The Chicago Blackhawks snapped a five-game losing streak and gave interim coach Anders Sorensen his first NHL win, a 2-1 upset of the New York Rangers on Monday at Madison Square Garden.
“It’s exciting,” Sorensen said. “Even for the group, right? I thought the losing stretch was getting long. The guys battled hard.”
With the victory, Sorensen became the first Swedish-born coach to win an NHL game.
Personal accolades aside, the difference has been evident in the Hawks’ play since general manager Kyle Davidson fired Luke Richardson.
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The Hawks played a more aggressive forecheck, which did wonders for their puck possession.
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Despite a shaky first period, Sorensen’s system didn’t give up much on defense.
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With all due respect to his hat-trick night, Taylor Hall arguably played his best all-around game, and so did linemate Tyler Bertuzzi.
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Arvid Söderblom made 28 saves and earned his second win of the season (and first for his countryman, Sorensen) in his eighth start.
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Defenseman Kevin Korchinski made his season debut and played well.
Bertuzzi opened the scoring with a first-period goal off a feed from Hall.
“I really liked his intensity,” Sorensen said of Bertuzzi.
Will Cuylle put the Rangers on the board with a short-handed goal with 43 seconds left in the period — the fourth time this season the Hawks have given up a goal inside a minute remaining in the first.
Ordinarily they would get down on themselves after giving up a lead, but they dominated the puck even more in the second and third periods, posting five-on-five Corsi-for percentages of 60% and 67%, respectively.
If you need a true barometer for how much the Hawks maintained control, just play back the boos that rained on the Rangers from the home crowd midway through the third after the Blueshirts tried to break out from a long defensive shift only to have the Hawks turn the puck back from the neutral zone.
They jeered again when the Hawks similarly put the Rangers back on defense two minutes later.
Hall scored in the second after working a two-on-one with Connor Bedard — the only advantage the Hawks would need the rest of the way.
“I thought we managed the lines much better and didn’t give up as much,” Sorensen said. “You bend a little bit but we didn’t break. Our composure was really good and a lot of guys played really well.”
Bedard wanted the Hawks to remember how they felt after the win as they get set for the New York Islanders on Thursday and the New Jersey Devils on Saturday to complete the trip.
“We can try to build momentum off it,” Bedard said. “In the end, each game is its own thing. That’s been a problem for us, kind of getting on a roll.
“We want to use this. Just keep going on the trip, stay motivated to get wins. We know the feeling when we do win, how great it is. So just keep chasing that and trying to get those wins.”
Here are five takeaways.
1. Taylor Hall again looked like Taylor Hall.
Hall looked speedy on both ends of the ice and played the facilitator to a degree we haven’t seen often in a Hawks uniform.
In the first period, he centered to Bedard for a kneeling one-time blast, the kind of high-danger chance that has been hard to come by for Bedard.
“I told Connor he’s got to score that,” Hall told Darren Pang during Chicago Sports Network’s first-intermission broadcast. “I was just kidding — but not really.”
Later, Hall barreled into the zone and picked up a turnover by Mika Zibanejad, circled behind the net and seamed down low to Bertuzzi for the opening goal. It looked like he just tried to rim it or pass it behind him and he kind of fanned on it. Lucky break.
Hall had savvy set-ups to Wyatt Kaiser and Korchinski as they jumped in, though neither could land his shot. But in the second period, Hall notched one in the ledger for himself.
During a two-on-one, Hall took a pass from Bedard and tried to deke Igor Shesterkin and lost the handle, but the puck trickled in as Hall tumbled over Shesterkin.
It wasn’t Hall’s prettiest goal, but it was true.
2. The Hawks forecheck was formidable.
Sorensen has been integrating new wrinkles in the system, and they’ve been bearing fruit.
The Hawks have been using two forwards on the forecheck, keeping a forward high as a safety net, and encouraging defensemen to join the rush.
“We’re getting a little bit more compact as a forechecking unit, not as spread out,” Hall said. “We have a bit more freedom to just go.”
Added Bedard: “Anders came in and the couple practices we’ve had, that’s what we worked on a lot is playing with pace, playing hard and using our speed and being aggressive. And it’s going to be a great success for us.”
Against the Rangers, the Hawks’ riskier approach didn’t expose them to high-danger counterattacks. In fact, sustained zone time works just as well as structured defense for keeping pucks out of the net.
Hawks skaters also were asked to keep pucks off the yellow and on each other’s tape to break out more easily and cleanly and find themselves in fewer puck battles along the wall (which they often would lose).
“We have some quick guys; we don’t have the biggest, most physical team,” Hall said. “If we can skate and be aggressive that way and hold on the leads while playing somewhat aggressive, that’s to our advantage.”
Defensemen accounted for 10 of the Hawks’ 32 shots.
“It’s huge,” Hall said. “I get the puck over the blue line and you pull up, it’s so nice to see a D-man jump in there. And conversely, when you’re on D and their D are jumping by you all night, it makes for a hard game.”
3. Ryan Donato’s line with Hall and Bertuzzi ‘set the tone.’
Remember how the Hawks controlled possession? For the Bertuzzi-Donato-Hall line, their Corsi-for percentage was 71% against their opposing lines.
They led 8-3 in scoring chances and 3-0 in high-danger chances, according to NaturalStatTrick.com
“That line was really good,” Sorensen said. “They drove the pace for us early in the game. It was fun to watch.”
4. Kevin Korchinski held his own.
Korchinski, who was called up along with goalie Drew Commesso from the Rockford IceHogs on Sunday, was paired with T.J. Brodie. He took two shots on goal and received about a minute and a half of power-play time.
In the first period, Korchinski was in a one-on-one situation with Artemi Panarin as he crashed the net, and Korchinski turned him away.
“I thought he was unbelievable,” Sorensen said. “I’m really happy with the way he played. I’m really happy for him to come up under tough circumstances — he played a lot last week (with the IceHogs) — and I thought he looked really good
