The Blackhawks where back on the ice last night as they took on the red-hot Islanders who came into the game riding a 3 game win streak. This was a vintage Islander game, slow, boring, and not many opportunities allowed for the Hawks. Barry Trotz may no longer be behind the bench, but his defensive mind set and trap style system was on full display. Once the Islanders got on the board, that was pretty much all she wrote for this game.

Notes

Stalock Goes Down Soderblom Steps Up
Less than 3 minutes into this one, Stalock had to leave the game after a brutal collision with Casey Cizikas (who was giving a 5 minute major and game misconduct). Soderblom played amazing coming off the bench and in 55 minutes of play he stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced. The first goal was just a bad break as it just slipped through his padding and was an easy tap in for Lee. The question Davidson now faces is will he need to make a move for a goalie?

Alex Stalock is leaving the game after a violent collision and Casey Cizikas is given a 5-minute penalty and game misconduct for goaltender interference. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/I3QJloDoaw

— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) November 2, 2022

Power Play Stuggles
This might have been the worst performance from the power-play unit this season; in 12:58 of man advantage time they were only able to manage 5 shots on goal. They could not get anything going on their 5 minute advantage to start the game and this is going to be where they will miss Seth Jones the most as he recovers from his thumb injury.

Back to Reality
As the injuries begin to pile up, the lack of depth is going to start to be really exposed. Losing Tyler Johnson has hurt this team more than expected as Coach Richardson hasn’t been able to find the right player to take his spot in the line up. Now losing Seth Jones, who takes up big minutes, and both Mrazek and Stalock, it's going to be gut check time for this team.

October was a nice surprise for this team. It gave us something to look forward to and really enjoy watching Hawks hockey again. However, with injuries piling up and a very tough schedule coming up, I think the Cinderella story is coming to an end and the Hawks are being torpedoed right back in to the Bedard sweepstakes. All we can hope is that we see more exciting games like the one against the Oilers and a lot less like this last one against the Islanders.

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