The Chicago Blackhawks struggle in a 4-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues in their final preseason game. Learn more.

The Chicago Blackhawks were shut out 4-0 by the St. Louis Blues in their final preseason game. A roster comprised mostly of Rockford IceHogs players and bottom-six Blackhawks forced the Blues to end preseason misery.

Game Notes

I’m forgoing the box score for this recap. There isn’t much worth splitting hairs over in terms of Corsi’s or expected goals share. This was a bad preseason game. The two players I cared about watching didn’t do themselves many favors, but they also didn’t have much help either. So, I guess we should start with Kevin Korchinski.

Kevin Korchinski

I’m not scared of looking stupid. I believe Kevin Korchinski should start in the NHL. But boy, he hasn’t proved that to be right in the preseason at all. Especially in a game like tonight. Korchinski had a 15.38 Corsi and a 14.60% expected goals share at 5-on-5. A lot of that has to do with chasing the play in the defensive zone; the other has to do with his teammates.

Oct 3

Lukas Reichel

Unlike Korchinski, I’m not blinded by infatuation with Lukas Reichel. Reichel had a strong start with a takeaway that led to a good chance from Sam Lafferty, but didn’t really stand out to me in meaningful ways. Again, it’s hard to judge players like Reichel considering his teammates; however, if we are to believe that Reichel is a top-six player, he should have carried his teammates a lot more than he did. Reichel had a 30.43 Corsi (12th highest on the team) with 15:07 minutes of 5-on-5 time.

ESPN+

This matters more than anything else that happened on the ice tonight. For those who live out of market for Chicago Blackhawks games—such as myself—ESPN+ is very convenient. This season, ESPN+ has introduced forced ads. Instead of just showing the same ads as the live feed, ESPN+ cuts to 2+ minutes of ads that you can’t skip. This isn’t a huge deal if watching replays because you can fast forward just as the referee blows for a TV timeout. But if you’re watching live, this adds a significant amount of time. My feed ended 15 minutes after the actual game ended. That’s ridiculous. The current workaround is to select “Live Feed” just as intermission begins if you don’t want to miss the action.

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What’s On Tap Next?

The Chicago Blackhawks open the regular season against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 4 pm CT. This will be the Panthers’ banner-raising ceremony, so we can expect puck drop to take place later than the advertised start time.

Let’s Go Hawks.