The Chicago Blackhawks played another poor game in Buffalo, but Anton Frondell had a wonderful game.
The Chicago Blackhawks had another tough performance on Saturday night. This time, it was a 4-3 loss at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres, ending an 0-3-0 road trip. It was a slight improvement in terms of competitiveness, but the overall lousy play continued.
There were a couple of bright spots in the game, however. Two players can claim they played well. One of them, Alex Vlasic, didn’t have Bowen Byram on his pair due to the fact that Byram had to leave to attend a family matter. They may have been separated anyway due to their play over the first two games, but Vlasic bounced back in a big way.
In addition to playing much better in his own end, especially compared to his fellow Blackhawks blue-liners, he collected two assists. One was a brilliant centering pass to Ryan Donato, proving Vlasic can make a play when the opportunity arises.
"Sometimes things go your way," Vlasic said about his personal success in the loss. "I don't think it really matters. I'm not focused on that. I'm trying to help us win. Any way I can do that is something I'm striving for."
Although he is not going to be happy about his game because of the result, it's a game for him to build on as an individual.
Anton Frondell is the other player who had a great game on an individual basis. He, like Vlasic, had two assists, but they were both grade-A primaries. The first was a magnificent pass to complete the tic-tac-toe goal scored by Tyler Bertuzzi. The second was a wonderful pass back to Oliver Moore on what was a go-ahead goal at the time.
Vlasic is a very important two-way defender that the Blackhawks have a lot of faith in. They have also committed to him financially and with term. However, Frondell was a third overall pick who has the tools to be one of the franchise's marquee players. He looked like it in this game.
"It's hard to say after a loss," Frondell said about his personal game. He went on to credit the fact that he and Teravainen were able to make some nice plays, but it wasn't good enough in his mind.
You're not going to get much from hockey players when they lose, even if they had excellent games on a personal level, which Frondell did.
"It's boring to lose games," Frondell said. "That's not what we want to do. But I think today showed that we can play better as a team."
The Blackhawks need more of this from Frondell. They selected him where they did because they believed he was an elite prospect. Now, they need him to be an elite player, but it is going to take time. There are going to be more sensational games like this; some of them may even come in wins, and there are going to be more growing pains.
At the end of the day, it's about learning to rack up multiple good games in a row until it becomes part of who you are as a player. For Frondell, he's on the right track entering his first full season.
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