Blackhawks give Columbus 6th straight loss 4-1

That’s what happened for the Blackhawks on Saturday night at the United Center in their 4-1 victory over the Blue Jackets.

Chicago’s Marian Hossa added a power-play goal in the third and had an assist as the defending Stanley Cup champions rebounded after consecutive listless losses at Philadelphia and Washington, where they scored only once while giving up seven goals. Artem Anisimov, Teuvo Teravainen and Patrick Kane tallied the other goals. “That’s what creates offense”.

“Tonight I thought we were much better”.

The Hawks started out the first period slow in the first period as they were outshot by the Columbus Blue Jackets 9-to-6. “But Icy (Anisimov) and the power play got one”.

Columbus did at least manage to make Crawford work in the third period and prevent the shutout, but it was too little, too late. Crawford finished with 22 saves for Chicago (3-3-0). His shot bounced off a Columbus skate and slipped past McElhinney, who was making his first start of the season.

He has been one of the best defensive players in the league throughout his entire career (and because he’s a winger and not a center, nearly never gets any serious consideration for the Selke Tropy, which is absurd… but that’s another argument for another day), has already eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career, and should at a few point this season score his 500th career goal.

“Our goaltender made a few pretty big saves for us in the second period and kept it 0-0”, Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said.

Still, the Blue Jackets were eventually overwhelmed. “[With] lots of new pieces coming together, it’s going to take 10-15 games to get exactly where we want it. So a huge game after two losses”.

Added forward Scott Hartnell: “It’s embarrassing”. “But we made a few plays when we needed to”.

Saturday’s game marked the return of former Hawks winger Brandon Saad, who was traded to the Blue Jackets this offseason and signed a six-year deal with Columbus.

The Blackhawks had said they wanted to keep the 22-year-old Saad as one of their core players, but they didn’t have room under the NHL’s hard cap for the restricted free agent’s $6 million annual salary demand.

“Well, the last two games we only scored one goal and for this team it’s not good enough”, Hossa said. The Blackhawks snapped a two-game losing streak and, after scoring just one goal in their previous two games, found a few offense again.