TAKEAWAYS: Blackhawks Drop Third Straight Contest

For the third straight time, the Chicago Blackhawks suffered another loss. This time, the team endured a 7-1 defeat against the Seattle Kraken.

With a few injuries impacting the lineup, head coach Luke Richardson doesn’t excuse it as the reason why they lost on Thursday night. 

“The battle level and compete levels got to be higher, and we got to be smarter,” Richardson said. 

Seattle started the game off with two goals in the first period to take control of the matchup. From there, Chicago started to find their offensive spark with a goal from Taylor Raddysh to shift the momentum but lost it after the Kraken responded right back to make it 3-1.

Tyler Johnson felt the team fell into old habits once again where players failed to find ways to battle through the game to try and make a comeback.  The Kraken outshot the Blackhawks 29-22. 

“We were just tentative on everything and credit to Seattle, they worked hard, and they competed,” Johnson said. “They took it to us, and we just didn't respond.” 

As the Blackhawks earned some big wins against some of the league’s top teams this season, Raddysh knew that the team could have brought a higher competitive level to their game. 

“I feel like we're a better group than that and we should be a group that comes ready hungry every day and want to prove to the teams that we’re ready to work,” Raddysh said.  “I feel like we have a lot more to show than that and feel like we didn't do that tonight.”

Before the team’s two-game road trip, they started to find some success at the United Center where they won their first back-to-back games this season. 

As they look ahead to some key matchups at the United Center, Richardson hopes they can learn from the mistakes they made and find their winning ways once again. 

“I don't know if there is an answer for tonight, other than the only thing we can do now is learn from it and respond better,” Richardson said. “I think we've been playing better at home and that's what we got to look forward to.”