Chicago Opened Without Bedard and Got Blanked 6-0

The Chicago Blackhawks were shut out 6-0 by the Utah Mammoth on Oct. 1 at Delta Center, falling to 0-2-0 without Connor Bedard. Karel Vejmelka stopped all 15 shots for his ninth NHL shutout, the first at home in Mammoth history, while Dylan Guenther scored twice on the power play in Salt Lake City.

On Sept. 15, Bedard had said Chicago would have a great start without him. Two road nights later the Blackhawks have been outscored 11-2, and Thursday was the night the supporting roster showed what it is when the new captain is still on the shelf.

Utah Needed Only 15 Saves for a Shutout

Arvid Soderblom made 26 saves on 32 shots in his season debut and never had a lead to protect. Utah put 13 shots on net in the first period and 26 through two, and the Blackhawks answered with nine shots over those 40 minutes. Attendance was 14,111. The game ran 2 hours, 29 minutes.

Andre Tourigny, the Mammoth coach, said his team stayed on pucks and made it as tough as possible, with a lot of the goals coming through traffic, rebounds, and deflections. Guenther became the fourth player in NHL history to score in each of a franchise’s first three season openers, joining Jared McCann, George Carey, and Newsy Lalonde.

The First Two Goals Came 40 Seconds Apart

Artyom Levshunov went off for holding Lawson Crouse at 15:53 of the first period. Guenther snapped a Logan Cooley feed from the top of the right circle at 16:41, with Clayton Keller taking the other assist, and the puck beat Soderblom through a screen. Forty seconds later Kevin Stenlund picked off a pass and found Michael Carcone in the left circle, and it was 2-0 at 17:21.

By the first intermission Utah led 13-6 in shots, 16-5 in scoring chances, 4-0 in high-danger chances, and 1.18 to 0.36 in expected goals. Chicago’s own-zone exits were already late, and the next 40 minutes did not correct that.

A Shorthanded Rush Was Chicago’s First Real Look

Nick Schmaltz poked a rebound over Soderblom’s pad at 9:47 of the second, with first points as Mammoth players for Vincent Trocheck and Mikhail Sergachev. Anders Lee tipped Andrew Peeke’s point shot at 13:06 for his first goal since signing with Utah. Guenther’s second power-play finish, a redirect from Keller at 15:28, made it 5-0. Daniil But deflected Carcone’s shot at 12:50 of the third for 6-0.

Chicago’s first high-danger chance did not arrive until about the 32-minute mark, a shorthanded rush from Levshunov, and by then Utah already had eight. Anton Frondell later beat Vejmelka from the left circle on a rush and hit the post. Patrick Kane, who had scored in Tuesday’s opener, finished Thursday with no shots in 19:19.

SCORING IN SALT LAKE

• 16:41, first: Guenther power-play goal from Cooley and Keller.
• 17:21, first: Carcone from Stenlund, 40 seconds after the opener.
• 9:47, second: Schmaltz from Trocheck and Sergachev.
• 13:06, second: Lee from Peeke and Dmitri Simashev.
• 15:28, second: Guenther’s second power-play goal from Keller and Crouse.
• 12:50, third: But from Carcone and Nate Schmidt.

Utah went 2-for-3 on the power play. Chicago went 0-for-3 and won 15 of 54 faceoffs, 27.8 percent, while taking 12 hits and handing out 42. The official sheet had the Blackhawks with 15 shots on goal to Utah’s 32.

41 Shots in Two Nights, and None on the Power Play

Tuesday in Las Vegas was the same shape at a lower volume of damage. The Golden Knights won 5-2 at T-Mobile Arena, outshooting Chicago 37-26, and Spencer Knight stopped 32 of 36 shots before an empty-netter. Jordan Greenway scored his first goal in a Blackhawks sweater. Kane pulled it to 3-2 at 4:04 of the third, unassisted, on his first Chicago goal since Feb. 19, 2023, then Vegas answered 39 seconds later.

The two-game sample is small. The process numbers are not a small-sample trick. Chicago has 41 shots in two games, 20 of them in third periods after the games had tilted, and it is 0-for-5 on the power play. Combined faceoffs sit at 40 of 112. Penalty killing is 3-for-6, 50 percent. Goal differential is minus-9.

THE OPENING ROAD TRIP, GAME BY GAME

Bowen Byram logged 24:49 against Utah with no shots and a minus-2. Frank Nazar, in the middle without Bedard, had no shots in 17:23. Roman Kantserov played 16:36 and did not register a shot. The depth Chicago is asking to bridge a month without its No. 1 center has not created a single even-strength push that lasted a period.

Bedard Promised a Great Start Without Him

Bedard was named the 37th captain in franchise history on Sept. 15 at United Center, at age 21 the second-youngest Blackhawks captain after Jonathan Toews, who got the job at 20 years and 79 days. Kane and Tyler Bertuzzi were named alternates. Nick Foligno had held the C until a March 6 trade to Minnesota.

