The Blackhawks have played 66 games this season, and only have 16 games left. A Blackhawks team now 2 years removed from their last playoff appearance and 4 years removed from their last Stanley Cup, it is unlikely that they will compete this season for anything more than the draft lottery. I really meant it when we at Under The Lights said we would be doing video reviews after all of the Blackhawks games. We meant it when we said the last 20 games of the season would be important to a team that is still only 9 points out of a playoff spot. With the Blackhawks anything can happen, but it would take a big turning point for them to make the playoffs, let's take a look at some of the key turning points of the season.
November 6th 2018
The Blackhawks were 6-6-3 when on November 6th they fired then head coach Joel Quenneville, it was obvious from the middle of last season that Quenneville and Bowman were not going to agree on the direction of the Blackhawks team. Bowman wanted Coach Q to play his guys that he traded for and brought into the organization, Q wanted to play the guys he could trust. Quenneville’s firing ultimately lead to the team falling off in the standings to 7th in the western conference, a place they have stayed in for the rest of the season. That firing helped the Blackhawks dub this season a “retool” (aka REBUILD) period. The team wanted the Hawks players to get behind Jeremy Colliton, a young coach with great communication skills, something Q did not have with his players according to Bowman. November had other moves too.
November 25th 2018
Chicago Blackhawks trade Nick Schmaltz to Arizona for Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini. Schmaltz was the fifth first round draft pick drafted by Stan Bowman to be traded. However Bowman did acquire two former first round draft picks in Strome and Perlini. Before coming to Chicago, Strome had 3 goals and 3 assists in 19 games with the Coyotes. Now with Chicago, he has 14 goals and 26 assists giving him 40 points in 43 games with the Hawks. Strome has become a worthy first round draft pick in his short time in Chicago, and you can imagine he loves playing with his former teammate Alex Debrincat from the Erie Otters.
December 30th 2018
Chicago Blackhawks trade Brandon Manning to Oilers for Drake Caggiula. Manning was not finding a home in Chicago. The 28 year old defenseman had not been worth the 2 million dollar contract that he signed the last summer, and was still going to be a Hawk till the end of the next season. Manning was shipped to the Oilers for what was believed to be nothing. However Caggiula has been a very good acquisition for Chicago, he has 4 goals and 3 assists for the Hawks and has been playing with the top line. He is averaging the most ice time of his career at 14:29 minutes and has 51 hits with the Hawks playing a physical presence with Kane and Toews. The fact that Edmonton gave up Caggiula for Manning explains why Peter Chiarelli, former GM of the Edmonton Oilers, was fired on January 23rd.
Curving Road
Since January 1st the Blackhawks have had a very bumpy ride with highs and lows. They started the year outdoors against the Boston Bruins, the game ended with a Hawks loss, but since that point something changed. Patrick Kane went on a 20 game point streak, and managed to help push the Blackhawks into a playoff spot for an hour two weeks ago. The Blackhawks went on a nice win streak, and were pushing for the playoffs until they lost 2 bad games against the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche during a weekend in February. Chicago currently has 15 games left, and has a lot to improve on. Chicago has 8 of their final 15 games against teams that are competing for the final playoff spot, so if any game is going to be considered a playoff game this season it is going to be these ones going into the end of the year. They play Dallas tomorrow, and if they want to compete for a playoff spot down the stretch, they need to win. Chicago has given up to many goals in recent games, in the last 9 games they have given up at least 4 goals. You can not expect to win every game by scoring 5 goals or more, they need to get better in the defensive zone. I do not think much will change for Hawks on the defense till the offseason. So if the Blackhawks make the playoffs the Hawks are going to have to bank on scoring 6 + goals every game.
Notes from last nights game.
I was at the game at the United Center last night between the Blackhawks and Sabres, and here were some of the notes and topics that will be answered in UTL’s video recap of the game to be posted on UTL TV later today.
Hawks split up Toews Kane
Jack Eichel was not drafted number one overall
Rozsival returns
Under the Radar
Who is to Blame?
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