The Chicago Blackhawks wanted to avenge their ugly 9-2 November loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday. Instead they had another mistake-riddled game and suffered another loss to them.
Former Blackhawks forward Ben Eager had the game-winning goal, and a Daniel Carcillo five-minute boarding call led to two Oilers goals in their 4-3 victory over the Blackhawks. It was Edmontons first road victory in its last eight games.
Jonathan Toews and Andrew Brunette scored, and Jimmy Hayes tallied his first career NHL goal for the Blackhawks, who started off January with a loss and could be without Carcillo for a bit.
Carcillo was whistled for boarding after pushing Edmonton defenseman Tom Gilbert face-first into the boards. Carcillo, who was given a game misconduct, also injured his left knee on the play. Coach Joel Quenneville said hed know more about Carcillos injury status tomorrow. There could also be more disciplinary action for Carcillo.
Im not going to argue the call (on Carcillo), Quenneville said. He beat him to the counter-hit. It wasnt intent; both guys went for the same type of a play and he beat him, had better position on the guy. Its unfortunate what happened.
Oilers coach Tom Renney said the hit (on Gilbert) speaks for itself and the penalty does as well. I think at least to this point its been addressed and Im hoping that itll be looked into even further.
The Blackhawks faced a five-minute penalty killand they couldnt come out of it unscathed. Ryan Smyth scored 16 seconds into it and Taylor Hall added another before it ended to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead.
NHL
That kind of changed the momentum of the game, Patrick Kane said. But, you know, theres still no excuse to lose to a team like that. Maybe we just thought we were going to come in and do the same thing they did to us last game. But its not going to happen in the NHL, especially when you have that mindset.
Goaltender Corey Crawford said he shouldve had two of Edmontons goals. Quenneville expressed unhappiness at giving up Andy Suttons goal.
I gave them two goals, Crawford said. A team like that, they thrive on power plays and the more you give them, the more jump and the more energy theyre going to have. It was just a tough one, one we think we shouldve gotten points out of.
Defenseman Duncan Keith said the lengthy power play didnt cost the Blackhawks the game. But it didnt help, either.
We need to do a better job penalty killing there but I dont think thats the reason why we lost, he said. We made a lot of mistakes, and at the end of the day we have to start outworking teams. We need to bear down and kill that off.
Despite that, the Blackhawks still had a chance. Hayes scored late, and the Blackhawks had three power plays in the final 10 minutes of regulationincluding a double minor high-sticking. But the power play came up empty once again.
Its a tough stretch, said Quenneville of the power play, which is now 1 for 21. Well tweak it and well look at doing different things with different people.
The Blackhawks loss to Edmonton in November was ugly in every way, and especially on the scoreboard. The score wasnt so brutal in Mondays game, but it still wasnt pretty.
In games like this we need to take it upon ourselves, Keith said. Its one game. But for us to get better and to do what we want to do at the end of the season everybody has to try to get better, to be the guy and be the difference.