Blackhawks’ too-many-men gaffe seals another loss to Flyers

PHILADELPHIA — Derek King could only drop and shake his head.

Sure enough, the Blackhawks interim coach could count the players on the ice: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. They’d crossed the blue line with 1:30 left with Dominik Kubalik on left wing, Dylan Strome and Brandon Hagel in the middle, Patrick Kane on right wing, Alex DeBrincat trailing the puck and Seth and Caleb Jones back on defense.

Unbelievably, it was the Hawks’ fourth penalty for too many men on the ice in their past two games. The inexplicable gaffe mutilated their own last-gasp push in a 4-3 loss Saturday to the Flyers.

“That’s on me,” King said later. “I’ve got to do a better job on the bench making sure these guys know exactly who’s up. It’s my responsibility.

“There is a little bit of anxiousness where we’re trying to do the right things, we’re working, and we’re jumping a little too early. We want to get in there and try to be that guy who maybe gets the goal. That’s definitely on me and I’ll clean it up.”

Three second-period goals — two from Strome and one from DeBrincat — gave the Hawks a 3-2 lead to protect entering the third period. They’d played well up to that point, overcoming a slow start and watching the first line of Strome, Kane and Kubalik take over.

But the final frame careened off the rails. Seth Jones and Jonathan Toews miscommunicated on the Flyers’ tying goal, leaving Derick Brassard wide open, before a Cam Atkinson shot through high screens fooled Kevin Lankinen and gave the Flyers the lead for good.

Even off from the scoreboard, what started as a physical, emotional tilt — King described it as like “an old 80s game at the old Spectrum” — devolved into several 10-man scrums around the Flyers’ net. A cheap-shot hit by Kirby Dach that injured Kevin Connauton in the third period may well earn Dach some supplementary discipline from the NHL.

“It’s a tough way to lose,” Strome said. “When you have a lead going to the third, you’ve got to play a bit better than we did. Obviously [we] can’t take that penalty late in the game. … That one sucks. I feel like we played pretty good and probably deserve a bit better than that.”

Lankinen continues to be plagued by, if not soft, then mushy goals against. He’s now 3-6-4 with an .885 save percentage this season, which doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in a post-Marc-Andre Fleury goaltending future.

There was also a historical oddity involved. The Hawks have now lost 16 consecutive regular-season games in Philadelphia, with their last win coming in 1996.

It’s that too-many-men penalty, though, that overshadows everything else Saturday. The Hawks have now recorded nine bench minors this season, tied with the Devils for the league’s most. Although not all nine are for too many men, these past four definitely have been, dating back to two Thursday against the Oilers.

Through 58 minutes, if someone squinted tightly enough, they might have been able to write off Saturday’s loss as an entertaining, well-fought, excusable defeat — that is, if they ignored the fact the Flyers entered the day 16-28-10, with just three wins in their last 24 games. But playing with seven guys is, by contrast, absolutely inexcusable.

“I don’t know [how it happened], to be honest,” Seth Jones said. “We took two last game, two tonight. That should be good for the whole season, in two games. We need better communication.”

Added Strome: “It’s not one guy; it’s everyone. You’ve got to be aware of who you’re taking on the ice. If your guy comes off, you’ve got to go on. And if he doesn’t come off, you’ve got to be aware that maybe it looked like he was coming off and he didn’t come off.”