DENVER — The Chicago Blackhawks could have made this a heck of a lot easier on Artyom Levshunov. He could have gotten in a morning skate on Monday, a practice in San Jose on Wednesday, and another morning skate on Thursday before making his NHL debut against the worst team in the league. Let the kid dip his toe in the water, ease his way into his NHL career.
But what fun is that? Why not just throw him in there against the Colorado Avalanche, one of the fastest and most dangerous teams in the league? Why not see what he does when Nathan MacKinnon is barreling in on him?
“Let’s get after it, right?” interim head coach Anders Sörensen said before the game. “It’s the NHL, right? You want to be in the NHL, you’re gonna play the best.”
If Levshunov was nervous about it, he wasn’t letting it show, projecting bottomless confidence after the morning skate.
“They have a really good team, they have a lot of good players,” he said. “But I have to play better.”
And his thoughts on facing MacKinnon?
“Oh, yeah, he’s such a good player. So fast, yeah. Should beat him tonight.”
Well, the Blackhawks didn’t beat him, falling 3-0 to Colorado as MacKinnon picked up his 1,000th and 1,001st career points. But unlike a lot of losses this season, the Blackhawks weren’t too broken up about this one.
For one thing, they played one of their best road games of the season, losing largely because Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood made five incredible stops — two on Connor Bedard, one on Nick Foligno, one on Frank Nazar and one on Tyler Bertuzzi. For another, it continued a string of solid efforts following a five-game point streak.
Foligno had a pointed answer when asked what was different the last six games, quite clearly noting the benefits of dealing Seth Jones after he made his trade request public.
“There’s a cohesiveness with the group, right?” Foligno said. “We’ve kind of gotten rid of some distractions, so to speak, and now there’s a group that’s trying to get better. … Sometimes when you make hard decisions, they end up benefiting the group. And you’re seeing that.”
But more than anything, the debut of Levshunov — the Blackhawks’ No. 1 defenseman of the future, if all goes according to GM Kyle Davidson’s plan — was outstanding. He got better and better as the game went on, which is all the more impressive considering his partner, Alec Martinez, left the game midway through the first period after blocking a shot. Here were the Blackhawks, 31st in the league, facing the mighty Avalanche on the road with five defensemen, one of whom had never played in the NHL before.
And yet they were tied 0-0 through two periods, and held the Avalanche to just 21 shots overall. Sörensen said scoring chances were “dead even” by the team’s internal analytics. And Levshunov was a big part of that.
“If you can say a loss is encouraging, I guess it was,” Sörensen said.
I watched every stride of every shift Levshunov took in his debut. Here are my takeaways.
He reined himself in early
Levshunov is known to be something of a cowboy, a hyper-aggressive player who’s always looking to shoot and always looking to join the attack. His skating and his instincts make him a threat every time the puck is on his stick.
But in his first NHL period, he seemed to be actively trying to suppress that part of his game. He routinely made the smart decision to play conservatively, to hang back, to give his partner cover. He did it on his very first shift, showing off his smooth, almost casual skating style. On his fourth shift, he wisely stayed back and ended up steering a hard-charging Samuel Girard wide, preventing a scoring chance. Later in that same shift, he held his own against MacKinnon in the corner, using his long reach to keep MacKinnon at bay.
Levshunov said going up against MacKinnon and not getting immediately burned was a confidence-booster.
“It was cool to play against him,” Levshunov said. “It felt good. He’s still human, right? It was good.”
Levshunov seemed most concerned with protecting his crease, rarely straying from the net-front in his own end while battling the likes of Artturi Lehkonen, Jimmy Vesey and Charlie Coyle. Late in the second period, he was once again the last man back, using that long reach to help break up another Colorado two-on-one. He’s an offense-first player, but he was careful to be a defense-first guy as he got his sea legs in the NHL.
“I tried to play simple,” he said. “Tried to play hard. Nothing crazy.”
He picked his spots
Levshunov looked more like the “high-offense, high-octane guy” Ethan Del Mastro described him as during a nearly two-minute five-on-three power play in the second period. After the first unit accomplished nothing against the Avs’ penalty kill, Levshunov’s group came on and immediately attacked. He got a shot on goal, then quickly attempted another only to have it deflected. He got the puck in the high slot and faked another shot before making a deft pass down low, then got the puck back and attempted yet another shot.
No, he didn’t score. Yes, only one of his attempts made it through to Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood. But he was the only Blackhawks player who really did anything on the five-on-three, which proved to be a huge missed opportunity.
“I wish I scored a couple times,” he said. “I got more confidence after that, for sure. I had chances to score my first game. Unfortunately, I didn’t. But world goes on.”
That power play seemed to unlock him a bit, as he got more and more comfortable — and more and more aggressive — as the game went on. By the third period, he was firing shots from all angles and looking looser with his skating.
He also flashed some serious skill with a terrific stretch pass in the second period, firing a perfect, flat pass from behind his own net to Landon Slaggert on the far blue line. It was downright Seabrook-esque.
Sörensen seemed to be gaining trust in Levshunov as the game wore on, as well. For much of the third period, he was out there nearly every other shift. He played 8:36 in the third, tops among all defenseman that period.
“His first NHL game was good,” Sörensen said. “Saw some of the offensive stuff that we’ve talked about. I thought he defended well. I thought he was assertive. Good first step.”
He has work to do
Levshunov’s a big sturdy guy. He looks downright burly out there, skating with hulking shoulders and a menacing stride. But aside from a missed attempt at a hit on MacKinnon along the boards, he didn’t use the body much, relying instead on stick-checks. There were a couple of times where he offered up pretty weak resistance to the Avalanche forecheck, hesitating to get physical in the dirty areas.
Late in the third, Levshunov fell and got caught well behind the play on an Avalanche rush. He hustled back into the play and collided with Brock Nelson as he went for a loose puck in front of Spencer Knight. Levshunov initiated contact but took the brunt of the play, falling to the ice, as Foligno jumped in to his defense.
But these were minor quibbles. The only goal against Levshunov was on the ice for was Joel Kiviranta’s empty-netter in the final minute. He played nearly 21 minutes, was credited with six shot attempts, second only to Bedard. And three of them were on goal. Despite the confusion of switching partners and inconsistent shifts in the wake of Martinez’s injury, the Blackhawks were better with him on the ice at five-on-five than they were without him, out-attempting the Avs 17-16 and matching them 3-3 in high-danger chances.
He didn’t play well considering the other team was the Avalanche. He didn’t play well considering the Blackhawks were down a defenseman. He didn’t play well considering he’s 19 years old and this was his first NHL game.
He played well, period. No qualifiers. Another encouraging sign in a fortnight suddenly full of them.
“I thought he was awesome,” Foligno said. “I was really impressed with Arty’s game and I want to see more of that. It’s exciting when you see his abilities and what he can do. And that came against a pretty good team over there, too. I’m encouraged by that.”
(Photo: Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)
