Veteran Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy has experienced so many years of losing in Chicago that he has acclimated to the usual tides of a basement-dwelling season. During the stretch run after the trade-deadline sell-off, where the Hawks currently find themselves, the team’s longest-tenured player has ridden this ride enough times to know the best approach involves re-framing expectations. As the Hawks’ losing streak extended to seven consecutive games with a 4-1 defeat Saturday against the Blues — dropping them to 20-41-9 this season, including 7-24-5 on the road — there’s really no other way to maintain sanity. “It’s the nature of this time of the year, after trading guys away and having a young team,” Murphy said Friday. “You change your mindset to look at how we’re playing. Obviously we want to win every game, but you do want to make sure your details and how you play as a team is in order, and then the wins come. “It seems like we’re back more in that stage of trying to get our game complete and worry about big details that we’re giving up. It’s magnified this time of the year when you’re playing against teams that are gearing up for playoffs. A turnover turns into a goal more than it did two months ago. There’s things like that we’re just going to have to learn.” The team dynamic feels different to Murphy now because the roster has turned over so much since the fall. “We were growing as a team with a lot of different guys before, and now we’re trying to reset that with new players,” Murphy added. “It’s a weird, hard reality. It sets in more, where you are in the standings, and knowing there is no hope of getting much better for the remainder of the season. ... But you still have to have fun, keep bonding with young guys and make sure that they’re feeling comfortable to be themselves and play their game.” The dynamic might change even more during the season’s final weeks if veteran defenseman Alec Martinez and veteran forward Jason Dickinson, who were both injured Saturday, end up missing significant time. Martinez crashed awkwardly into the boards in the first period after getting tripped and pushed by Blues forward Jake Neighbours, although it seemed more like an unfortunate than a dirty play. Dickinson immediately fought Neighbors, and neither Hawk returned to the game afterward. The Blues — who are battling for their playoff lives while the Hawks simply play out the string this season — finally broke through late in the second period, taking a 2-0 lead with two goals two minutes apart. Ilya Mikheyev scored the Hawks’ second shorthanded goal of the season, but the Blues pushed the lead out further in the third period. Young defenseman Ethan Del Mastro — a bright spot over the past few months — endured a rare rough game, making overly aggressive plays at the defensive blue line that led to him getting beat on two Blues goals. “That third [Blues] goal early in the third set us back,” interim coach Anders Sorensen told reporters in St. Louis. “But overall, I thought we competed hard and stuck with it, for the most part.” The Hawks’ decision to start goalie Arvid Soderblom on Saturday — before Spencer Knight starts Sunday at home against the Flyers — was also curious, considering the Blues have historically dominated Soderblom. Sure enough, Soderblom saved only 21 of 25 shots, dropping his season save percentage below .900 (to .899) for the first time.
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