The Chicago Blackhawks are already staring at an early-season mess.
Two games into the 2026-27 campaign, they were shut out 6-0 by the Utah Mammoth on Thursday, Oct. 1, and the final score only told part of the story. Chicago spent most of the night chasing the game, getting buried by a pair of quick first-period goals, then watching the Mammoth keep the pressure on until the third-period damage was done.
Arvid Soderblom got the start for the first time this season, and he held things together early while the Blackhawks tried to settle in. But Utah finally broke through with a power-play goal from Dylan Guenther after Artyom Levshunov was called for holding. Just 40 seconds later, Michael Carcone made it 2-0 after Sam Rinzel couldn’t clear the zone.
That pattern kept rolling in the second period. Nick Schmaltz scored to push the Mammoth ahead 3-0, and although the Blackhawks killed off a high-sticking penalty to Patrick Kane, Anders Lee followed a few minutes later with Utah’s fourth goal.
Chicago’s first power play didn’t come until late in the period, and even that sequence turned messy, with Frank Nazar going to the box for cross-checking and Oliver Moore getting an unsportsmaklike conduct call after a scrum. Jack McBain was also assessed a cross-checking penalty.
Then Guenther struck again on the ensuing power play to make it 5-0.
The Blackhawks did have one moment that could have shifted the mood. Nazar rang a 2-on-1 chance off the post late in the second, one of the few looks that had real bite.
The third period turned chippier. MacKenzie Weegar delivered a heavy hit along the boards on Moore, and Ryan Donato responded by dropping the gloves with Weegar. Donato isn’t a frequent fighter, which made the moment stand out even more as Chicago’s frustration showed through.
Utah added one more late, when Daniil But scored on a deflection to close the night at 6-0. Soderblom took the loss, but this was far more about what was happening in front of him than anything he could control.
Chicago entered the game trying to bounce back from a 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday, and the lineup had already been shaken up by Andrew Mangiapane’s lower-body injury. He had flown back to Chicago to be evaluated after leaving the Vegas game. That opened the door for some different looks, including Teuvo Teravainen moving in on the second line after sitting as a healthy scratch against Vegas.
Head coach Jeff Blashill explained the thinking behind the forward combinations this way: "I thought when Frondell & Bert & Kane were out there they had some good shifts, so we'll see if we can capitalize on that. Kantserov has got a lot of give-&-go, with a shooter in Lardis & a really smart player in Turbo.
Frankie & Mooresy they have great speed with a shooter (presumably Donato) on that line. Then the most consistent line was the Greene line, so we left them the same."
The Blackhawks kept the same defensive pairings, with Alex Vlasic and Bowen Byram together, Wyatt Kaiser with Levshunov, and Ian Cole alongside Sam Rinzel. Cole, making his return to Utah after spending the last two seasons with the Mammoth, had a nostalgic night in a game Chicago badly needed to tilt the other way.
Instead, it turned into a blowout that raised more questions than answers.
The Blackhawks now head to Buffalo for the third and final game of the road trip on Saturday. Puck drop is set for 6 p.m.
Central Time. Byram and Greenway will face their former teammates, and the Hawks will also see former teammate Louis Crevier on the other side for the first time.
After that, Chicago finally returns home to host the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. That game will mark Kane’s first return as a Blackhawk to the United Center since 2023.
In Other News...
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The latest rough night for the Blackhawks only deepened the sense that this rebuild is drifting without much traction. Chicagos defensive structure was leaky, the young core was undercut by repeated breakdowns, and the broader question around Jeff Blashills direction only got louder as the mistakes piled up. For a team still trying to sell progress, the product on the ice is making that harder to believe.
Some of the frustration is also tied to player development, because the Blackhawks need their young pieces to look like part of the answer, not part of the problem. Instead, a few of those prospects are drawing the kind of criticism that usually lands on a team in transition when expectations and readiness do not line up, and that has only intensified the scrutiny on the coaching staff and, eventually, the front office deciding whether this path still makes sense. [Read more 🡒]
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Blackhawks Finally Built A Roster That Can Help Bedard And Nazar
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The benefit should be felt up and down the lineup, especially with Bedard working back from his injury and not needing to be the entire engine the moment he returns. A deeper, more balanced group can ease that pressure and make the Blackhawks more competitive right away, even if the bigger payoff is still about helping the next wave of talent grow into its role. [Read more 🡒]