The Chicago Blackhawks traveled to Winnipeg to take on Patrick Laine and the Jets and ended up coming away with a victory despite losing Brandon Saad to injury.
After embarrassing themselves in front of their home fans at the United Center on Wednesday Night Hockey when the Colorado Avalanche came to town and defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1, Patrick Kane and company traveled to Winnipeg to faceoff against Patrick Laine and the Jets on Thursday night.
All I have to say about the Blackhawks victory over the Jets is that this team is lucky to have someone like Kane on their side. He continues to carry this team on his back every single game night. Some people believed if the losing streak continued that there would be a change at one of GM or head coach, if not both of them. The Blackhawks have faced off against some very tough opponents as of late and Kane made them look like a somewhat competent hockey team.
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The Blackhawks traveled to Winnipeg knowing that they would be facing off against one of the best teams in the western conference, so if they wanted to come away with a victory then Robin Lehner would need to be outstanding in between the pipes. I can sit here and tell you that, that is exactly what happened. Winnipeg put up 37 shots on Lehner and he only let one goal in.
Kane had three primary assists and one goal that lifted the Blackhawks to a 4-1 victory over their divisional rivals and was a much-needed win. This is a step in the right direction for this team. The Blackhawks have a roster that can only win by them skating up and down the ice with their opponent trading chances. If it wasn’t for Lehner and Corey Crawford being as dominate as they have been between the pipes, this team would not be where they are right now.
This is exactly why Jeremy Colliton doesn’t deserve to be fired right now, is because he wasn’t the one who built this team, Stan Bowman was. All this team has to do in order to win on a nightly basis is play to their strengths and they did that against the Jets.
The Blackhawks ended up losing Brandon Saad to an apparent ankle injury last night and he’ll be out a couple of weeks. So who will they be calling up to take his spot in the lineup? Possibly could see Dylan Sikura back with the Blackhawks, but we’ll see.
The Blackhawks are still at the bottom of the Western Conference and they’d need a magical run to climb out of it, but if Kane and company continue to play to their strengths they can do it, anything is possible. The tough schedule continues for the Blackhawks as they travel to Colorado to face off against Nathan MacKinnon and the Avs once again on Saturday night, we’ll see if Kane can continue to stay hot.