I Officially Have NO Idea How To Feel About The Blackhawks And It's Making Me Insane
I’m exhausted. I have been on a roller coaster since October and I can’t get off. I think that is part of the reason why theme parks work. They don’t let you ride and ride and ride until you puke and have permanent vertigo. It’s frustrating. It’s annoying. And over the weekend it was sickening. We are in this constant yo-yo between this kid
And this kid
The problem with that is that there’s never truly an emotion or time period where you feel safe. It’s either white knuckle blind faith that things will be “okay” or jumping out of the window as the city burns. I miss being an arrogant prick on the internet so much. This stretch has been incredibly difficult. Two vs Dallas, two vs Colorado, the St Louis and Boston. 6 games against teams at the top of the league. In the glory days I neve even really looked at the schedule until game day. I didn’t need to know who was coming up on the schedule because who ever it was…well they were in trouble. Now I look at the schedule in month-long blocks trying to find, wish, and hope for enough points to keep the Blackhawks head above water.
And…I can’t find any. There are points there, but nothing is predictable. They could win tonight vs St Louis and I wouldn’t be totally shocked. They could love to the Devils because it’s the 3rd game in five nights, on the road, and second half of a back to back. You really don’t know. Being a Blackhawks fan is like coming home drunk from the bar. You’re feeling through your keys but it’s pitch black. You know the right one is in there, because it’s been there before, but it’s a struggle.
The reality of the situation is that this all might be a false hope. It might be too late. They wasted too many games at the outset of the season trying to play Colliton’s system. They lose key players like Strome and Keith and all of a sudden they’re locked outside in the cold again. Out of the playoffs.
Sometimes it feels like the team is close. It does. They’ve got the goaltending. They’ve got star power. They were winning games even though Debrincat and Toews have a combined 9 goals on the year. 9 goals from two guys who are expected to drive the team and the Blackhawks are still sniff around at the playoffs. Get those guys going and suddenly things wouldn’t look so bad. Both guys can be streaky. Both guys are too good to stay this cold for this long. If they get hot then the Hawks are in the mix. Then…you watch the Hawks play against Colorado and give up 100 goals in 30 seconds and a spot light is put on all the negatives. Can’t win races against fast teams, won’t win battles, didn’t have the fire, didn’t have ANY discipline in the defensive zone, didn’t have the talent. At the top, the Blackhawks are good enough even with 19 and 12 not really producing. It’s all throughout the lineup where the Avalanche killed the Hawks. You can’t help but think that things would be better with Jokiharju and Kahun instead of Nylander and Maatta. With Duncan Keith out the Blackhawks were left with approximately ZERO defensemen who can both skate and defend. Nylander continues to be a dog in the effort department and a prized pig who glides around in the top 6 waiting for Saad and Toews to hand feed him points. Even with that seemingly perment unearned top 6 role Nylander has 10 points. It feels like he gets demoted every game and then when the puck drops it’s as if the coaching staff has forgetten because he’s right back with Toews and Saad again. Meanwhile you’ve got the “savvy” defensen Olli Maatta somehow being out at the blueline defending on the puck as Colorado scored yet another goal. Kahun has 15 points playing in a lesser role for Pittsburgh. Jokiharju has played all 27 games for Buffalo. He’s driving possession even and contributing to a team that is in a better place in the standings than the Hawks. Speaking of better places in the standings than the Hawks…
Another decision gone bad. Another swap could’ve made the team better. If this group had Kahun, Jokiharju, and Joel Quenneville who was getting really good play out of Jokiharju, how different would things be? The Panthers are a high-scoring and high flying team and they’re winning even though Bob hasn’t been good yet. That can only be attributed to the coach. If Bobrovsky finds his $10M game then the Panthers will be a lock for the playoffs.
And I guess that’s where the light and peace are at this season. I’ll ride the roller coaster as long as I can knowing that if it crashes, then the conductor has to be fired. Even if the Blackhawks lose and don’t make the playoffs, there’s hope for a better future with a different leadership group…as long as ownership will pull the trigger. And if that is something they are thinking about then the Wirtz group and John McDonough, if he gets to stay, should be talking to head hunters now.