The Blackhawks were a surprisingly competitive team. Are the Blackhawks still a surprisingly competitive team?
That question is suddenly worth asking after a disastrous weekend in which the Hawks lost to the Kings and Ducks by a combined 13-1 score — their worst performance in consecutive games since 1951.
The latter game was especially horrific, as the Hawks suffered the largest deficit in scoring chances (50-11) that any team has in any NHL game this season. It was a pummeling of unprecedented nature. The sizable turnout of Hawks fans in Anaheim deserved to have their tickets refunded.
Had the Hawks gotten too comfortable? Was their previous success a mirage? Did they spend too much time on the beach in Santa Monica? Are they physically prepared to grind through a back-to-back set?
Those types of questions are suddenly worth asking, too, even though they won’t yet overturn anything conclusive.
“If I had an answer, we wouldn’t play that way,” forward Andre Burakovsky said Sunday. “[Is it our] mentality? I don’t know. It’s obviously not good enough, these last two [games]. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’ve got to correct some things and just overall be better.”
Added coach Jeff Blashill: “When you get your butt kicked on the scoreboard two nights in a row like that — and tonight was a total whooping — your confidence slips. But this is a big-boy league, man. You’ve got to have mental toughness.”
The Hawks now find themselves at an inflection point of their season, conveniently almost exactly one-third of the way through it.
Over their last 10 games, they’ve been outscored 42-22 and gone 2-6-2, falling out of a playoff spot at 12-11-6 overall. They’ve generally looked a lot more like they were supposed to — like they did the last few seasons — than they did during the season’s first month, albeit with some exceptions (the first two games of the West Coast road trip were actually solid).
Is this weekend’s form of the 2025-26 Hawks their true form?
Will this skid continue until it becomes normal, pushing the Hawks back to the basement of the standings — where every analytical model, betting line and pundit projected them to reside entering the season?
Due to the NHL’s newfound parity, the gap between them and the last-place Predators is already down to just six points, even though they’re also just one point out of a wild-card spot.
Will the organizational focus shift back to another top-five draft pick and the promising future beyond?
After all, once top prospects like Anton Frondell, Roman Kantserov and Nick Lardis graduate into the NHL and the current youngsters accumulate more experience, the Hawks might be better positioned to make a sustainable leap like the Pacific Division-leading Ducks currently are.
Or was last weekend’s form of the 2025-26 Hawks — the resilient one that battled back from a three-goal deficit to beat the Ducks at home — their true form?
Can this team prove yet again that they’re different than their predecessors? Is this simply a deep but temporary valley among the many ups and downs inevitable during an 82-game season?
Will clever adjustments by Blashill to the system and lineup, hardy confidence in the locker room, leadership on the bench and on the scoreboard from emerging superstar Connor Bedard and more heroic goaltending from Spencer Knight collectively right the ship?
Another dense stretch of three games in four days this week — Wednesday against the Rangers, Friday at the Blues and Saturday against the Red Wings — could provide some answers. It will at least test the Hawks’ ability to make progress toward handling back-to-backs.
“We better find a way to grind our way back,” Blashill said Sunday. “It starts with just doing the simple things right [and] making sure you’re competing.”