Five Reasons Chicago Blackhawks Fans Should Be Excited For The 2018-19 Season (Part IV)

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No. 5: Direction

As we near the two-season anniversary of the Blackhawks’ first round collapse against the Nashville Predators, there’s a lot of questions hanging up in the air. As we all know, Chicago is coming off a horrible last place finish in the Central. This offseason, nearly every single team in the Central got better. The Nashville Predators continued to lock their key players up long term. The St. Louis Blues made a splash and significantly upgraded their roster. The Colorado Avalanche signed a legitimate goalie and have young talent becoming more and more lethal every year.

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The Blackhawks?

They signed two veterans skaters and a veteran (backup) goaltender.

That’s it. No Justin Faulk. No Jeff Skinner. No Max Pacioretty.

So, considering that the Blackhawks did nothing to get considerably better and the timetable on their no. 1 goaltender is uncertain, the direction of the team is pretty hard to figure out.

If Crawford is healthy and the Hawks compete for a playoff spot will they be buyers at the trade deadline? Will this squad’s goal be to seriously try and win a Stanley Cup?

Or, will Corey continue to miss time? Will Ward lead us into mediocracy forcing us into being sellers come deadline time? There’s an unlimited amount of ways this season could shake up. Plus, after a year in which nearly everything went wrong, it’s pretty darn difficult to expect a general manager to be able to seamlessly plug every hole on the roster. It just couldn’t happen.

While a proven scorer or top-4 defenseman would’ve been huge for the Blackhawks, nobody is certain what we need more. No one is certain if we need them both. No one is certain what this team will look like once they take the ice in October, February, or April. No one is certain if they will be taking the ice, or grabbing their golf clubs, come early June.

Being a fan of the Chicago Blackhawks is harder this year than it was last year. After the Crawford injury, everyone had a pretty good idea of what direction the Chicago Blackhawks were going. Whispers of “Tank For Dahlin” were heard around Blackhawks’ Twitter. The path the Hawks were on wasn’t a fun one, but we knew that. We stayed in it together.

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This season, however, no one knows what the direction of this team is. That being said, I firmly believe that at some point this season, that will be made clear. It’s possible Bowman comes out and says it directly. Perhaps long-time head coach Joel Quenneville is fired and the message is received that way. Much like next season, this is all uncertain. What is certain, however, is that it will happen sooner or later this season. That should be encouraging for Hawks fans.

Regardless of what the direction is, fans of Chicago will finally be on the same page regarding the direction of our beloved Blackhawks.

Win now? Sounds great to me. Take a few years off to retool? That works too. Go full-blown Buffalo Sabres?

Maybe we can wait a few years for that.

Next. Two Chicago Blackhawks' Trades Far Worse Than Panarin / Saad Deal. dark

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