Blackhawks Can’t Keep Leaving Their Goalies Out To Dry

The Chicago Blackhawks' loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night was a sad ending to what is now an 0-3-0 road trip to begin the season. Before they even hit the United Center ice for the first time, they are in a hole that will be incredibly hard to dig out of. 

Is it time to panic? Absolutely not. It also sounds like the team as a whole is not even close to panicking yet, either, but they do acknowledge that things have to get cleaned up sooner rather than later. You can't make the playoffs in October, but you can certainly miss them. 

"I don't think we're worried about the record," head coach Jeff Blashill said. "It's all about process. I've talked about that from the start with our group. That process is way better. Let's build on the process. You can't take one step forward and two steps back. That's not always going to show in wins and losses. Over the long period of time, if the process is good, the wins will follow."

One part of that process must be doing a better job of protecting the goaltenders. The Blackhawks have hung out their guy in the crease to dry in all three games so far. 

In game one, Spencer Knight faced 36 shots. In game two, Arvid Soderblom faced 32. In game three, back to Knight, he faced 32 as well. In the first game, the Blackhawks had 26 of their own shots, but a lowly 15 in each of the next two. That's not even close to an even distribution. There has been significantly more pressure on their goaltenders than on the opponent's. 

With that kind of workload, it is impossible for any goalie to win consistently in today's NHL. Both Blackhawks netminders, especially Knight, can steal a game here and there, but it can't be expected every game. 

Let's use the Buffalo game as an example. The Blackhawks went up 2-0 early, but they allowed the Sabres to dominate possession, offensive zone time, and shots on goal in the process of gaining that lead. It was only a matter of time before the Sabres evened things up. Spencer Knight was only able to do so much before they finally got one past him.

Shot suppression and backchecking are the hardest things for a young team to master, but they have to step up and be better in that regard as early as their next game. If there isn't an improvement, they will continue to lose in the fashion that they have. 

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