seth Jones was injured, but Kaiser wouldn’t be out of place either as an experiment. He’s not as offensively gifted as Levshunov, but he walks the line and distributes from up high better than basically anyone else on the team, which might honestly be all that’s needed from the point right now. Given how stagnant and predictable the power play has become, even a subtle shift toward puck movement and decision-making over pure shot talent could be a meaningful upgrade.
On the other hand, he foresees some personnel changes being made to the PP units.
“We have to break the puck in better, and we have to win more loose-puck recoveries.”
— Ben Pope (@BenPopeCST) January 26, 2026
Lastly, Burakovsky’s performance has felt like it’s been on a downward trend for a little while now, and tonight he was especially vexing. Not only was he ineffective offensively — finishing with just one attempt that wasn’t on goal and didn’t qualify as a scoring chance — but his passing was sloppy, and his overall awareness in the offensive zone (when his line was actually there) was noticeably lacking. I saw the take below from Scott Powers, which is generally accurate when it comes to Levshunov, but in this particular situation, I honestly put a bit more blame on the veteran than the rookie. Burakovsky is supposed to be the stabilizing presence in those moments, and instead he looked tentative, disconnected, and a step behind the play. If anything, this felt less like a young player making a mistake and more like an experienced one failing to make the simple, correct read.
That Panthers’ goal sequence started when Levshunov missed Burakovsky on a short defensive zone exit pass. Levshunov can make the extraordinary look easy and the simple look hard. In time, the Blackhawks obviously need him to be able to do both consistently.
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) January 26, 2026
Did Levshunov slightly overshoot Burakovsky with the pass? Sure, but it really looked like Burakovsky just wasn’t paying attention and was instead drifting around lackadaisically. I can see where he have thought Levshunov wasn’t going to go to him, but Burakovsky doesn’t even make an attempt to reach for the puck as it goes right by him and far out of reach of Bedard. It wouldn’t have taken much effort at all to skate a little harder and catch up to it, which is what makes the play so frustrating — it was obviously a miscommunication but the lapse in urgency is vexing.
And what kind of coverage was Burakovsky attempting on the Verhaeghe goal? He got spun around like a top chasing the puck instead of picking up the man behind him, and ended up a zip code away from the eventual goal scorer. Just not been a fan of his overall game lately and especially tonight.
Verhaeghe snipes to extend the Panthers lead pic.twitter.com/TjhMSTynMi
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) January 26, 2026
One other note, albeit not directly related to the game: despite the Western Conference playoff picture still being far from settled, the Blackhawks are unlikely to deviate from their plan of moving veterans for future assets just to make a short-term push. That’s especially true as the gap continues to widen for Chicago in particular. The Blackhawks currently sit five points out of a playoff spot, with three other teams even closer and ahead of them in the race. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the Blackhawks pending UFAs: GM Kyle Davidson has shown he won’t make a trade just for the sake of it, only if the return is worth the loss of the roster player.
With the Olympic break roster freeze going into effect on Feb. 4 and the trade deadline set for March 6, that leaves less than three weeks of actual active trade time.
Per @frank_seravalli in reference to the Blackhawks
“They’re gonna try and take advantage of the pending UFA’s that they have in their lineup to continue to stockpile and build out the prospect pool”
The Following players are UFAs
Who would you keep and trade?#Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/YVoZnPOmXz
— The Blackhawks Cowboy (@BHawkCowboy) January 26, 2026
Games Charts
Three Stars
Tobias Bjornfot (FLA) — 2 goals
Gustav Forsling (FLA ) — 2 assists
Carter Verhaeghe (FLA ) — 1 goal, 1 assist
What’s Next
The Blackhawks hit the road for two games starting Tuesday with a stop in Minnesota to face the Wild at 7 p.m.