Start strong, finish feebly.
The Chicago Blackhawks have followed that pattern more often than they’d prefer over the first 10 games of the season.
A Sunday matinee against the visiting Florida Panthers offers the next chance for Chicago to correct.
“I still like our team a lot,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “We haven’t had a full group yet. I look forward to that day when we have our full group. We’re 3-7, so that’s way far off from where we want to be. I don’t think we’re far off from it clicking and turning the other way, but we got to make it happen. … It’ll be a broken record until we fix it.”
Chicago fell to 2-3-0 on a seven-game homestand with Friday’s 4-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Skating without defenseman Bowen Byram (upper body) and forward Andrew Mangiapane, who earlier in the day was activated from injured reserve, the Blackhawks still built early momentum.
Captain Connor Bedard scored 4:23 into the game and Jordan Greenway hit the post later in the first period. But the Blackhawks conceded a goal at 17:29 to begin a string of four straight Montreal tallies to close the game.
In the third, the Blackhawks needed 8:45 to register their first shot on goal.
“We need to have some conversations … and figure out how we can