Blackhawks blow 4-goal lead, suffer embarrassing loss to Sabres

In a vacuum, the Blackhawks’ 6-5 loss to the Sabres on Monday was their worst loss in years.

They blew a 4-0 lead at home against the NHL’s perennial punching bag, ultimately losing with 12 seconds left in regulation on a broken-stick shot that caromed off the end-boards, off Kevin Lankinen’s pad and across the goal line.

Considering the game’s utter lack of stakes, it’s probably not actually the Hawks’ worst loss in years in context. But that should take nothing away from the embarrassment of the team’s effort from the first intermission on.

Their defensive coverage was laughably awful, leaving Sabres attackers wide open all over the zone on every shift. Their mental fortitude was nonexistent, even squandering a 5-4 lead gifted by an Alex DeBrincat power-play snipe after they’d already thrown away the original four-goal cushion. And goalie Kevin Lankinen cast more serious doubt that he can be a reliable backstop for this team moving forward.

The final stats tell the story: the Sabres led 68-38 in shot attempts, 37-21 in shots on goal and 29-13 in scoring chances.

Interim coach Derek King was rightly as angry as he has been all season.

“We stopped playing the game the right way,” King said. “We just decided upon ourselves to go and do what they wanted to do. Didn’t do anything we asked them to do.

“I’m very surprised, disappointed. And they should be disappointed. We’ll find out come next game how disappointed they really are about losing a game like that.”

Toews nears milestone

Of course, the Hawks’ next game — Thursday against the Panthers — will also be Jonathan Toews’ 1,000th career game, and the anticipatory buzz the next few days will likely drown out the lingering bitterness from Monday’s defeat.

Considering the health issues Toews has overcome in recent years, it will be a significant accomplishment. He’ll be the 358th player in NHL history to achieve the milestone and the eighth to play 1,000 games with the Hawks.

Since returning from a concussion in early March, the captain has looked more and more like himself and finally has gotten the production to show for it. He scored in the first period Monday for his sixth goal in his last 10 games and 10th point in his last 13.

But he, too, struggled to feel anything but frustration Monday night, given the way the rest of the game played out.

“What we’re not doing right is right there in front of us, so it’s not really a confidence thing,” he said. “[We’re not] keeping the game simple and identifying little ways that we can make things hard for them and not give them free offense. We just let them walk in everywhere, just making plays through us, [getting] no sticks on pucks and go down the list.”

Injury updates

Tyler Johnson was activated from injured reserve and played Monday after recovering from his latest concussion. Connor Murphy, although still on long-term injured reserve, might be nearing a return from his concussion, too.

”He has been skating and working out, and he said he’s feeling really good,” interim coach Derek King said. ”I believe some of the symptoms are not there or close to being not there.”

De Haan snaps streak

Defenseman Calvin de Haan entered the game a month away from finishing a fifth consecutive season with exactly one goal.

But his streak is now dead. De Haan saw the net wide-open in the first period — after forward Taylor Raddysh executed a clever shot-fake and pass — and blasted the puck in for his second goal in 61 games this season.