Another ugly loss: 5 takeaways from the Chicago Blackhawks’ 4-2 loss to the Nashville Predators

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Since a win against the New York Rangers on Dec. 3, it took the Chicago Blackhawks 456 minutes, 40 seconds to get another lead — 2-1 — in the second period Wednesday against the Nashville Predators at the United Center.

They lost that advantage five seconds before the intermission when Mattias Ekholm passed to Matt Duchene for a goal.

What took 27,400 seconds to build, the Hawks couldn’t protect for five more seconds.

“Yeah, that can’t happen and it really hurts,” Hawks coach Luke Richardson said.

Added defenseman Connor Murphy: “Winning’s hard, especially the way it’s going with us right now, so moments like that are huge.”

[ [Don’t miss] Another ugly loss dropped the Blackhawks to worst record in the league. ]

What followed were some other unflattering numbers for the Hawks:

• Roman Josi scored just 1:27 seconds into the third period.
• Max Domi committed interference, and on the Hawks penalty kill, Thomas Novak scored 6 seconds after the faceoff to send the Hawks to the 4-2 loss, their eighth straight.

The Hawks are 1-15-1 in their last 17 games.

“We talked about still having a big chance going into the third (period) at home to pull it through and we didn’t,” Murphy said.

Before the game, Murphy resurrected a word he hadn’t mentioned since last season: fragile.

“There’s never one thing, just one thing,” he said. “You can look at some trends. Specifically, we haven’t had the best starts, but the start of last game (against the New York Rangers) it seemed like we were OK, just we’re getting a little fragile, we let in a goal or two to start. And not us sticking with our momentum and our aggression into the game once we give up a goal.”

Murphy, who scored and assisted on the Hawks’ two goals, said it’s not just about giving up goals but how.

“It’s not just an unlucky bounce, it’s times we miss coverage or we don’t sort the rush right,” he said. “Or even (in the) third period, it’s times that we just don’t band together and we turn pucks over when we’re trying to get out of our end.

“And then the penalty kill we haven’t been strong lately, so those things, they’re daggers when you let in goals that are certain coverage issues that we know better.”

Here are five takeaways.

• Duchene’s goal with five seconds left in the second period, from behind Taylor Raddysh for a back-door goal down low.

It is (partially on Raddysh),” Richardson said, “but I think (Philipp) Kurashev … has to go harder at Ekholm and be on the underneath side so (Ekholm) can’t slide off and go down the wall.

”Then Seth (Jones) is looking to protect the middle with Isaak (Phillips), because there’s a guy there for a one-timer. But Raddysh, you can see on the replay, he looks over his left shoulder and (Duchene) goes over and drives by his right shoulder.

“It’s only a second delay, but all you need is a second in this league.”

Novak’s power-play goal put the Predators up by two and greatly shrank the chances of a Hawks rally. The Hawks penalty kill has allowed a goal in seven straight games.

“I thought they kind of ran a little bit of a pick on (Jason) Dickinson, which isn’t the biggest thing,” Richardson said. “He has to learn to roll out of that harder.

“But (Sam) Lafferty takes the wrong route. He has to come underneath (Filip Forsberg), especially on a (faceoff) clean loss.”

Forsberg muscled his way inside of Lafferty, who had to move above him to pick up Novak. But by then it was too late as Novak slipped down and away from defenders for a closer shot.

“We call it leaking out,” Richardson said. “It wasn’t a one-timer, but it’s a guy coming downhill and (Lafferty) kind of goes inside out instead of the outside to keep him out there. I think our (defenseman) was Murphy. We could’ve had a bit of a switch off there where Jack (Johnson) stayed on that side because Murphy got picked right into the goal crease.

It was — guess who — Forsberg who took out Murphy as he was trying to position himself between Novak and Petr Mrázek.

“So again, it’s one-on-one battles,” Richardson said. “We have to play in front of them and block shots or at least, force shots earlier to the outside and not let guys walk in like that. it’s just missed assignments.”

