End of Blackhawks’ season getting silly as Sam Lafferty plays defense in loss to Blues

Sam Lafferty received an interesting text Saturday morning, informing him he was about to play defense for the Blackhawks.

The veteran forward wasn’t shocked by that news. He had filled in as a defenseman before in college at Brown and during the 2022 world championships for Team USA, which had Jeff Blashill as an assistant coach.

He has also played defense in many drills during Hawks practices this season, simply because it’s easier to run four lines and four pairings than to find a spot for a 13th forward — which has been Lafferty’s job. Blashill had told him he might be called upon to play defense in an emergency situation.

But the Hawks’ 5-3 loss Saturday against the Blues stretched the definition of emergency situation.

Third-pairing defenseman Ethan Del Mastro suffered a minor injury Thursday against the Hurricanes, and the Hawks had plenty of time to call up a replacement from Rockford. They just chose not to.

Granted, there are zero defensemen left in Rockford who have played NHL games this season. But one of the options, journeyman veteran Derrick Pouliot, does have a sizable 226 games of NHL experience over the last 12 years.

Instead, the Hawks threw Lafferty a bone.

After the game, Blashill praised how Lafferty, a beloved teammate due to his cheerful personality and golf skills, has been wholeheartedly “committed to this team all year” despite getting healthy-scratched 52 times. He also mentioned how Lafferty is more familiar with their systems than anybody in Rockford would be.

“[I’m] not saying there aren’t capable players [in Rockford], but we just felt like Lafferty was as capable as anybody,” Blashill said.

“We weren’t throwing someone in that never played defense. He’s played ‘D.’ Honestly, in practice at times, he looks good on ‘D.’ I thought he did a fine job. Maybe there’s one mistake there. It’s a hard thing. But other guys made mistakes, too.”

Were the Hawks wrong to do it? Perhaps not. It wasn’t like this game mattered. The loss actually secured them a guaranteed top-five draft pick; it will likely end up as a guaranteed top-four pick.

And Lafferty’s performance wasn’t disastrous, even though the Blues scored twice during his 9:33 of ice time. Partner Kevin Korchinski was more responsible for one of those two goals, and the Hawks were credited with a 3-2 edge in scoring chances during those minutes. A casual fan at the United Center wouldn’t have noticed anything strange.

But was it silly? Absolutely, yes. It’s the kind of ridiculous thing that only happens in the third-to-last game of a lost season.

The Hawks took a brief 2-1 lead in the second period before allowing four consecutive goals. Blashill described it as a game decided by poor finishing and poor goaltending (by backup goalie Arvid Soderblom), not poor team-wide play. But again, it doesn’t really matter.

What does matter: The Hawks have won only 10 of 37 games since Jan. 8 — including only three of 17 games at home.

They’ve already accumulated more points this season (70) than in each of the last four seasons, but that’s largely because of their respectable first half — and their stellar first month in particular. Since then, celebrations have been just as scarce as usual.

The fact their roster is now laden with talented kids rather than placeholder veterans is a clear sign of progression toward the future and a clear reason for optimism. But that alone doesn’t make the frequency of losing enjoyable.

In other news Saturday, Frank Nazar dodged a bullet in that a puck that hit his face and knocked him out of the game necessitated some dental work but didn’t re-fracture his jaw, Blashill said.

Nazar, Del Mastro and Andrew Mangiapane (who also left injured) are all considered day-to-day. There are just four days left in the season.