It wasn’t because of calculated strategy that Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill gave his defeated team an uplifting speech Sunday night after their blowout loss.
Instead, it just poured out of him genuinely. He told the Hawks he believes in them, believes they can battle through their current adversity and wants to get better together alongside them.
“They want to be good, man,” Blashill explained Monday. “They want to come to work. They want to get better. There are zero excuses. Nobody’s pointing fingers, and when you go through tough times, it’s easy to point fingers.
“It’s just a group I really enjoy being around because not [only are] they good people but they’re really good competitors, and they’re guys who want to continue to improve here.”
That affirmation was well-received by the players. They did kind of need to hear it after the 7-3 defeat — their 15th in their last 19 games. Those 19 games now represent half their season so far, rendering their 10-5-4 start a distant memory.
“It’s nice to have him show that support and have our back,” veteran forward Jason Dickinson said. “We have a coach that’s in our corner. He believes in us, and he’s not going to hang anybody out to dry.”
There was finally a glimpse of good news Monday as Connor Bedard skated before the official team practice, doing some light stick-handling but no shooting (per team orders).
It was the first time Bedard had been spotted on the ice since his Dec. 12 shoulder injury, although Blashill said this doesn’t change his rather unclear timeline to return. That timeline is supposed to solidify over time.
Connor Bedard is on the ice before practice 👀 #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/7MN1USqDfQ
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) December 29, 2025
Blashill also said Frank Nazar has progressed to chewing solid food, basically confirming he broke his jaw Dec. 20.
In the meantime, Blashill shuffled all the forward lines again, including slotting defensively responsible veteran Teuvo Teravainen next to rookies Nick Lardis and Oliver Moore (who will get an opportunity at center). Fellow rookie Ryan Greene moved up to first-line center and Dickinson returned to his usual checking-line center role.
During the 10-5-4 start, there was much talk in the locker room about how different things felt this season than in years past. Even now, Dickinson — always a valuable source of wisdom — attests things do still feel different.
“The mood is OK,” Dickinson said. “Nobody’s over the moon with what’s going on, but at the same time, there’s a lot of things that we like about ourselves and what we’re doing and what we’re bringing to the table. There’s something to be hopeful of and proud of that we can do some good things and we just need to clean up some areas.
“I feel confident about the direction and the teaching that’s happening amid all of it. We are still learning out of the losses. … The things ‘Blash’ is preaching and talking about, those things resonate with me and they sit well. I think if we keep hammering them away, we’ll get there.”
Dickinson thinks this ultra-young Hawks roster makes the essentially same mistakes that every NHL team makes, but they just make them more frequently and — due to inexperience — don’t know how to recover from them as smoothly.
He’s keeping in mind that accepting short-term pain in exchange for long-term gain is the organizational philosophy, even though it’s unclear whether he personally will be around for that long-term gain as a pending free agent.
“We have so many young guys that haven’t learned that those things happen and how to ride the wave,” he added. “It comes with the timing…of when things start to come together. That’s where it matters. Learning it now — and learning the hard way — sucks. But there’s a lot of core guys in here that need to learn, because in the future, they’re going to be grateful for it.”