The Chicago Blackhawks didn’t look like playoff contenders when they played their first game of the 2017-18 season.
More like shoo-ins to earn their fourth Stanley Cup in less than a decade.
That’s because they performed a 10-1 vivisection on the Penguins Oct. 5 at the United Center, in a game that wasn’t nearly as competitive as the score might suggest.
“It seemed like they were skating around us every shift,” Penguins forward Jake Guentzel recalled recently.
Indeed, Chicago made the Penguins, coming off a 5-4 overtime loss to St. Louis at PPG Paints Arena in their season opener the previous evening, look as if they’d been forced to travel to Illinois on foot.