The Chicago Blackhawks won a game last night! No, really… they did! They hung on and beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1. And the Hawks actually flipped their usual script. We’ve talked about the Hawks playing a 55-minute game too often recently, but it’s seemed like the five “missing” minutes are either the end of the first period or the end of the third. On Tuesday night, they started the game with a rough few minutes and allowed the first goal, but then took over and really controlled the game for the final 55 minutes.
I’ve written this before but it bears repeating after last night’s performance: I do believe these Blackhawks — with their flaws and execution issues — can compete with the middle third of the NHL. Or, to be more precise, teams many felt were in the middle third of the league before the season began.
After the game last night I asked to speak with Frank Nazar about his line with Oliver Moore and Patrick Kane dominating and the relief of getting the last goal to win a game. The guys at CHGO posted my entire conversation with him on Twitter, so here it is (with Mario’s couple questions at the end as well).
Hear from Frank Nazar after tonight’s 2-1 Blackhawks win over the Kings?⬇️ pic.twitter.com/6bWDqRZhwl
— CHGO Blackhawks (@CHGO_Blackhawks) October 28, 2026 Last week I wrote that Nazar has been the Blackhawks’ best, most consistent forward. Mark Lazerus apparently agrees, and wrote about him centering what could potentially be an incredibly dangerous line after last night’s win.Frank Nazar has been the Blackhawks' best player this season. Is he now centering their best line?New story, free to read: t.co/PM88ruHIbG
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) October 28, 2026 How good was Moore last night? After getting a night in the press box — even though he was playing good hockey according to Blackhawks head coach Jeff Blashill — he responded with a monster game. He led the Blackhawks with eight shot attempts, five scoring chances, four high danger chances and 0.63 individual expected goals (per Natural Stat Trick). It helped that he has good chemistry with Nazar and, as Frank answered my question above. And the two young Americans had a little extra giddyup on a line with the GOAT. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both Moore and Nazar recorded their second-hardest shots of the season last night (per NHL EDGE). But everything we saw from Moore last night was why so many people around the game (not only in Chicago) speak so highly about him. I would love to see him finish more (any?) chances he creates, but his skating and puck attacking create problems for opponents. Having the skill of Nazar and Kane on his line clicked quickly last night. Here’s what the elder statesman said about playing with the kids last night:“Those two guys are so fast,” Kane chuckled. “It’s like, sometimes I have to tell them to slow down a little bit. It’s really good when they’re making good decisions, and (when) we get the puck in, we can get the puck back with those two with their speed on it and how they can pressure. It was fun playing with them tonight.”
I would argue last night was Wyatt Kaiser‘s best game of the season. Blashill really liked what he saw from Kaiser (comments below). Ben Pope wrote a really good piece on Kaiser finding his groove after a tough start to the season at the Chicago Sun-Times. I recommend giving that a read.Blashill on Kaiser: pic.twitter.com/JV0U7CNnLr
— BHF (@BlackhawksFocus) October 28, 2026 After yesterday’s morning skate, I asked Ryan Greene about how the Blackhawks are trying to continue playing on instinct and not to avoid making mistakes.“I think Blash has done a good job of making that clear to us is that he doesn’t want us playing tight,” Greene said. “He doesn’t want us worrying about making mistakes and all the distractions in that way. He just wants us to use the instincts that got us here, but he just wants us to be smart about it. Obviously there’s a time to make a play and there’s a time to get a puck in whether you’re late in a shift or late in a period. So I think it’s just about making the conscious decision to be smart about picking your spots when you’re going to try to create something and when you’re just going to make the smart safe play the same way.”
I then followed-up and asked Blashill about how they try to keep players from being afraid of making mistakes, but playing with the ability and instincts that got them to the NHL level.“Listen, you can’t go out and play afraid and I’ve had a lot of conversations with our players about that,” Blashill answered. “What’s the Robert Downey Jr. line? He got asked when a director tells you how to act a line he said, ‘I listen, a nod, I take in the information and then I go out and do whatever the f*** I think is right.’ That’s how you do it. There’s reality in that. They have to go out and, I tell them this a lot, you have to go out and not think, ‘What does Blash want me to do?’ You have to play based on how you’ve been trained by us, and that’s kind of your instincts. Then we’ll coach you when you come back.
“Ultimately, a player gets to a point where he gets to where he listens, the best players listen and take in the information, but they still go out and do what they think is right. There’s a maturation process that young players go through on that and we’re going ot keep pushing them to do that. everybody’s going to make mistakes. We have to learn from our mistakes and sometimes the coach can be frustrated. But ultimately you have to go out and do what you think is right in every situation.”
I think Moore’s performance especially showed that he isn’t squeezing his stick too much because of any nerves looking over his shoulder. I appreciate most the final couple sentences from Blashill: the kids need to learn from their mistakes (and stop making them at some point), but this game needs to be played on instinct and ability and not like a robot. I don’t think any player has better exemplified that this season than Artyom Levshunov. Shoutout to the Blackhawks’ power play for looking like an actual unit last night. The top group had the puck in the zone for 1:57 with multiple looks at the net on the first advantage. They scored quickly on the second. Does it help that the Kings have the worst penalty kill in the NHL? Abso-freaking-lutely. But it’s also nice to not be facing one of the better teams in the league for a change of pace… thru Tuesday’s action, the Blackhawks have already played six of the top 11 penalty kills in the NHL this season. Like I’ve been saying… there’s room for some course correction from this roster when they aren’t playing really good teams. They took advantage last night. Ryan Donato is probably not sleeping well with all of his missed Grade A chances in the last two games. It’s important that he’s getting himself to the spot(s) to get these looks and hasn’t stopped shooting. But… yeah. At some point the dam needs to break for the guy. He could easily have ten goals in the last half-dozen games. The guys on the Armchair GM Podcast included Blackhawks prospect Ryan Roobroeck as one of their OHL stars of the week (full comments begin around the 1:45:00 mark in the episode). Here’s a clip:“You don’t have to ask Roobroeck to shoot the puck.”On our latest @OHLin60Podcast, Brandon & Colin discussed the impressive start to the 2026-27 #OHL season in Guelph for Chicago #Blackhawks 2026 2nd round prospect F Ryan Roobroeck. #StormCity?FULL: t.co/4pIo4OqssO pic.twitter.com/HXT2lDlgdt
— The Armchair GM's Sports Network (@ArmchairGMPod) October 27, 2026 Finally, an insane stat from last night: Matthew Schaefer became the first player to skate an entire overtime period last night. Amazing.Have to go back and watch, but it looks like Matthew Schaefer became the first to play all 5 mins of overtime in NYI's 4-3 shootout win in Nashville. Islanders gave him a breather with a timeout before powerplay at 2:17 of OT, but he was out there for all of it.Unbelievable t.co/Yc7zDxE1Pq
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 28, 2026BLEACHER NATION: Go Ad Free | Subscribe to the BN Newsletter
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