Thursday night was rough on Brent Seabrook and frustrating for the Chicago Blackhawks as a whole, as they dropped a 5-2 loss to a Minnesota Wild team that was hobbling and still may be hobbling through the weekend.
The worst moment came when Chris Stewart beat Seabrook on an odd-looking semi-breakaway that survived an offside challenge from an, um, none-too-pleased Joel Quenneville.
You can check out that Stewart goal above, which survived the challenge to Coach Q’s chagrin. Here’s an explanation from the NHL:
The rule the league cited in saying the Wild goal was onside: #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/x3hLXOHcsz
— Tracey Myers (@Tramyers_NHL) October 13, 2017
Watch Coach Q in the press conference below, as he becomes increasingly uncomfortable answering questions about the “one play that changed the game.” (NBC Sports Chicago’s Tracey Myers goes into more detail on the call here.)
This is the latest example of a failed challenge biting a team, as doing so garners a delay of game penalty as part of the NHL’s drive to cut down on more minute offside challenges.
If that wasn’t enough for Seabrook, he also suffered something of a blooper reel moment, as he was sent flipping into the bench thanks to Marcus Foligno:
Ouch. It wouldn’t be surprising if, even with that, Seabrook ended the night in a better mood than Quenneville.
Perhaps some of the frustration stems from the Blackhawks failing to take advantage of a Wild team that is really going to have to grind through some injury headaches. As The Athletic’s Michael Russo notes, things might not get better for a while.
Nino Niederreiter and Charlie Coyle may join an increasingly troubling injury list for Minnesota.
Niederreiter and Coyle left the arena in boots.
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 13, 2017
Depending on severity, #mnwild very well could be short players Saturday
You can understand why Bruce Boudreau heaped such praise on his team.
Boudreau: "I think it was a really gutsy effort by our club...I don't think I've ever played that shorthanded in the NHL." #mnwild
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 13, 2017
One coach’s gutsy effort is another coach’s, well, (insert angry gibberish.)
🎥 Chris Stewart, Jason Zucker and Devan Dubnyk discuss #mnwild's gutsy effort after losing three forwards. #MINvsCHI https://t.co/hYxCFKkalj
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 13, 2017
James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.
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