Patrick Kane wore a black Chicago Blackhawks sweater for the first time in years Friday night for their game against the Montreal Canadiens.
The Original Six matchup brought out a lot of red at the United Center, almost an even ratio of Habs and Hawks red. There were even brief "Olé, Olé, Olé" chants from the Canadiens faithful.
That's because the Hawks finished another second period poorly, opposite of the first. The rest of the story was the same: The Canadiens piled on the Hawks' mistakes, created a cushion and kept the hosts at arm's length the rest of the way.
In the end, the visitors left happy, while the Hawks added more questions about their identity.
Photos: Chicago Blackhawks lose to Montreal Canadiens 4-1
The Hawks weren't able to take advantage of having five days off between games, falling 4-1. They are now 2-3-0 on their seven-game homestand with the Florida Panthers and Los Angeles Kings remaining.
"I think (in the) first two periods, I thought we were the better team," center Connor Bedard said. "Hockey, sometimes you get your looks, (then) they go down the other way and bury one and then maybe you're trying to do too much to them, myself included. It's crushing whenever you lose, for sure."
It was an entertaining first period, with the teams trading shots. Bedard collected a pass from Kane, setting up a solo rush. The team captain launched a bullet past goaltender Jacob Fowler for a 1-0 lead at the 4-minute, 23-second mark.
The Hawks were able to exit their zone for most of the first, but a failed Ryan Greene puck clearing resulted in a high-danger chance for center Jake Evans, who tied the score at 1.
It was all Canadiens (5-3-2) from there. Evans scored again in the second, then Kaiden Guhle netted a goal on a short-handed 2-on-1 breakaway to give the visitors a 3-1 lead at the second intermission.
The Hawks had three power plays in the period but did not score.
"We get three, four good looks, Grade-A chances, (then) they go down, and we give up two good chances," Bedard said. "(Spencer Knight) saves the first two and the next one is obviously a perfect shot."
Added coach Jeff Blashill: "We shot ourselves on the first (goal) against, shot ourselves in the foot on the short-handed goal against, so that's two shots in the foot."
In the third period, the Hawks didn't have a shot on goal until the 8:45 mark while the Canadiens sat unfazed with their lead. Mike Matheson's empty netter at 17:22 capped the scoring.
"We need to have some conversations tomorrow and figure out how we can be better, because clearly not good enough," said defenseman Ian Cole, who played his 1,000th NHL game. "We start the game well, come out looking good, flying, speeding fast — that's great, but ultimately they take it to us."
Strong first periods from the Hawks have been followed by below-average seconds and finalized by ugly thirds. They throw the first punch, then the opponent swings back, and the Hawks can't recover.
How can they fix that the rest of the way?
"That's realistically the way the hockey is going to be as we go through the season here, and certainly if we want to be a playoff team, that's the way (that) hockey is going to be," Cole said. "Hockey is about winning puck battles, about winning the puck (and) keeping the puck. We got to do a much better job of that for sure, all of us."
The Hawks were without defenseman Bowen Byram and left wing Andrew Mangiapane, but it was a frustrating loss against a Canadiens team that didn't have their best players. Captain Nick Suzuki is out with an upper-body injury (his first missed time in 546 games), while right wing Ivan Demidov has been out with an upper-body injury.
A 3-7-0 record through 10 games is not how the Hawks expected to be to kick off 2026-27. Last season, they were 5-3-2 through 10 games.
"I like our team a lot, I still like our team a lot," Blashill said. "We haven't had a full group yet. I look forward to that day when we have our full group. We're 3-7, so that's way far off from where we want to be. I don't think we're far off from it clicking and turning the other way, but we got to make it happen. … It'll be a broken record until we fix it."
Granted, the Hawks haven't been fully healthy yet, but their play hasn't been playoff-caliber.
"I'm sure they're frustrated — I'm frustrated, you're frustrated, the fans are frustrated — that's a natural reaction," Blashill said. "The reality is you got to find a way to move past that because to me, being frustrated is honestly a little bit like feeling sorry for yourself. That doesn't do anyone any good, so let's find a way to move past it and look for solutions."
