A 4-3 shootout loss Sunday to the Wild was the Blackhawks’ third consecutive defeat in somewhat heartbreaking fashion. They have blown third-period leads in all three games.
But the overmatched Hawks — now 4-3-2, having built up those four victories by pulling similar comeback tricks on opponents before this skid — again generated plenty of positives despite the final score.
Andreas Athanasiou scored the Hawks’ prettiest goal of the season, undressing Wild defenseman Matt Dumba twice before roofing a backhand past former Hawks goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in the third period. Boris Katchouk delivered the Hawks’ biggest hit of the season, crushing Frederick Gaudreau.
And Philipp Kurashev continued his quietly strong start to the season, picking up his sixth point in nine games — putting him on a 55-point pace — when he assisted on Jonathan Toews’ second-period goal. Kurashev missed the net on a transition shot but chased down the rebound and centered the puck to Toews, who poked it across the line.
”We’ve seen over these last few years the level of skill [Kurashev] has at moments,” Toews said. ”The biggest thing to become a top player, an elite player, when you have that kind of skill [is] . . . consistency.
”He’s really finding that groove for himself. [He’s] also finding that competitive streak where he’s getting in there, he’s digging out pucks, he’s getting physical and the plays develop from there. When he has empty space, he can make plays and is able to finish them off, too.”
Coach Luke Richardson hasn’t shuffled the Hawks’ forward lines much this season. When he has, however, Kurashev has been the common denominator when comparing which line has been most effective each night.
During the Hawks’ winning streak, the third line — with Kurashev skating alongside Jason Dickinson and Sam Lafferty — regularly was dominating shifts and driving their success. And during this losing streak, the second line — with Kurashev skating alongside Toews and Taylor Raddysh — probably has been the Hawks’ best.
Digging deeper into the numbers, the soft-spoken 23-year-old winger seems to be making everyone around him better.
Kurashev’s and Toews’ expected-goals rate during 32 minutes together (at five-on-five) is a stellar 65.4%; Toews’ expected-goals rate when not with Kurashev is 42.2%. Kurashev’s and Dickinson’s rate during 45 minutes together is 58.3%; Dickinson’s rate without Kurashev is 33.5%. Similar trends hold true for Raddysh’s and Lafferty’s rates with and without Kurashev.
”[Kurashev is] pretty much a complete player,” Richardson said. ”He can go in on a more defensive line, like the Dickinson line, and he can go on a Toews line. They’ve created quite a bit the last few games.
”We just want to keep building him up. We’ll show him a few things he can add individually . . . but he’s a smart guy and seems to take it all in and implement it into his game. He seems really confident, which is great to see.”
Richardson also deserves some credit for maintaining such patience with his line combinations. Outside of Tyler Johnson’s injury, which opened the spot on Toews’ line that Kurashev inherited, the combinations hardly have changed since the first week of the season.
”If you can get some kind of rhythm out of a line, if you let it have some time and grow, you can really see some magic happen,” Richardson said Saturday. ”You’ve got to have some patience to let that happen.”
Athanasiou’s goal could have been the game-winner, but Matt Boldy answered with an equalizer for the Wild 17 seconds later. The Wild largely controlled the scoring chances the rest of the way.
