Chicago Blackhawks Make Case For Worst Team Of Kane/Toews Era

The problem is how they lost

You might be reading this right now and scoffing at the idea that the franchise’s second 50-win team ever could be worse than a team that didn’t even make the playoffs, but hear me out.

The ’07-’08 team was the first Blackhawks team worth watching for years. The ownership beforehand was so poor, many fans boycotted the team. My father, a lifelong fan, would not even let me watch the team because he was so upset with ownership.

But that year felt different. Obviously, the team wasn’t at the caliber we became accustomed to in the first half of this decade, but it was showing the signs of getting there. That team missed the playoffs by just three points, and there was finally hope in Chicago. A young team led by a coach that, bless his heart, should not have been coaching in Denis Savard just missed the playoffs.

Da Windy City

Maybe it was youthful exuberance from the up-and-coming teenage stars that were the same age that season as I am at the writing of this post, or maybe it was just a passion and effort for the game. That sort of passion and effort has felt non-existent at times, really, since the ‘Hawks last hoisted the Cup on home ice.

The problem with this playoff series against Nashville is not that the team lost. Losing is one thing — but being truly defeated is another, and defeated is an understatement for what we just witnessed by our beloved ‘Hawks. Three goals in nearly 13 full periods of playoff hockey is simply unacceptable, and most anyone, hockey fan or not, could tell you that’s not good enough.

After every loss in this series, we heard the rallying cries from the leadership group about getting excited for the chance to win the next one, yet when they hit the ice there was no excitement, and now they don’t have a chance to win the next one.

This wasn’t a regular sweep they let happen, and they’re always disheartening for a fan base, but this one was flat-out embarrassing, and will be tough to live down. The Blackhawks became just the third 1 seed since conference-based playoffs became part of the NHL to get swept in the first round.

I truly believe that if the team we saw lose tonight was playing the team from ’07-’08, the outcome may not have been much different.

What has changed — and reasons for hope

Credit the Nashville Predators in this series — they beat the Blackhawks the same way the Blackhawks have dominated other teams for years, with pure speed and possession. It’s somewhat ironic that the Blackhawks, who arguably perfected this new style of speed-based hockey, let it become they’re undoing. The league saw what the Blackhawks did and copied it with younger teams and cheaper contracts.

Next season, Toews and Kane will be entering their 29th year. They are certainly not old, but they are definitely not the young new faces of the NHL anymore, and that’s a tough pill to swallow for Blackhawks fans.

It certainly is for me. It no longer feels like Stanley Cup parades will be a regular part of Chicago summers, and we may have to grapple with the idea that we have seen our last Stanley Cup in this era.

This is clearly a very pessimistic piece, but I want to offer mourning fans a bit of hope, because even for me, writing this is like sprinkling salt in a deep, fresh wound. The club’s two franchise cornerstones are still only 29, and a long summer for them could do wonders for freshening up their bodies and minds, and maybe this embarrassing exit will make them truly angry for next season.

But let’s move past just those two players for now — they are known commodities, and that won’t change in one season. The story of this season was about the new guys. While the team’s rookies didn’t perform at all in the playoffs like they did in the regular season, there are glimmers of hope.

If you expected a prospect that the organization was ready to give up on in Ryan Hartman to score 19 goals this season, you’re lying to yourself. The player Nick Schmaltz grew into this season was a player who was exciting to watch and can only improve more.

Tanner Kero could replace Marcus Kruger if he departs in the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft this summer. Trevor Van Riemsdyk has developed into a flawed, but dependable defenseman, and there are a few more prospects rearing to get started in Gustav Forsling, Michal Kempny, Vinnie Hinostroza, Tyler Motte, John Hayden and phenom Alex DeBrincat.

Richard Panik came out of nowhere and became a true top-six forward after he couldn’t even make the Toronto Maple Leafs last year when it was a cellar dweller, rather than the upstart it is today, and find of the century Artemi Panarin will continue to develop.

Next: Chicago Blackhawks’ Youngsters Went Missing Against Predators

The Blackhawks lost and they lost bad. They have a lot of work to do and a lot of questions to answer, but they have proven so many wrong so many times this past decade, and even coming off this disastrous effort, you can never count these Blackhawks out.