chicago-blackhawks

HAVE THE BLACKHAWKS STUMBLED UPON A WINNING RECIPE?

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The last time the Chicago Blackhawks made the post-season was in 2020. The regular season was cut down short due to the pandemic in 2020. The NHL and other sports expanded the post-season that year. The Blackhawks participated in the qualifying round and beat the Edmonton Oilers. Then reality hit them when the Las Vegas Golden Knights eliminated them in 5 games in the next round. Since then, the Blackhawks dynasty crumbled. The last few years have been disastrous. The Blackhawks number one phenom Connor Bedard has been regressing since last season on the ice from his rookie debut.The experts believe he was supposed to be the next Connor McDavid of the league. This is Chicago sports where great teams come along ever 17 years like Haley’s comet. Last year the Blackhawks were 5-12 in their first 17 games with none of those losses coming in over time. The first 30 games the Blackhawks played in the 2024-25 season, they only won 9 of them. This season in 17 games they are 8-5-4 for 20 points.

If we could only freeze time. The Blackhawks would be in the post-season. What’s different than last season and all the other years we Chicago fans were tortured by this team on the ice?

Have the Chicago Blackhawks stumbled upon an actually great hire as their head coach? It’s Jeff Blashill’s first season as the Blackhawks head coach. It’s his second head coaching job in his career in the NHL. He will be a retread style coach which sometimes works, but sometimes it’s the same ole story same ole song and dance. I will say it’s way too early to start printing up post-season tickets or name him coach of the year. Blashill has developed a new identity for this young Blackhawks team. He has given them confidence and has developed structure with positive leadership skills. You can tell he already has an impact on the younger players. You know it starts with the Blackhawks and the NHL “we hope” future superstar in Connor Bedard.

Connor is sizzling on the ice so far as he is second in points in the NHL right now. He has scored 10 goals while dishing out 16 assists. Bedard had 23 goals in 82 games last year. On October 29th, Bedard registered his first NHL hat trick in 7-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. Besides the younger guys being impacted so far this season. Tyler Bertuzzi, a ten year veteran of the NHL who was drafted by the hated Red Wings, has made some noise on the ice. Bertuzzi is 30 years old and has scored six goals in the last three games. Bertuzzi has had 14 points in the first 15 games of the season. He has played in 16 games & has one game winning goal. He has tallied 9 total goals while dishing out six assists for 15 points this season so far. Last season Bertuzzi had 23 goals while dishing out 23 assists. I know two guys can’t carry the entire load the entire season. The Blackhawks will need more guys to get the offensive production they need to continue to put up W’s in the standings. You want to see a positive veteran presence with the rise of Bedard contributing. The last Blackhawks dynasty had Marion Hossa playing a big role with guys like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Patrick Sharp.

This season early on, the Blackhawks have gotten great goal tending unlike the last few seasons. It may be one of the best savvy moves made by current Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson at the trade deadline last season. He acquired a young on the rise goaltender in Spencer Knight from the Florida Panthers for an overpaid waste of a defenseman in Seth Jones. Knight has been a wall in front of the net wearing the Indian head sweater. His record so far this season in net is 6-3-3. He has recorded one shut out. He has allowed only 2.46 GAA (Goals Against Average.) His save percentage in the net has been stellar at .923%.

We know it is way too early to be this optimistic about the Blackhawks, not even 20 games into the season. The NHL is a long grueling season with 82 games on the docket. Right now the Blackhawks are putting the puck into the net and getting great goaltending along with solid leadership. The team has had defensive struggles they will need to iron out. How will this team adjust when other teams make adjustments to their game plans? The team has not had any significant injuries yet. We do not know how this year will play out. Usually the best teams make it to the post-season. Some suspect teams slip in there from time to time. I think most Blackhawks fans would take a winning team with a winning record and in the thick of things making positive steps to get back to the post-season by the end of this season. Post-season would be cherries on the sundae for this team if they made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs. We want to see pillars in place for the future. We want to see the organization plan start working. We are sick of the word REBUILD in Chicago sports. That has become a staple like pizza and Italian beef sandwiches in the Windy City. Right now I’m ecstatic just about watching exciting hockey instead of turning the channel to the same old new generation style of television that is mostly garbage. Most of the time when Chicago sports teams are winning, they pretty much accidentally stumble upon it and tell us lies saying it was the plan all along. We will enjoy it while we have it and hope it continues all season long.

CAN A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR SAVE THE DYSFUNCTIONAL BLACKHAWKS?

