Chicago suffered a 4-1 loss to Detroit tonight due to some truly ugly moments for the Blackhawks.
The worst looking was Chicago forward Kris Versteeg’s centering pass to Detroit’s Drew Miller that allowed the Red Wings to take a 1-0 lead:
“There are mistakes and there are cardinal sins. The purists of hockey wouldn’t tolerate that kind of play,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville told CSN Chicago. “Nobody would’ve made that play. It’s an unacceptable play.”
Versteeg wasn’t the only one that handed the Red Wings a juicy turnover though. Patrick Kane scored the Blackhawks’ lone goal, but he also deserves a lot of the blame for Johan Franzen’s game-winning marker.
“We were playing perfect hockey until we served up the second pizza there,” Quenneville said. “Tough play on the first goal we gave up, tough play on the second and then we got out of our game. We haven’t done that all year. Those are two plays you can’t make and all of a sudden it’s a different hockey game. They got the momentum going and we had a tough second period after the second goal.”
Tomas Tatar found the back of the net just 1:10 minutes after Franzen’s goal to make it 3-1 Detroit. Brendan Smith eventually sealed the deal with an empty-netter.
The Blackhawks will have an opportunity to redeem themselves on Sunday against Dallas.