SEATTLE — The Blackhawks’ roster is a shell of itself right now.
Five of the most important players from the opening-night lineup — Taylor Hall, Corey Perry, Andreas Athanasiou, Seth Jones and Kevin Korchinski — are all varying degrees of gone at the moment, with Jarred Tinordi (concussion) and MacKenzie Entwistle (who came down sick Thursday) also currently unavailable.
The team was always destined to be bad, but they weren’t intended to be this shorthanded, too. Their weaknesses in virtually all areas were exposed time and time again in a 7-1 slaughter Thursday at the hands of the Kraken.
“Obviously our depth chart has been hit well, but we’ve been patching holes as we’ve been going on,” coach Luke Richardson said. “But once we get to a certain point, we’ve got to be perfect, and we were definitely not perfect tonight.”
The Hawks lost for the eighth consecutive time on the road — a stretch during which they’ve been outscored 38-13 — and for the 20th time in 29 tries so far this season.
Halfway through, it was a relatively respectable 3-1 game in which the Kraken had benefited from a couple lucky bounces. Things completely unraveled as the night progressed, though, eventually reaching the point where the hosts didn’t celebrate their seventh tally.
The Kraken finished with a decisive 31-14 advantage in scoring chances, including an even-more-lopsided 18-4 advantage in high-danger chances.
The Hawks’ trio of recently called-up defensemen — Louis Crevier, Filip Roos and Isaak Phillips — all experienced several rough moments. Alex Vlasic, the fourth (and most proven) youngster on the back end, left the game during the third period, but Richardson deemed it merely precautionary.
“It was a terrible game,” forward Tyler Johnson said, withholding no punches. “We were caught watching a lot [and] trying to save ourselves — compared to getting after it — [to] try to make sure we didn’t do something wrong. But when you’re tentative, when you try to just wait and see what happens, that’s what happens.
“[I’m] pissed off. It’s just unacceptable for this to continue to happen. We have to figure something out.”
Goaltender Arvid Soderblom’s continued struggles are unquestionably most concerning, though. He yet again received little help from his teammates and the hockey gods, but his stat line was nonetheless hideous: 17 saves on 24 shots.
Richardson left him in to start the third period, hoping he could “battle it out,” but his effort on the seventh goal — in which he wasn’t remotely square to his near post for Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare’s weak-angle shot — necessitated a pull. His save percentage now stands at .872 this season.
“Unfortunately we weren’t great in front of him tonight, and it probably wasn’t his best performance either,” Richardson said. “I’m not really worried about his confidence level.”
