The Chicago Blackhawks left Buffalo with another loss, but Anton Frondell gave them something to take from the night.
Chicago fell 4-3 to the Sabres on Saturday, wrapping up an 0-3-0 road trip. The effort was a little better than what the Blackhawks had shown earlier in the trip, but the result fit the same frustrating pattern: another game where the play simply wasn’t good enough.
Still, there were a couple of encouraging individual performances buried inside the defeat. Alex Vlasic was one of them.
With Bowen Byram unavailable after leaving to attend a family matter, Vlasic skated without his usual partner and responded with a much sharper showing in his own zone. He was noticeably better defensively than the rest of Chicago’s blue line and also picked up two assists.
One came on a sharp centering feed to Ryan Donato, a play that showed Vlasic can still create when the chance opens up.
It was the kind of outing he can build on, even if the loss kept the night from feeling satisfying on any level.
Frondell’s performance was even more eye-catching. The Blackhawks forward also finished with two assists, and both came on prime scoring chances. He set up Tyler Bertuzzi on a tic-tac-toe goal with a beautiful pass, then later found Oliver Moore with a pass back that came on what was the go-ahead goal at the time.
For Chicago, that’s the kind of flash they drafted him for. Vlasic is already an important two-way defender with a contract and term attached to him.
Frondell, though, was taken third overall because the Blackhawks believe he can become one of the faces of the franchise. On this night, he looked the part.
Afterward, Frondell wasn’t interested in dressing up the outing.
"It's hard to say after a loss," Frondell said about his personal game. He went on to credit the fact that he and Teravainen were able to make some nice plays, but it wasn't good enough in his mind.
He was even more direct when talking about the result.
"It's boring to lose games," Frondell said. "That's not what we want to do. But I think today showed that we can play better as a team."
That’s the balancing act with a young player like Frondell. The Blackhawks want more nights like this from him, because they drafted him to be elite.
They also know it won’t happen all at once. There will be more games with real flashes, and there will be growing pains too.
The next step is stringing those good nights together until they stop feeling like exceptions. For Frondell, that process is underway as he heads into his first full season.
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