The Chicago Blackhawks had home game number two on Saturday night. The Buffalo Sabres came to town to get their season on track after a bad start.
Buffalo did that as they took down the Hawks 4-2 at United Center. The Sabres had a 2-0 lead, allowed the Hawks to tie it, took the lead back again, and put one into the empty net for the win.
This game was somewhat of a letdown for the Hawks after they played a brilliant 60 minutes in their win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.
Craig Smith scored both of Chicago’s goals to help get them tied. They were also both assisted by Lukas Reichel who was playing in his second NHL game of the season.
Despite it being a loss, Smith was the first star of the game and Reichel was the third. They were outstanding for Chicago on the fourth line with Andreas Athanasiou as their center.
It is a shame that the Blackhawks were unable to take advantage of this brilliant performance from these two. It isn’t every day that the fourth line comes up big like this.
For being a fourth line, they all have a ton of skill and will bring some scoring touch. Athanasiou has some solid skating and can create well. Smith can score garbage goals but the skill is there to have two-goal games. Reichel is still holding out hope to be a top-six player.
In the case of Reichel, he was a highly touted first-round pick who is trying to become a full-time NHL player who makes an impact regularly. Having a performance like this could do wonders for his game.
Through the first handful of games, Connor Bedard and the top six have a lot to be proud of. They have scored, defended well, and helped the team secure a couple of standings points.
Although Bedard’s incredible playmaking ability was on display in the loss to Buffalo, he was unable to score or assist a goal. With Craig Smith scoring two from Reichel, it feels like they wasted some good bottom-six production.
Bedard is far from at fault. No player in the NHL makes an impact offensively (on the scoresheet) every single game. However, if Smith and Reichel can continue providing depth, there will eventually be more wins than expected.
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