3 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-3 overtime loss to the Buffalo Sabres, including a late defensive breakdown

After a 4-3 overtime road loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, Chicago Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson talked about learning lessons.

“The other night (against the Edmonton Oilers) we gave away two points and tonight we gave away one point,” he said during the NBC Sports Chicago postgame broadcast.

The difference is, in the last-minute loss to the Oilers on Thursday, the Hawks showed resilience to tie the game during a seesaw battle, and the better offensive talent just came up with one more great play.

The Hawks did as much damage to themselves as the Sabres did.

“I thought in the first period they really outskated us,” Richardson said..

The Hawks found their footing and got three straight goals: Jason Dickinson on a power play midway through the first and Sam Lafferty and Taylor Raddysh in the second.

The Hawks got into early penalty trouble — the trips to the box are becoming a problem — and the Sabres capitalized with Victor Olofsson’s opening goal.

But the Hawks couldn’t keep the puck in the zone during some of their power-play time, particularly in the third. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Sabres had as many scoring chances (three) as the Hawks did during a five-on-four in the third.

“They’re a good team, they play hard, skate hard, but I thought we kind of gave them their opportunities in the third period, which is disappointing,” Richardson said.

The Hawks’ mistakes paved the way for two Tage Thompson goals in the third and Olofsson’s game-winner 36 seconds into overtime.

“The good part about it is we have a chance to … redeem those back tomorrow at home,” Richardson said. The Hawks play host to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday (6 p.m., NBCSCH).

Here are three takeaways from Saturday night’s game.

At times, the Hawks either weren’t putting bodies on Sabres in the crease or were giving up easy looks in the slot or appeared to have communication problems figuring who was supposed to be covering whom.

Take Thompson’s second goal, for example.

The Sabres’ Kyle Okposo dropped a pass behind the net to Jeff Skinner. Seth Jones turned off Okposo and converged on Skinner. But Max Domi went from protecting Arvid Söderblom’s glove side to chasing Skinner behind the net.

Jarred Tinordi jumped in to help protect against a wrap-around to Söderblom’s stick side, and Philipp Kurashev trailed him with eyes on Skinner too.

No one had eyes on Thompson creeping up on Söderblom’s glove side — except Patrick Kane from the faceoff dot — until it was too late. Skinner backhanded a backdoor pass to Thompson, who tied the game at 3.

Richardson spoke generally about the defense in third.

“Unfortunately (we made) just a couple mistakes in the D-zone, not maybe clearing the pucks, trying to protect the lead instead of keep playing and playing smartly,” he said.

Söderblom made his season debut and fourth professional outing, but what a contrast he strikes with Alex Stalock.

While Stalock’s high-flying act leaves you with equal parts excitement and apprehension, Söderblom just calmly deflects dangerous situations and goes about his business.

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He allowed four goals but made 41 saves.

Not to make excuses for him but the defense was inconsistent at best, lax and discombobulated at worst. The Sabres had 16 high-danger chances in five-on-five and 22 chances overall.

That’s not acceptable, and it didn’t resemble what the Hawks defense has looked like (for the most part) under Richardson in seven previous games.

With Petr Mrázek out indefinitely, Söderblom likely will have another start to offer a cleaner look at how much progress he has made since the offseason.

Stalock vouched for him after practice Friday.

“The maturity level of Arvid is unbelievable,” he said. “At his age (23), I wasn’t even close to where he was. The skill level, the size (6-foot-3, 179 pounds), the net awareness, his movements, it’s incredible the ability the young guys have now, and he’s ready to go.”

Richardson has lived a charmed life with challenges.

• On Thursday, the Oilers lost a scoring challenge in the second period. On-ice officials changed their ruling to disallow Evander Kane’s goal, and after Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft’s challenge, they upheld it, concluding that Kane interfered with Stalock.
• During a first-period penalty kill Saturday, Richardson won his first challenge when officials ruled Casey Mittelstadt was offside before Olofsson scored. Olofsson scored eight seconds later anyway.
• Later in the first, in a wild pileup in Craig Anderson’s crease, Dickinson somehow poked the puck into the net to put the Hawks on the board. In fact, there was such confusion, officials named MacKenzie Entwistle the scorer and then switched back to Dickinson. Sabres coach Don Granato asked for a goalie-interference call, but the goal was upheld after video review.