INSTANT ANALYSIS: Fleury Shines as Confidence in Low-Scoring Games Grows

The Blackhawks wrapped their three-game trip through the Metropolitan Division with a positive cap on Sunday night, gritting out a 3-2 shootout win over the New York Islanders to take a pair of wins home from the eastern excursion.
"Great trip. We played well against the Rangers, too. We were right there," interim head coach Derek King said, acknowledging the lone loss on the four-day stint. "I like where we're heading and I like the fact that guys are willing to sacrifice some of their games to get us where we are."

POSTGAME LINKS
GAMECENTER: CHI at NYI
RECAP: Blackhawks Bounce Back on Long Island in Shootout
HIGHLIGHTS: Blackhawks at Islanders
GALLERY: Blackhawks at Islanders
Chicago opened the scoring for the third straight game as Brandon Hagel tipped home an Alex DeBrincat shot late in the first period. Dylan Strome buried what looked to be the game-winner early in the third period to make it 2-1 -- also with a DeBrincat primary assist -- but the Islanders tied the game in the dying seconds with a late flurry of chances with the goalie pulled as Noah Dobson sent the game past 60 minutes with just over three seconds to play in regulation.
From there, Patrick Kane scored his shootout attempt and Marc-Andre Fleury denied all three Islanders shooters as Chicago remained perfect in the skills competition this season (3-0).

NO MARGIN FOR ERROR

While the pucks aren't finding the back of the net at the pace they historically have for the Blackhawks, the team has gotten accustomed to -- and successful at -- playing in low-scoring, low-chance games over the last few weeks and finding ways to grind out victories.
A large part their success in doing so has come with the renaissance of Fleury's performance in goal over the last month after a rough opening start to the season. The netminder has backstopped six of Chicago's last seven victories in 11 outings with wins in a pair of one-goal games and three shootouts with a singular two-goal victory in the mix. He's a perfect 8-for-8 on shootout attempts this season as well, in goal for all three shootout victories on the year including Thursday's win in Washington.
"Marc-Andre, great game again. Especially the shootouts, he's doing a tremendous job," King said. "I think the big thing here is our guys are buying into having to win games 2-1 or a 2-2 tie going into overtime. It's the little things, the compete in all three periods that get us there."

Playing in those close games is no easy task and requires a full 60 minutes of buy-in from every man on the roster. When the scoring is low, the margins for error are small.
"We're finding ways to win. We're winning those 2-1, 3-2 games and that's what we have to do when the puck's not going in the net. Got to be happy with that," Hagel said after the game. "Hopefully the pucks start going in obviously, but what we're doing right now (is getting the job done)."
Fleury's win was the 499th of his career, one shy of becoming the third goalie in NHL history to reach the 500-win plateau. It came in his 899th career game, one shy of being just the eighth goalie to hit 900 appearances in the NHL.

HOMECOMING OF SORTS

Sunday's game was a special one for King, who skated the majority of his NHL playing career with the Islanders -- 638 of his 830 games, scoring 211 goals and adding 288 helpers.
"It's kind of neat," he said pregame. "I'm sure I'll have some family members -- I know I've got some buddies that will probably have my jersey on and scream and things and making me look like an idiot. It'll be a little weird, but it was a great time to come in and start my career here and played a long time and some great memories."
With the Isles opening the brand-new UBS Arena this season, the building doesn't bring the full nostalgia from his days at Nassau Coliseum, but it was still a full-circle occasion.
"When I first went to the Coliseum, I think my first camp was in '85, as a kid, you look up and you couldn't believe the size of it," he said. "After awhile, you go to all these other rinks when you're playing and you go back to home and you're like 'Oh, when are they going to build a new rink?' … It was a great place. It was an awesome place. I went there as a boy and I left as a man. Met my wife there and a lot of family members still here (on Long Island) and it was a great place."

BLUELINE SHUFFLE

Riley Stillman made his return to the lineup on Sunday after missing five games with a left knee injury, skating 17:30 of ice time with two shots in his return.
To make room for him on the roster, the Blackhawks assigned defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk to the Rockford IceHogs, a move precipitated by a strong performance by Ian Mitchell on Saturday night against the Rangers.
Mitchell skated 18:38 of ice time on Sunday, the third highest mark of his career, in another strong performance.
"Mitchell played well and we'd like to see him a little more. You have to free up a spot," King explained pregame. "Wyatt did a great job for us. I think he's made some strides, but we just can't (let him) sit around here and practice. He needs to go play. He's going to get three games coming up there in Rockford and he's going to get a lot of ice time and if we need somebody, he's the guy to come up."
The Blackhawks have been Connor Murphy (concussion protocol) and Jake McCabe (family absence) for the past two outings and were without Calvin de Haan (lower back soreness) on Thursday in Washington, leaving the team to showcase its youthful depth with Kalynuk, Mitchell and Caleb Jones stepping in more consistently after rotating into the lineup in previous contests.