The Chicago Blackhawks had a date with the Philadelphia Flyers on the eve of Christmas Eve, at a very festive United Center. Kudos to the crowd, who kept things very upbeat despite a bit of a snooze fest through the better part of two periods. Alas, once it was all said and done the Blackhawks fell 3-1 to the Flyers, for their sixth consecutive loss. I know we’re all tired of moral victories, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom in this contest.
Related – Flyers Defeat Blackhawks 3-1 in Pre-Holiday Matchup
Let’s get to the takeaways.
Donato Does It
Thanks to Ryan Donato, the crowd got to hear Chelsea Dagger at least once in this game. The Blackhawks don’t have a whole lot of offensive punch without the injured Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, arguably their two best forwards. They have to resort to a much simpler game with them out. It’s much more of a grinding game, where they have to be defensively responsible and wait patiently for their chances. It doesn’t exactly make for the most exciting hockey.
But at the 18:30 mark of the second period and already down 2-0, Donato finally found the back of the net during four-on-four play to cut the Flyers’ lead in half. He was assisted by defensemen Matt Grzelcyk and Artyom Levshunov. It was Levshunov’s 15th assist of the season, which is tied with Nazar for second on the team.
a delivery just in time for the holidays📦 pic.twitter.com/1YZpwPo1bF
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 24, 2025
Donato has been deployed as a depth forward on the fourth line for most of the season. But head coach Jeff Blashill changed up the forward lines with Bedard and now Nazar out of the lineup. Donato was tasked with centering a “second line” alongside Teuvo Teravainen and Andre Burakovsky in this contest.
Related – Frank Nazar’s Highs & Lows Mirror Blackhawks Development & Maturation
The Boston, Massachusetts native really stepped up, providing this goal and winning 8-of-10 faceoffs (80%) in a season-high 21:35 minutes of ice time. He also logged a team-high five shots on goal.
“I thought he played pretty good,” said Blashill. “He’s a guy we bounced around from line to line, from position to position. And that’s not an easy thing. I think he’s handled it well. I thought as the game went along he got better and better.”
The Bertuzzi-Dickinson-Mikheyev Line
As already mentioned, Blashill changed up the forward lines for this contest. His “top” line was comprised of Tyler Bertuzzi, Jason Dickinson and Ilya Mikheyev. Dickinson and Mikheyev has previously been on a shutdown line with Teuvo Teravainen, so this was certainly a new look. Here’s Blashill on his thought process for this combination.
Trying to find guys that kind of play alike. Mickey does a good job of transporting the puck up the ice. I thought they could be a good line in the offensive zone. I thought we could match them against the (Trevor) Zegras line, and they’re all good defensively. I thought we needed to change it up a little bit. I thought that line played really good. I don’t know that we’ll do it on the road or not, but that was kind of the approach we took for tonight.
According to Natural Stat Trick, this line bested the Flyers 4-1 in shots on goal and 14-2 in scoring chances in 10:31 minutes of ice time together. They led all the other Blackhawks’ lines by a wide margin.
In the name of balance, Blashill said he’s not sure if he’ll ice this line moving forward, especially on the road. Something to monitor moving forward.
Blackhawks Showing Promise Despite Another Loss
While the Blackhawks had to endure yet another loss, their underlying analytics weren’t that bad in this game. They led 53-52 in shots attempts and 26-24 in scoring chances. So while it might not be pretty, they’re hanging around in games and giving themselves a chance to win. They just have to work on actually scoring. Said Blashill, “In the end, we had more chances than they did. But we didn’t score. Got to keep grinding and find a way to score.”
Related – Blackhawks Adjust From 7 Defensemen to Traditional 6 Defensemen Lineup
Well, this certainly could be a challenge with this depleted lineup. But what doesn’t kill them will make them stronger. Sure, it’s hard to score right now with two very valuable players out of the mix. And six consecutive losses doesn’t help the confidence of this team. But, they have no choice but to keep going.
Things aren’t going to get any easier for the Blackhawks. After the holiday break, they take on the red-hot Dallas Stars on Saturday (Dec. 27) and then host the Pittsburgh Penguins the very next day (Dec. 28). Can they finally break their losing streak?! We shall see.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