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It has been another disastrous year for the Chicago Blackhawks as they will miss the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs for the 5th season in a row. The Blackhawks are at the bottom of the Central division standings of the Western Conference with a 20-41-9 record. The original six franchises were sellers at the deadline. Many hockey experts have said they are wasting away the talented young superstar they have in Connor Bedard, who is 19 years old in his second season in the NHL. The Blackhawks are on their second head coach for the season as Anders Sorensen is no better than the guy he replaced in Luke Richardson. The jury is still out on the Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson which he may have made a savvy move to right the ship for Chicago. Davidson corrected a bad move made by the former GM for the Blackhawks’ Stan Bowman. Davidson was able to get rid of the high price stink in the locker room who is paid a hefty salary in defenseman Seth Jones. Chicago may have their future goalie from the Panthers in Spencer Knight, a 23 year back up net minder for Florida

When you are a young goalie and play behind a superstar, Sergi Bobrovsky, you’re probably not going to get much playing time. Bobrovsky was one of the main cogs in the Panthers machine which is why they won the Stanley Cup last year. Plus the reason the Panthers are perched once again on top of the Atlantic division in the Eastern conference of the NHL world and will be one of the top seeds. Spencer Knight was first round pick of the Panthers in the 2019 NHL draft where he was selected 13th overall. He has so far played in 86 NHL games in 4 seasons and has a record as a starter of 46-29-7 with 5 career shut outs. He has 2.77 GAA (Goals Against Average) of 2.77 in those 86 contests with a save % of .906. This season with the Panthers & Blackhawks so far combined he has a record of 14-12-1 with two shut outs and 2.50 GAA and .908 save percentage. Knight before being traded to the Blackhawks had a 12-8-1 record and posted both of his shut outs with Florida. For the Blackhawks he is six games in and has a 2-4 record which makes sense. The Panthers are the better team and have the better personnel so the stats will teeter downward wearing the Indian head sweater.

I was not sure what the hell Stan Bowman was thinking when he orchestrated the trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets to acquire Seth Jones. The Blue Jackets received defenseman Adam Boqvist and plenty of draft capital. The Blackhawks did get some draft picks in return from Columbus along with Jones but are not the high kind of picks Chicago gave up. Jones also was thrown an 8 year extension on the contract he already had with the Blue Jackets worth 76 million which equals out to 9.5 million annually. For what the Blackhawks at the time were not going anywhere in the standings and surly did not need a high price defensemen who has only made one all-star appearance in 12 seasons. Bowman crawled away from his GM post at the time for his cover up of the Kyle Beach sexual assault case that still brings dark clouds hovering over the United Center where the Blackhawks lie in their muck. Jones has not played well in Chicago and is not worth the money the team invested in his talents. He wanted out, Kyle Davidson accomplished that, and it may be the move that will keep his job. The Blackhawks will still be on the hook paying 26% of Jones’ salary while Chicago gets the young U.S.A. born goalie and both teams rearranged some of their draft picks in the deal.

The Chicago Blackhawks traded their starting goalie Petr Mrazek to the Detroit Red Wings. The Blackhawks still have Arvid Soderblom, a Swedish goalie who has been in the league for 4 seasons and is still young at 25 years of age. He has 83 NHL games under his belt and his record is not very good at 15-51-11. Let’s not forget he has played on bad hockey teams since he entered the league, all with Chicago. With Spencer Knight and Soderblom pretty much at the same age and same amount of games, I like where the Blackhawks goalie room is at and has a chance to flourish. Knight helped the Panthers win the Stanley Cup last year. He has learned from Sergi Bobrovsky in Florida and that should help him take the next step in Chicago. Right now the Blackhawks defense is in shambles. All the veterans the Blackhawks signed in the off-season did the team no favors. Some of them were dealt to other teams. Connor Bedard’s development as a player seems to have taken a step or two backwards. Many experts still scratch their heads on why the Blackhawks never made Bedard a Captain this season. The Blackhawks still have multiple other younger pieces on this current roster that need to develop along with Bedard, who is the face of this franchise.

The Blackhawks need another solid piece to play along the side of Bedard. Like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. The Blackhawks also on those teams had Patrick Sharp and the veteran Marion Hossa was the missing piece that made that dynasty finally gel as they won three Cups. They can’t waste Bedard’s youth on bad team after bad team. The Blackhawks have to help this young goalie Knight as well by getting stronger defense. If they don’t, the confidence of Knight and Bedard will be crushed & then this franchise will be set back in space years that it takes to get to the planet Pluto. This franchise is already going back to the dark times before Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews took the ice. Nothing but crickets chirping in the stands. The team is on a new network along with the Bulls and Blackhawks that most of Chicago is unable to see. Most of the bar scene don’t even care if they have this network because they are all bad teams. With Jones gone, the locker room is saying the same thing, “Good riddance,” which is a start to fixing a franchise that is broken once again. Bringing back memories when the home games were not televised and blacked out by Bill Wirtz, who goes down as one of the worst owners in sports. This latest move by the Blackhawks gives the team a Knight in shining armor, but they need an army of horsemen to bring respect back to one of the original six.