Tanner Jeannot smacked McCabe square in the face with the flat of his blade 10 minutes into the game.

McCabe grabbed his face and hunched over for a few seconds before heading to the locker room. Jeannot received a double minor.

“He got a few stitches and they just had to check out the eye,” Richardson said of McCabe. “They put some dye into do all those tests and checks and … he should be fine going forward.”

McCabe’s luck seems similar to fellow defenseman Jarred Tinordi’s. A skate gashed Tinordi’s chin, requiring more than 100 stitches, then a week later he took a hard puck to the face, which landed him on injured reserve with a facial fracture.

“Back in the old days, the old guys didn’t like the new guys wearing helmets,” Richardson, a former defenseman, said before the game. “It’s just the way the world’s going. It is a faster game but you know, unfortunately two unlucky bounces in a couple of games for Tinner. …

“He’s a tall guy but he skates kind of engaged, bent over. He’s right in the play. … He can probably go another couple of years sometimes without getting hit, then you get hit two games in a row. It’s just a fast game and unfortunate bounce.”

He paired mainly with Murphy and, with McCabe out early with a facial injury, Phillips played 18 minutes.

“I felt good,” Phillips said. “I felt my skating (went) well and my passes were good. Not the best game I’ve ever played, not the worst game I’ve ever played, but I felt comfortable out there, more than last year, so I was happy with it.”

Phillips played four games last season, mostly alongside Murphy.

“He was good,” Murphy said of Phillips’ season’s debut. “He’s aggressive and he’s a physical guy that can skate well. So I enjoyed playing with him.”

Phillips was on the ice for two Predators goals but neither was his fault. However, you could tell at times he was reacting and not always anticipating where to be. That comes with reps.

He said he’s learning about “just closing quick, getting to the corners, moving it fast, finishing checks, not overhandling it, pretty much.”

Added Richardson: “There’s a couple of reads where he’s just going to have to get a little quicker, but he got up on the play a few times, got shots on net, I think one guy surprised him, knocked him over, but that’s just a welcome back to the league.

“He was in position where he had to play probably more than we would’ve normally, with Jake being out. But I thought he battled hard and added a little bit of offense.”

For the 26th time in 31 games, a Hawks opponent scored the game’s first goal and for the 22nd time, that goal came in the first period.

Murphy was asked before the game whether negative thoughts creep in, like “Here we go again.”

“You don’t think that way, but sometimes it can be in the back of guys’ minds a little bit maybe,” Murphy said. “But I think more so we trust that we’re going to pull through in some of those games and then think more so when the scoring doesn’t come for us — combined with letting in a couple goals — we can get frustrated and then we seem to let up (with) more mistakes after that.

“So it’s just about keeping it from compounding and knowing that you’re going to get scored on, but just to limit those chances and play confident with the puck so that we don’t end up having to defend and having breakdowns.”

Before the game, the Nashville Predators backup goalie told Chicago reporters it was great to be back at the United Center for the first time since last season.

“I went through some emotions yesterday,” said Lankinen, who signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Predators in July after spending two seasons in Chicago. “It means a lot. I have some great memories from here — my first win, my first shutout, first game.

“Such great people here too,” Lankinen said. “I’ll forever be thankful to the (Hawks) organization for giving me the opportunity to fulfill my childhood dream. It’s great. It’s fun to be back and see all the familiar faces.”

Lankinen had a .901 save percentage and 3.23 goals-against average over two seasons with the Hawks, but he’s at a career-best pace .925 and 2.64 in eight games this season.

“It’s a good spot, good group of guys,” said Lankinen, who’s one of four Finns on the Predators, including starter Juuse Saros.

Lankinen said he put in extra work this summer.

“The goalie coach (Ben Vanderklok) does a really good job and added a couple things to my game,” he said. “How you move and when there’s an attack, how you read plays … making sure you don’t lock down on shooters.”

“It’s just a different mindset almost.”