5 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-1 loss, including Patrick Kane’s injury and a surprise scratch

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The final outcome seemed predictable — a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning — but the Chicago Blackhawks were thrown a few curves throughout Tuesday.

Luke Richardson stayed home sick from morning skate. Tyler Johnson was scratched just before puck drop with an illness and replaced by defenseman Caleb Jones — at forward.

But the biggest curveball occurred just before the third period: Patrick Kane was held out with an unspecified lower body injury.

“He’s getting checked out, so we really don’t know much,” Richardson said postgame.

“He got hit last game. Nothing huge or major, but just felt it a bit and then he felt it that it came on more today,” he added. “Just thought it was better to hold him out in the third and get him checked over.”

Kane, who had three goals over the previous six games, was missed.

Seth Jones scored the opening goal on the power play, breaking a drought of 123 games for a Hawks defensemen. And after that: nada.

After giving up five unanswered goals to the San Jose Sharks the previous game, the Hawks gave up four to the Lightning — including a power-play goal to ex-Hawk Brandon Hagel.

In fact, three of the Bolts’ goals came in the third as the Hawks ran out of gas, as Richardson put it, “against a really smart, good team.”

With a fifth straight loss — and three losing streaks of at least five games since Nov. 14 — the Hawks sunk to 8-25-4, further entrenching their position at the bottom of the league.

Great for draft position, not so much for morale.

Jones said, “It’s a fine line.”

“We’re not going to accept losing by any means, these results that we’re getting, but at the same time, we’re not going to do ourselves any favors by coming into the rink every day and pouting about it and hoping that someone comes to save us.

“It’s got to be within the leaders in this room and really everyone in this room to play a little bit better every night, bring a little bit more and that’s the only way we’re going to get through this.”.

Here are five takeaways from the loss.

It took several stabs before Richardson revealed Kane had a lower body injury.

The Hawks coach tends to be refreshingly open about most things, but he kept his cards close to the vest about where his star player was hurting. Kane was hit the previous game against the Sharks but he seemed fine during warmups, Richardson said.

“But when you get into the game and start banging around, things flare up,” Richardson said. “So I think it got worse, probably, as the game went on.”

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Kane has talked about an ongoing chronic issue, but Richardson was uncertain whether the injury is tied to that.

“I don’t even know what his chronic problem is,” he said.

Jones said of Kane, “He’s such a big part of our offensive firepower. Especially in a tight game, he always comes up big in a lot of those moments for us.

“Definitely tough to lose him and hopefully we see him back next game.”

Jones camped out at the doorstep and tapped in Taylor Raddysh’s set-up for the opening goal 4 minutes, 50 seconds into the game — and the Hawks’ top blue liner yelled in celebration.

“Not the conventional way up at the point shooting, but I just tried to take advantage of a change by them and move it up quick, and Rads made a good pass back door,” Jones said.

It was Jones’ first power-play goal for the Hawks since they acquired him from the Columbus Blue Jackets in July 2021.

But it wasn’t just a personal drought — a Hawks defensemen hadn’t scored a power-play goal since Connor Murphy’s man-advantage marker on May 1, 2021, against the Florida Panthers. That’s 123 games, though not the longest in team history: 164 games, from Feb. 26, 1967, to March 23, 1969.

“It is what it is,”Jones said. “Our power play has been running decent this year, to be honest, but it’s nice to contribute, for sure, and put one in the net.”

It had been 111 games since Jones last scored a power-play goal: April 22, 2021 when he scored against the Lightning with the Blue Jackets.

“It felt long,” he said. “I didn’t know it was against these guys.”

Johnson participated in morning skate and in pregame warmups, but was added to the scratch list with an illness.

Richardson, who skipped morning skate with a bug himself, decided to hold Johnson out to keep it from spreading.

“He’s sick. It’s kind of floating around the team,” Richardson said. “The coaching staff’s gone through it now. If anybody feels like that, we’re going to try to keep them away from the team if we can.”

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Richardson said he had the flu and the coach coughed at times during his postgame address.

“I just didn’t feel great. I was kind of sweating it out last night,” he said. “Today, just soaked the bed, a little bit of a cough. But I feel better now. I usually get it once a year, and that’s how I react. I’m OK in about 24 hours.

“But Tyler, I think he had a little bit more of a stomach issue. I know it’s supposed to be a bad flu season.”

With Johnson scratched, Caleb Jones played on a line with Jason Dickinson and Sam Lafferty.

The defenseman had a shot on goal and two attempts were blocked.

Brother and fellow blueliner Seth Jones said Caleb “made some good defensive plays as a wing, some good plays through the neutral zone.”,

Caleb Jones said it was the first time he played the position since he was 12.

“Kind of fun, to be honest with you. get your legs moving, make some plays,” said Jones, who played nearly 14 minutes. “It actually felt pretty good. I found out an hour before the game.

“I mentioned to our D coach that if they needed me for a few shifts at left wing I could do it. At the start of the game, Luke (Richardson) goes, ‘I’m putting you with Dickinson and Lafferty.’ Thought we actually had some chances and played kind of well.”

Richardson agreed.

“Good on him,” he said. “It’s frustrating not to be in the lineup every day, as he wants to be as a defenseman, but he took this opportunity. He was willing to do whatever we asked him to do and he did a great job tonight.”

Hagel’s power-play goal put the Bolts up by two goals in the third as the energy drained on the Hawks’ side.

It wasn’t Hagel’s first goal against the Hawks — he had an empty-netter April 1 at Amalie Arena — but it was his first time back at the United Center.

“It was obviously a little bit emotional,” Hagel said. “This is where my career started, this is the organization that gave me the opportunity to live my dream. I played a hundred-some games here so it was weird coming back, but glad it went the way it went.”

Before the game, Kane had some proper welcome-back words for his old linemate.

“He was probably chirping my hands or something like that, but I got the best of him tonight,” Hagel said.