On a themed "Best Day Ever," the Chicago Blackhawks needed a good win. If they could take a physical victory over a deep Florida Panthers team, it could change the perspective of this season.
Red carpets were rolled out before puck drop to honor Ian Cole for marking his 1,000th game on Friday. He and his children were given silver sticks for the accolade.
The Hawks were coming off an ugly loss to an undermanned Montreal Canadiens team, and now faced a depleted but high-quality group in the Panthers.
But the Hawks (3-8-0) dropped their third straight game Sunday to the Panthers, 3-2. It was an entertaining matchup, but the United Center crowd left the arena unsatisfied once again.
With only the Los Angeles Kings remaining on Tuesday, the loss to the Panthers may have stamped the homestand as a missed opportunity.
Players say they are frustrated, but all they can do right now is channel that energy on the ice against the Kings and beyond.
Photos: Florida Panthers 3, Chicago Blackhawks 2
"There's gonna be frustration — we're 3-8, if there's no frustration, that's even worse than too much frustration," Hawks captain Connor Bedard said. "You've got to use that in the next game and try to dig ourselves out. When you play with that edge, you play a little better (so) if we can do that the rest of the year, that'd be great."
After Tuesday's game, the Hawks will play five of the next six on the road. Seven of their next eight are against teams that made the playoffs last season.
The Hawks opened things up quickly with Ryan Greene's goal after 2 minutes, 34 seconds. He rebounded Kevin Korchinski's shot and tapped it in for his first goal of the season.
It was a night when Korchinski, who replaced Ethan Del Mastro in the lineup, needed to perform to get future game nods. He did just that despite his limited playing time — in 12 minutes, 27 seconds of ice time, he had an assist and a plus-2 rating.
"I think every day you've gotta earn it, it starts with showing up the next day and proving myself again," Korchinski said about earning opportunities. "Obviously, (the) past doesn't matter, so you want to be good in the present and help this team win. That's the approach you gotta have to be able to be a difference maker and have a long career."
Andrew Magiapane had a quiet return to the lineup, skating for 8 minutes, 46 seconds and gaining an assist.
The Panthers out-toughed the Hawks for the rest of the first period. A Bedard giveaway turned into a Sandis Vilmanis goal on a rush, and Matthew Tkachuk's ricochet of a power-play shot by Seth Jones — who made his first United Center return since being traded for Spencer Knight — gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
"Started off kind of slow, I made a bad play on their first goal," Bedard said. "But they work hard, they're a really good team. I thought we got better as the game went on, but not good enough."
The Hawks strengthened up in the second period, stifling the 2024 and 2025 Stanley Cup champions for most of the 20 minutes and creating chances to gain the lead.
"I would say in the first half of the first, that's where (I thought we) had a real good shot mentality," Hawks coach Jeff Blashill said. "Then in the second, I think that probably mirrored that."
Roman Kantserov scored in the second period, assisted by Bedard and Patrick Kane, to even the score at 2.
After a back-and-forth third period, the Panthers (6-4-2) scored the dagger with 2 minutes, 23 seconds remaining. Center Lars Eller caught the Hawks on a poorly timed line change and sent a shot past Knight for the game-winning goal.
The Panthers have won five of their last six games against the Hawks.
Power plays were again a sore spot for the Hawks. The five-forward unit, led by Teuvo Teräväinen, couldn't pressure goaltender Akira Schmid as they went 0-for-7 with a man advantage.
"Before today, I thought honestly we were pretty good," Bedard said. "We get judged on if it goes in or not, and that makes sense, it's a results sport. But obviously we've got to be better. Tonight, we were terrible. We would have won the game. We had seven power plays."
Add that to the stack of chances the Hawks didn't convert on Sunday. They had 59 shot attempts (21 on goal), but 21 missed shots.
Ryan Donato's night was one that may haunt him. He had multiple scoring chances, but got unlucky with broken sticks and superb goalie saves by Schmid.
"I think I broke four sticks tonight, and, you know, it's tough," Donato said. "If you weren't getting those chances, that'd be a different story for me. That's kind of the way I've always looked at things."
Added Blashill: "If you give Ryan those five chances over and over and over again, I think he's going to score a lot. If he never scored in the NHL, even recently, if he didn't have a really good shot, then I'd question him. But he's scored his whole career, including college. He was frustrated. I said, 'Man, just go, there's nothing you can do about that.'"
As Bedard pointed out, a good effort by the Hawks, but just short. It's another loss, but also another lesson learned for the young team.
"(When) we came back out in the second. I thought (we) had great pushback in the way in terms of compete," Blashill said. "I thought we had great, great compete."
