CHICAGO — For the second week in a row, the Chicago Blackhawks had an opponent exactly where they wanted it and couldn’t put the game away early.
Last week, the Blackhawks faced the Vancouver Canucks, who were coming into the United Center on the second game of a back-to-back. The Blackhawks put together a good start but allowed the Canucks back into the game and lost in a shootout. It was the same story against the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday. This time it resulted in a regulation loss.
In the first period, the Blackhawks looked fresh and the Kings looked like a team that had lost Saturday night to the Nashville Predators in a shootout. The Kings made some mistakes, and the Blackhawks jumped on them with offensive-zone time and scoring chances. Connor Bedard capitalized on one when he tipped a pass from Ilya Mikheyev to the net and Kings goalie Anton Forsberg kicked the puck in.
The problem is their other 10 shots on goal and six additional scoring chances went to waste in the period.
In the second period, the Kings capitalized on two Blackhawks mistakes within 90 seconds. On the first, Sam Rinzel turned over the puck trying to stick-handle through traffic near the top of the offensive zone. The Kings pushed the other way and scored on a two-on-one rush. Shortly later, the Kings countered on a Jason Dickinson turnover, which led to a Kevin Fiala breakaway and eventually a wraparound goal.
Sunday’s game was the first one all the season the Blackhawks trailed after two periods. They had either led or were tied going into the third period in their first eight games. They were the only NHL team remaining this season who hadn’t trailed after two periods.
From there, the Kings did what the Kings do and closed out the game. They added an empty-netter and won 3-1.
“We’ve had our moments, we’ve been able to claw back from them before, but this is another learning moment for us, right?” said Dickinson, who returned to the lineup after missing two games with an injury. “A team like this that knows how to win and knows how to play like that. We can’t let ourselves do that. It’s easier said than done sometimes.
“It really is simple plays. I think back to the goal I gave up. It’s such a simple play, but a stupid decision where I panic with the puck in a dangerous area and it turns into a breakaway. It’s completely self-inflicted, I’ve said it a million times already. It’s just stupid plays that could be easily corrected and just show a little poise and not panic in those moments when the momentum does swing, and take a breath and bear down.”
“That was lit!” – John Kelly pic.twitter.com/ZLbk3FfW5m
— LA Kings (@LAKings) October 27, 2025
Artyom Levshunov is one of the players who need to be more patient with the puck at times. Late in the second period, the puck ended up in the Blackhawks’ zone and Levshunov was all alone when he got it behind the net. After the Kings had the puck most of the period, the Blackhawks could have used a breather. Instead, Levshunov quickly struck the puck along the boards, hoping to hit a teammate at the blue line. The Kings intercepted the pass and started another offensive zone push.
Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill saw some similarities between the Canucks and Kings games.
“Disappointing, for sure,” Blashill said. “Van, for sure, because that was from Dallas. It’s a really hard trip. Not that coming from Nashville isn’t, but Dallas, that’s a hard trip. We’re going to have to remember these when we’re on the back half of them that we can’t use it as an excuse.
“I thought they were two different games, a little bit. Different in a sense of why it happened. But both cases, we came out with good first periods and for different reasons I thought took our foot off the gas. Against Van, I thought we got passive. Against L.A. tonight, I thought our puck management was poor and we fed their rush game.”
Blackhawks forward Ilya Mikheyev was one of the lone players creating chances after the opening period, but his night was cut short when he appeared to suffer a shoulder injury on the opening play of the third period. He was tripped, drawing a penalty, but then slid into the boards.
Blashill said they’d have more information on Monday, but he didn’t think Mikheyev had suffered a long-term injury. His status is uncertain for Tuesday’s game.
With the Blackhawks already playing with only 11 forwards to start, the 10 remaining forwards had to take on even more ice time in the third period. Connor Bedard, who played 9:20 in the period, and Ryan Donato, who was at 9:18, were at the high end.
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Chicago Blackhawks on 2025-10-26: pic.twitter.com/dUBBbU7Sjb
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) October 27, 2025
The Blackhawks had a prime opportunity to tie the game late when the Kings’ Trevor Moore was called for tripping with 3:08 left in regulation. Blashill said he considered pulling his goalie then and starting the power play with a 6-on-4 advantage, but he opted to give his power play a chance with the one-man advantage. But when the Blackhawks’ first unit didn’t score, after about a minute, Blashill took off Arvid Söderblom for the another attacker.
Blashill thought he might choose differently next time.
“I’ve gone back and forth on that,” Blashill said. “What we were hoping for was some zone time, give our power play a chance to score. You’re hoping to get a whistle, call time out and then you pull the goalie. The downside of pulling him is it’s one clear away from the game being over, so you’re showing a little faith in your power play. Part of it’s not winning faceoffs.
“That’s something we’re going to deep-dive as a staff and say, ‘OK, we get in that situation again, which way do we want to handle that?’ I was conservative tonight and I’d rather not be conservative in those moments. So probably next time, put it on their shoulders, if they don’t win it they better get control of it.”
On that power play and every other one on Sunday, the Blackhawks camp up empty. They had five power plays and 8:18 of ice time, with a few decent chances, but nothing too grand. Connor Bedard described the power play as “terrible.”
“We struggled with faceoffs, still,” Blashill said. “That’s an issue because then you have to get in. We made a couple tweaks on our breakouts that didn’t pay off the way we were hoping to, probably didn’t result in what we were hoping to. You get a little bit of a look but not much. At the very least, as I said to them, we have to generate momentum, and I didn’t feel like we generated momentum on it today. So it’s a process and we’re going to, not go back to the drawing board, but to stay with it and find a way to get better at it.”
The Blackhawks’ power play percentage dropped from 18.5 to 15.6 after Sunday. They’re 26th in the league.
Sunday’s crowd was another small-ish one for the Blackhawks. They had an attendance of 16,620 at the United Center. That’s the third time this season they’ve drawn less than 17,000 fans, which happened just five times last season.