{"id":541612,"date":"2026-04-05T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/541612\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:00:15","slug":"blackhawks-improved-defense-helps-arvid-soderblom-earn-long-awaited-win-in-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/541612\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks’ improved defense helps Arvid Soderblom earn long-awaited win in Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE \u2014 Climate Pledge Arena has been a torturous place in the past for Blackhawks<\/a> goalie Arvid Soderblom, who had allowed 17 goals in his previous three starts within the largely subterranean building.<\/p>\n

Soderblom finally overcame that curse Saturday, backstopping the Hawks to a 4-2 win over the Kraken. It marked the franchise\u2019s second-ever victory in Seattle and their first since their first-ever visit back in 2021.<\/p>\n

It also likely squashed the Kraken\u2019s playoff hopes for good, in addition to snapping the Hawks\u2019 five-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good to finally get one here,\u201d Soderblom said. \u201cWe know we\u2019re a skilled team, so the goals are going to come, but today we focused on the defensive side.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fabulous second-period save on Bobby McMann highlighted Soderblom\u2019s 25-save night. His overall numbers this season remain subpar, but he has been an above-league-average goalie since mid-January (with a .902 save percentage during that span).<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I haven\u2019t looked at the numbers for how many years,\u201d he said. \u201cBut yeah, since Olympic break maybe, I feel like for me personally, it\u2019s been a step in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hawks\u2019 defense gave Soderblom more help than usual Saturday, too. <\/p>\n

Coach Jeff Blashill flipped the top two pairings to put Louis Crevier with Wyatt Kaiser, whom Blashill praised as the Hawks\u2019 best defenseman lately. That duo will take on the toughest matchups moving forward.<\/p>\n

The third pair of youngsters Kevin Korchinski and Ethan Del Mastro had an impressive night, too. Korchinski tallied his second NHL point of the season with an assist on Sacha Boisvert\u2019s first NHL goal in the third period, which turned out to be the game-winner.<\/p>\n

“[Korchinski is] not over-complicating it,\u201d Blashill said. \u201cHe\u2019s using his feet to beat pressure, then he\u2019s moving the puck to the open people. When he does that and defends with his feet, he\u2019s been a good player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Korchinski has a long way to go to realize his potential, he may at least be progressing out of liability territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been playing really good defensively, [and] he\u2019s been making some really nice breakout passes,\u201d Alex Vlasic said. \u201cI\u2019m really happy for him. He seems like he\u2019s feeling a lot more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 Climate Pledge Arena has been a torturous place in the past for Blackhawks goalie Arvid Soderblom,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5115],"tags":[521,37,96,5263,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-541612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-blackhawks","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","11":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116350577809004517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}