For the fifth time under head coach Joel Quenneville, the Chicago Blackhawks will play in a Game 7 on Monday night as they try to advance past the St. Louis Blues.
The Blackhawks, left for dead by many after losing consecutive games on home ice to fall behind 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, have won the last two games to tie things back up, with an emphatic 6-3 victory on Saturday a seventh game between the Central Division foes.
During Quenneville’s tenure in Chicago, the Blackhawks hold a 2-2 record in Game 7’s. They lost their first one in 2011 against the Vancouver Canucks, as Alex Burrows scored an overtime goal to beat the Hawks, but they did win in 2013 as Brent Seabrook dispatched the Detroit Red Wings in overtime.
In 2014 the Hawks went to overtime in Game 7 of the Western Conference Final, but an Alec Martinez shot deflected off of Nick Leddy and beat Corey Crawford to push the Los Angeles Kings past the Hawks. Last season the Hawks played in a Game 7 for the third consecutive year, blowing out the Anaheim Ducks and advancing to the Stanley Cup Final.
With those team results in mind, we decided to dig a bit deeper and see which players have stood out for the Blackhawks in the biggest of situations, and which players left something on the table for Chicago in these elimination games.
In terms of goal scoring, no Blackhawks player has been better in their last four Game 7’s than Jonathan Toews. The captain scored twice against the Ducks to eliminate them in 2015, and in total he has four goals and seven shots in his four career Game 7’s.
Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane have combined for 29 shots in those four games, but they’ve only gotten one goal, with Hossa scoring the lone tally. Hossa did add in two assists for good measure, and Kane has five helpers in those four contests.
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Brent Seabrook also is averaging a point per game when it comes to playing on the Game 7 stage, and he had arguably the biggest moment of his career against the Red Wings in 2013 as he scored the overtime winner to eliminate Detroit from the postseason.
On the other side of the ledger, Andrew Shaw has just one assist and six shots on goal in his three career Game 7 appearances, and Teuvo Teravainen didn’t register a shot or a point in his lone Game 7 appearance, which came in 2015 against the Ducks.
In net, Corey Crawford has been solid, but not otherworldly. He has allowed 11 goals in the four Game 7’s he has played, with a .919 save percentage and two victories on his resume.
Here is the full list of current Blackhawks players that have participated in a Game 7 as a member of the team:
| Player: | GP | G | A | SOG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desjardins, Andrew | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| Hjalmarsson, Niklas | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Hossa, Marian | 4 | 1 | 2 | 14 | |
| Kane, Patrick | 4 | 0 | 5 | 15 | |
| Keith, Duncan | 4 | 0 | 2 | 12 | |
| Kruger, Marcus | 4 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| Rundblad, David | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Seabrook, Brent | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | |
| Shaw, Andrew | 3 | 0 | 1 | 6 | |
| Teravainen, Teuvo | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Toews, Jonathan | 4 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., and the game will air locally on Comcast SportsNet Chicago and nationally on NBCSN.
