Newcomers made an impact for the Chicago Blackhawks, who got goals from Craig Smith and Teuvo Teräväinen, but they couldn’t prevent a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in the preseason opener Wednesday at the United Center.
Connor Bedard joined an almost completely new lineup at puck drop, with defenseman Seth Jones and goalie Petr Mrázek his partners from last year.
Bedard was flanked by Teräväinen and Tyler Bertuzzi, and Alec Martinez was Jones’ new defensive partner.
The Red Wings struck first on a deflected goal by former Hawk Tyler Motte a minute and 10 seconds into the game.
The Hawks offense got off to a slow start but they had some good chances before the intermission. In the second period, they put it together.
Smith put the Hawks on the board about 7 minutes into the second.
He took a sweet between-the-legs backhand dish from Ryan Donato and clanked his first shot off the crossbar, but the rebound ricocheted back to him and he roofed it over Ville Husso.
Teräväinen gave the Hawks their first lead about 2 minutes later, taking a cross-ice pass from Bedard and whirling around for a shot that he squeezed between Husso’s pad and the post.
Detroit’s Jeff Petry erased that lead with about 90 seconds left in the second with a long-range slapper.
Each team’s goalie prospects took over in the third — Sebastian Cossa for the Wings and Mitchell Weeks for the Hawks — and unfortunately for Weeks the Hawks committed a penalty before he was suitably warmed up.
Smith hooked Wings defenseman Justin Holl, and Lucas Raymond banked a power-play goal off the crossbar to give the Red Wings the 3-2 lead.
Olli Määttä padded Detroit’s lead with a wrister with about 5 minutes left.
Before the game, coach Luke Richardson said the players were anxious to play in a real game, albeit preseason, and he was ready to evaluate his players against another team.
“Just see some speed in our attack,” Richardson said after morning skate. “That would be great. Even in our defense, if we could be fast playing defense, that will work well for us because we’ll have the puck more.
“That’s the game plan of every NHL team but if we can do that from Day 1, then we can build on that and it’d be a good benchmark.”
