The Blackhawks reached the halfway point of the season with a 2-1 loss Tuesday against the Oilers at the United Center.
Their 12-27-2 record is ugly, but their 27th regulation loss easily could’ve been their 13th win. It was one of their better performances to date.
Oilers star Connor McDavid scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal just 1:32 into the second period, but the Hawks controlled play the rest of the way. They finished with a 26-15 advantage in shots on goal — a season best in terms of shots on goal allowed (and a season low for the Oilers).
“Any time No. 97 is out there, with his speed, he just needs a second to be forgotten about,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said. “Then he’s going to make something happen, and he did.
“Other than that, we did a really good job of close checking. We were frustrating them a couple of times, their good players. That’s good for us. We were playing the right way. We just couldn’t get that second goal.”
In the third period, new forward Rem Pitlick hit the post, the Ryan Donato-led fourth line generated several chances and the six-on-five sequence during the final minutes was exhilarating, but Jason Dickinson’s beautiful first-period goal stood up as the Hawks’ only marker on Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner.
Young defenseman Alex Vlasic, whose emergence as an unheralded star was a highlight of the first half, also shined a difficult matchup against McDavid, who exploited Jarred Tinordi on his goal. Vlasic clearly won the battle during his and McDavid’s shared ice time.
King still influential
Derek Kinghas faded from the public consciousness during the 20 months since his tenure as the Hawks’ interim head coach ended, but he’s still very involved on coach Luke Richardson’s staff as an assistant primarily working with the forwards.
‘‘I like my role; I like what I’m doing,’’ King said recently. ‘‘With Luke allowing me to do my thing, he’s not dictating who I should talk to or who I should work with. He just lets me be me.’’
The staff didn’t change at all from last season to this season, so everyone feels established in their roles at this point — King included. The demographics of the group he works with have changed significantly, however.
‘‘We’re a little younger now,’’ he said. ‘‘I know [the NHL is] not a development league, but you still have to teach kids the proper way of playing and help them and direct them in the right way.
‘‘They are, as we would say, ‘young and dumb.’ You have to get the ‘junior’ out of some of them and the ‘college’ out of them or what have you. But that’s the difference. Last year we had some veterans and middle-aged guys whose careers were already on the go, so it wasn’t as much the development part.’’
Attendance surging
The Hawks raked in huge crowds during the holiday season, as they always try to do. They drew at least 19,300 fans to the United Center for four consecutive games (against the Canucks, Avalanche, Canadiens and Jets) and eclipsed the 19,717 sellout mark in three of the four.
That pattern has continued into January, too. The Hawks drew 19,907 for their matinee Sunday against the Flames, a game marketed toward families and kids as part of the team’s ‘‘Best Day Ever’’ campaign, then drew 19,756 on Tuesday for their fifth consecutive sellout.
The McDavid vs. Connor Bedard storyline that likely attracted many fans to buy tickets ended up not materializing, and the ‘‘scan rate’’ — the percentage of distributed tickets that actually were used — looked lower than normal because of the snowy weather. But the arena was still largely full.
The Hawks’ average attendance through 19 home dates is 18,958, up 10.4% from last season and good for third in the NHL behind the Canadiens and Lightning.