NEWARK, N.J. — When Blackhawks rookie goalie Drew Commesso robbed Erik Haula on a point-blank shot late in the second period Saturday, he seemed to be thoroughly in the Devils' heads.
But the Hawks' third-period breakdowns subsequently hung Commesso out to dry, ruining his first career NHL start.
Commesso finished with 20 saves on 24 shots in the 4-1 loss. That equates to an .833 save percentage, which vastly undersells how stellar the 22-year-old Boston University product looked. He was 17-for-17 through the first two periods, during which he seemed completely comfortable in the spotlight.
"We can't, every night, rely on our goalies to win us games," forward Nick Foligno said. "If Commesso has to pitch a shutout in his first NHL game...it's not a good sign for us. We need to play in a way that allows our goalies to feel confident that, even if one does squeak by, we come back and we support them."
Good efforts with little reward has been the story of the season so far for Commesso, who has posted a subpar .879 save percentage in 10 games with Rockford after posting a solid .906 save percentage in 38 AHL games last season.
He's too innovative and intelligent — and his track record is too consistently good — for that to continue for long, though. The Hawks also did him no favors by starting him against the high-flying Devils rather than against the Islanders at home Sunday (in the second half of the back-to-back set).
The penalty kill represented one bright spot for the Hawks. They entered Saturday ranked fifth in the NHL at 83.1% this season, and they only improved that percentage with a 3-for-3 performance against the Devils' deadly power play (which led the league at 30.9%).
The Hawks' kill is now 21-for-21 in the last eight games, while their power play — despite an 0-for-3 performance Saturday — has gone 6-for-23 (26.1%) during that span.
A couple weeks before ex-coach Luke Richardson was fired, he and veteran forward Taylor Hall smoothed over tensions stemming from Hall's frustrations about the lack of feedback and communication before Richardson healthy-scratched him Nov. 16 in Vancouver.
Although they moved on from that, it sounds like Hall wasn't the biggest believer in some of Richardson's systems. The passive 1-2-2 forecheck certainly wasn't well-suited for Hall's playing style. He's pleased that interim coach Anders Sorensen has switched it to a more aggressive 2-1-2 format.
"For a bit there, I felt like our 'F1' on the forecheck was doing really hard work and not getting rewarded," Hall said Friday. "We were instructed to just hang out and play more of a neutral-zone game, and it was really hard to create turnovers and offense that way.
"[Now] you're seeing us be more aggressive on the forecheck. As long as we have reliable forwards back, it's going to allow us to play more of a speed game."
Forward Frank Nazar made his NHL season debut Saturday, logging 14:01 of ice time. He wasn't particularly noticeable — either in a good or bad way — but he nearly scored a meaningless goal in the final minutes.
Defenseman T.J. Brodie endured a bad day in a season laden with them. He was the Hawks' key culprit on the Devils' first and third goals. When Seth Jones and Alec Martinez return, his every-night role could be in jeopardy again.
