Blackhawks stunned by ‘gut punch’ loss to Maple Leafs after strong road performance

TORONTO — The heartbreaking nature of the Blackhawks’ 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs on Tuesday requires some context to explain.

The team had gone about work diligently over the past 48 hours, making strategic adjustments to give themselves a chance to compete without injured star Connor Bedard.

The exact statistic the Sun-Times calculated Saturday — Bedard had scored or assisted on 48.4% of the Hawks’ total goals this season — made rounds through the locker room. Nobody was naive to the impact of his absence; everyone recognized it necessitated a philosophical shift.

“As a team, we’re going to have to make sure we’re shutting things down defensively, because naturally — statistically — we probably won’t be scoring as many goals,” defenseman Alex Vlasic said.

In practice Monday, the Hawks worked on pinning opposing forwards hard against the boards in the corners, then getting support from teammates to win the ensuing battles and get puck possession.

They rehashed that lesson with a non-contact walkthrough during morning skate Tuesday. That’s something for which Hawks players have frequently praised coach Jeff Blashill this season: his drills always have specific purposes and also align with the key points of each day’s film meetings.

“It’s nice to have that beaten into your head a little bit,” Vlasic added. “It makes you think, going into the game, ‘All right, what have we been working on during the week? What did we talk about in video?’”

For 55 minutes Tuesday, the Hawks believed they consistently executed all of the things they had rehearsed. They played as close to a perfect road game as this inexperienced roster might be capable of playing.

“We were skating really well, and we were all connected on the forecheck,” forward Jason Dickinson said. “We were getting on pucks and creating turnovers and opportunities to track back up the ice and get offense. And just playing hard, really.”

Yet they ultimately weren’t rewarded for it because of a disastrous eight-second sequence with three minutes left in the third period. First, Wyatt Kaiser got tied up behind the net on the penalty kill, William Nylander poked a loose puck into the slot and Leafs captain Auston Matthews ripped a shot over goalie Spencer Knight to tie the game.

Off the ensuing faceoff, Knight recklessly kicked a dumped-in puck into the empty slot and an unsuspecting Louis Crevier lost the race to Dakota Joshua, who scored and sent Scotiabank Arena into pandemonium.

The Hawks, flabbergasted to find themselves suddenly trailing 3-2, were disorganized during their last-gasp extra-attacker sequence and suffered their 11th defeat in their last 14 games — and their second in two games without Bedard.

“You feel like you have control most of the game, and then quick turns,” Kaiser said. “It’s the game of hockey. Life, too. It’s kind of crazy.”

Said Dickinson: “That one sucks. I felt like we played a really good road game for about 90% of it. … It really was a matter of those three chances [where] they burned us.”

Blashill praised the overall performance, pointing out the key ingredients they need to succeed without Bedard were achieved. They got dirty goals from unlikely sources (including their third shorthanded goal of the season from Dickinson) and played stout defense, allowing only 20 shots during five-on-five play.

A lack of killer instinct and a poorly timed dose of bad luck undid all of that good, though. The Hawks will be hard-pressed to mentally recover from what both Blashill and Kaiser called a “gut punch” before facing the Canadiens on Thursday.

“It’s super disappointing because we played good enough to win, but we’ve got to find a way to finish it, obviously,” Blashill added. “If we do that again Thursday, I think we’ll put ourselves in a good position to win. Now we’ve got to find a way to do it.”