Blackhawks ‘blow off some steam’ in team meeting after shutout loss to Penguins

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PITTSBURGH — This wasn’t your ordinary players-only meeting after a loss. Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sörensen joined in Tuesday as his team followed an uplifting home win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday with a frustrating 5-0 loss to the same team on the road two days later.

What was actually said was kept within the room; Sörensen, Ryan Donato and Connor Murphy declined to share. It does sound as if there was some raised voices during the meeting, which lasted about 15 minutes after the game.

“I think we could have used more of it,” Donato said of whether there was yelling. “The coaches give us all the right messages. They can tell us everything to do. It’s about us to execute that. They give us a good plan to go in the game. We all have to buy into that and play the same way. I think it’s on the veterans and some of the young guys to make sure we’re doing what we’re told. Like I said, some of the most simple teams are the best. As a team that’s young and inexperienced, the more the simple you play, you create more offense, you create all these different things. I don’t really know where to start with that.”

Murphy thought the meeting was important to have.

“Just to address games that sometimes guys feel like need to be addressed,” Murphy said. “Sometimes it’s good to blow off some steam and not sit on it for days. So just how bad we played and things from the game.”

While the details of the meeting may not have been divulged, it was clear no one was pleased with Tuesday’s lopsided outcome, nor does the team find it acceptable to just ride out the final eight days of the season. Sörensen thought the Blackhawks stopped competing midway through Tuesday’s game.

“Well, you see, you play a team with experience and they’re willing to outcompete us,” Sörensen said. “That was really what it came down to, right? Especially in the second and third period. I thought the first period, we did a lot of good things, and we get down 1-0, and then after that we just stopped — stopped competing, stopped helping each other out.

“I don’t think they let me down. They let themselves and their teammates down, right? I mean, that’s the biggest part of it. We’re a group here. It’s not me or them, or it’s a group thing, right? We let each other down today, and maybe I’ll look at what I did wrong. Again, I thought the first period was good, but then we just came apart there. I can’t put my finger on right now, but yeah, I’m part of it too.”

Alex Vlasic, Connor Bedard and Ryan Donato confer at center ice during the second period. (Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)

The Blackhawks went down 1-0 with 16 seconds left in the first period when Sidney Crosby scored a power-play goal that came after Kevin Korchinski was called for hooking. Sörensen said he disagreed with the call and voiced his disagreement with the officials.

Regardless, as Donato put it, one call that went against the Blackhawks shouldn’t have changed the game for them.

“It’s the heat of the game,” Donato said. “Sometimes calls aren’t going to go your way. We got to battle back and move our feet, create penalties for us. I think we don’t do that enough. That’s on the players. We just got to move on.

“We killed off a lot of good power plays this year. Our penalty kill has done a great job. I don’t know. I didn’t see the call. For me, it’s just we got to move on and be better.”

The problem is the Blackhawks weren’t. A Teuvo Teräväinen turnover coming out of the defensive zone in the second period led to a Erik Karlsson goal. That was followed by a Kris Letang goal where he found space with a give-and-go, losing Oliver Moore, and no one picked him up as he approached the net. Kevin Hayes scored a fourth goal when his shot bounced out of Spencer Knight’s glove and rolled into the net, and then a fifth on a redirect while being checked by Korchinski.

The goals added up against and the Blackhawks had no offensive response. Sam Rinzel came close in the first period. Philipp Kurashev had a couple quality looks. Frank Nazar had his usual high-end chance. But there weren’t many of those across the board, and the Blackhawks were shut out for just the second time all season.

With so many young players in the Blackhawks lineup, some of this may be the reality of the team’s situation. But Donato wasn’t pointing fingers at the youth.

“It’s not just on them,” Donato said. “As veterans or guys who have been around long enough know, you got to bring them with you and teach them the right way. There’s some hard lessons in there, but it makes the team better. I think everybody can look at themselves in the mirror and find something they didn’t do great this game. You got to continue to build. It’s a hard league. Teams are so good that you can’t just show up. Tonight was evident.”

Murphy also thought there was value for the young players in a team meeting like the one they had.

“It’s a privilege to play in this league,” Donato said. “You just got to show up every night and give your A effort every night. It’s too good of a league. You’re playing against the best players in the world every night no matter what. Yeah, obviously, there was some good things we  saw in the game before against them. You can’t get too comfortable. I don’t think that’s the case. I just think we all just need to buy in and show up every night, not just every so often.”

(Photo: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)

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