Chicago Blackhawks Fans Don’t Need To Panic, Everything’s Fine

If you’ve paid even a little attention to the Chicago Blackhawks over the last week or so, you know that they’ve been far from their usual team. If you just take a quick glance at the last five games from the Hawks, they’re 2-1-2, which really isn’t terrible when you consider they still own an eight point lead over the Wild pending the result of the Wild game Tuesday night. However, if you’ve actually watched the games, you’ve probably noticed a somewhat disturbing trend from the Blackhawks.

Over those five games, the two wins have come over the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars, two teams well out of playoff contention and the losses have come against three teams that are currently out of a playoff berth as well. Starting with the game against the Avalanche on Sunday March 19th, the Blackhawks fell behind 3-1 before eventually scoring five goals in the third period to eventually defeat the Avalanche 6-3.

Two nights later, the Blackhawks repeated the same pattern and fell behind 3-1 against the Canucks. Fortunately, they scored three goals again in the third but their effort for a comeback came just short as they fell 5-4 in OT to the Canucks. Then on Wednesday, the Blackhawks played one of the better games of the stretch and defeated that Dallas Stars 3-2 in a shootout.

Fast forward to the last two games and the Blackhawks have been nothing short of a disaster, giving up 12 goals in their last two games. They fell 7-0 to Florida on Saturday night in what was easily the worst effort the Blackhawks have put together this season. Then on Monday night, the Blackhawks game out flying and jumped out to a 4-1 lead against the Tampa Bay Lightning before allowing four unanswered goals and losing 5-4 in overtime.

Looking at the results of these game, it’s pretty easy to start to panic and worry a little bit about the Blackhawks. However, there’s no cause for concern and there’s no reason to panic right now. The Blackhawks have long proven that March is not one of the most important months for them in the season and given their current standing, it’s easy to see why they might take a few nights off.

When the regular season ends on April 8th, the Blackhawks will be heading to the playoffs for the 9th straight year and pending a collapse from the Blackhawks and a late surge from the Wild, it looks as if they’ll win their division and have home ice advantage up until the Stanley Cup Final should they get there.

While I have never been a fan of cruising into the playoffs and hoping to turn it on, the situation the Blackhawks are in now is a little different. They still have six games left to play and while four of them are on the road, you can count on the Hawks to do what they can to end the season on a high note. If they clinch everything early enough, you may even see a couple days rest for some of the star players to gear up for the playoff run.

When it’s all said and done, we’ve seen this before from the Blackhawks. They know what they need to do when the playoffs come around. They know what they need to do to win a playoff series. And they know what it takes to win a Stanley Cup. Until they’re on the brink of elimination in the playoffs, there’s no reason to panic as a fan. This team has more experience than any other NHL team, and it would be silly to get down on them or bet against them at any point.