The new captain still has not practiced with the group. He had surgery on his left shoulder after an offseason training injury in Vancouver on July 2, was given a four-month window that points at November, and general manager Kyle Davidson said on Sept. 29 there is no firm return date, with new information likely sometime in October. Coach Jeff Blashill said on Sept. 23 that Bedard was not close to joining practice. Last season Bedard had 75 points (30 goals, 45 assists) in 69 games. He has 203 points (75 goals, 128 assists) in 219 career games, and in July he signed a five-year, $75 million extension at $15 million a year.

We’re going have a great start without me and I can’t wait to join, whenever that is.

Connor Bedard, Blackhawks captain, United Center, Sept. 15, 2026

He also set the season’s standard in that same session. Chicago has not qualified for the playoffs since 2019-20. Bedard said the city is used to winning and that the additions this summer left him expecting to win, and that finishing where the team has the last couple of years “is a disappointment.” Kane returned on a two-year contract signed July 25. The summer was built as a step toward that bar. The first two games were played without the player the bar was hung on.

FROM THE SHOULDER TO 0-2-0

1. July 2, 2026: Injures his left shoulder during an offseason session in Vancouver and later has surgery.
2. July 2026: Signs the five-year, $75 million extension; Kane agrees to a two-year return on July 25.
3. Sept. 15, 2026: Named captain while still unable to play, and says the start without him will be great.
4. Sept. 23, 2026: Blashill says he is not close to joining team practice.
5. Sept. 29, 2026: Chicago loses 5-2 at Vegas in the opener; Davidson still has no firm return date.
6. Oct. 1, 2026: Chicago is shut out 6-0 at Utah and falls to 0-2-0.

A November return, if it holds, still leaves a few weeks of this roster as the NHL team. The 6-0 is the invoice for talking like a playoff club before that roster had shown it can play without him.

Why the Blackhawks Look Slow Without Their Center

Blashill did not dress Thursday up. He said the Blackhawks made their decisions too slow against a fast team and did not play to the level they are capable of. That is a coaching sentence, and it also names the thing the eye test keeps repeating. Utah closed on pucks. Chicago held them a beat too long, then threw them to a spot a teammate did not occupy.

The breakout that stands a defenseman at the far blue line and chips it up the ice is not an NHL exit against a forecheck like Utah’s. Levshunov’s holding minor became the first goal. A Sam Rinzel giveaway became the second. Levshunov’s later turnover fed the Lee tip. Bowen Byram, acquired from Buffalo in June, lost Guenther behind him on the 5-0 tap-in. Those are reads and habits, not a missing 75-point center on the other ice.

Bedard does not take every faceoff or cover the slot on the penalty kill. He does tilt the ice when Chicago has the puck. Without him, the Blackhawks are winning 27.8 percent of draws in Utah, generating 15 shots, and arriving late to their own net. The speed gap is not only talent. It is the extra half-second on every first pass.

Blashill was hired May 22, 2025 as the 42nd coach in team history, after Anders Sorensen’s 17-30-9 interim run. Davidson said then that Blashill had thrived developing young players and could blend that into team success. Detroit went 204-261-72 in 537 games under him, with one playoff trip in seven seasons. Chicago went 25-46-11 in 2024-25 and has now opened Blashill’s second year 0-2-0. Two games do not close a coaching file. They do show that the structure he wants is not on the ice yet, and the schedule did not wait.

Fourteen Utah Skaters Hit the Sheet in One Night

The other bench used Chicago as a launch. Lee signed a three-year, $16.2 million deal ($5.4 million average) on July 1 after 14 seasons with the New York Islanders and scored in his debut. Trocheck, traded from the New York Rangers on July 1, assisted on Schmaltz’s goal. Peeke, on a one-year, $1 million deal signed July 3, set up Lee. Fourteen Mammoth skaters recorded a point, a franchise record. Utah has now won all three of its home openers, and it did not beat Chicago in four meetings last season.

Keller had two assists and said Utah kept pucks behind Chicago and used its speed, with every line playing the same way. Vejmelka’s night was quiet until it was historic. The club posted the first home shutout as soon as the horn sounded.

🛑 First home shutout in franchise history 🛑

Have a night, Veggie! pic.twitter.com/hlltJbxAm3

— Utah Mammoth (@utahmammoth) October 2, 2026

Ian Cole, who played the past two seasons in Utah, had to answer for the visitors. He did not reach for a two-game excuse.

Obviously, it wasn’t good enough, clearly, and we’re going to have to take the next 48 hours and look at it and fix some things. We haven’t put together a full 60 minutes yet to the standard that we have talked about and try to hold ourselves to.

Ian Cole, Blackhawks defenseman, after the Oct. 1 loss at Delta Center

Bowen Byram’s Next Stop Is Buffalo

The road trip ends Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Buffalo Sabres, 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) at KeyBank Center. Byram goes back to the team that traded him. St. Louis is at Chicago on Oct. 6, the first home date of the season, still with no public date for Bedard’s first practice.

A 0-2-0 start against Vegas and Utah, without the captain, is the kind of opening a club can survive if the habits are clean. These habits are not. Fifteen shots, 12 hits, 15 faceoff wins, and a 6-0 sheet are the same problem written four ways: Chicago is not ready to play the way it said it would play, and November is still a long way from Saturday.