All season long, the Blackhawks have taken one step forward and two steps back. It's been an exhausting roller coaster.
But since mid-December, the Blackhawks had started to turn things around, at least from a results standpoint. They picked up seven wins in their last 10 games after defeating the Detroit Red Wings to open a four-game homestand and had a prime opportunity to make up some ground on the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators, both of whom are outside the playoff picture in the Western Conference but ahead of the Blackhawks in the standings.
After falling 2-1 to the Flames on Tuesday in a tight-checking game, the Blackhawks responded with a poor effort in the first period on Thursday and quickly found themselves in a 3-0 hole. The Blackhawks eventually scored the next two and dominated the third period by leading in shot attempts (27-8), shots on goal (14-5), scoring chances (16-2) and high-danger chances (7-1) but it was too little, too late.
And it shouldn't have taken that long for the Blackhawks to play with a backs-against-the-wall mentality.
"Last two teams we played, the motivation is pretty obvious," Jonathan Toews said following a 5-2 loss to the Predators. "Our opponents showed up and we haven't quite upped the effort. Got to be better."
"The bottom line is," head coach Jeremy Colliton said, "we needed the desperation and urgency and work ethic in our game that we showed in the second and third period, we needed it in the first."
"We needed desperation tonight and we didn't have that at the start," Connor Murphy said. "That's got to be the first step to the next game for us."
NHL
It's time for the Blackhawks to start playing desperate because they can't afford not to. They're now eight points out of a playoff spot and have caught up to teams as far as games played.
"Yeah, absolutely," Toews said on whether he's concerned about the Blackhawks' playoff chances. "If we want to catch anybody, these are must-win games. We knew that coming into the last couple games and it's unfortunate to come up short."
The next three games for the Blackhawks are against teams who are below them in the standings. But for some reason, those are the types of matchups that have been the Blackhawks' Achilles heel this season.
It can't be going forward.
"If there’s not right now, we should have some," Alex DeBrincat said. "These are really important, especially at home. We dropped two games and we definitely have to come back Saturday and get a win. If we can do that, hopefully it snowballs for us and we get some traction."
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