The Chicago Blackhawks were hoping that they could awaken their dormant offense on Saturday night, but instead they had to suffer through yet another shutout loss in a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of the Nashville Predators.
The loss was their second consecutive shutout defeat to start the series, and not only does it put the Blackhawks into a virtual must-win situation on Monday, but it also was a history-making event for the team.
According to game logs available on Pro Hockey Reference, this is the first time that the Blackhawks have been shutout in the first two games of a series since the 1935 postseason, when they were held without a goal for two straight games by the now defunct Montreal Maroons.
The Maroons themselves only scored one goal in the two-game series, and it was enough to eliminate the Blackhawks from the postseason.
For the last time that the Blackhawks were shutout in consecutive games in the postseason, one doesn’t need to go back quite that far. That distinction belongs to the 2001-02 Blackhawks, who incredibly failed to score a goal in three consecutive games against the St. Louis Blues. Not surprisingly, the Blackhawks ended up losing that series in five games, setting off a playoff drought that lasted until the current regime of Joel Quenneville, Patrick Kane, and Jonathan Toews got the team back to the postseason in 2009.
For Blackhawks fans looking for a crumb of hope, there is this helpful bit of comfort. The last time that the Blackhawks won a series in which they trailed two games to none was in 2014, when they lost the first two games of a series against the Blues. They ended up winning the next four games and ultimately made it all the way to the Western Conference Final that season.
For the last time the Blackhawks came back to win a series in which they lost the first two games of the series on home ice, fans need to look back to the 1995 playoffs. In the first round against the Maple Leafs, the Blackhawks lost the first two games at the United Center, but they ultimately came back to win the series in seven games.
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The Blackhawks will look to get the train rolling in the right direction on Monday when they head to Nashville to take on the Predators in Game 3 of the series. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.
