Blackhawks: Five thoughts over halfway through the regular season

5 Success is welcomed, but not necessary:

No one is going to complain about winning. While a high draft pick is awesome for Stan Bowman, the players would rather be in the playoffs. Seeing the team play as well as they did during the month of February was great, and they are not done yet.

Sure the past week has been tough and with games still to come against Florida and Tampa Bay things are not going to get easier, but the great thing is Chicago actually is one of the top four teams in this division.

When next season comes around and Chicago is hopefully back with their old Central Division opponents this team could be poised to take a leap forward with the players getting back into the lineup as well as the development of Hagel, Kurashev, and Suter taking the next step.

Success this season is welcomed, but mostly just because it is an expectation that next year could be even better for this team. Very rarely are rebuilds fun for organizations. Detroit is in the midst of one and after having one of the worst records in history last season, they still failed to land a top-three draft pick.

I would rather watch a rebuild where the team still is competing night in and night out, and for Chicago, they are not just competing, they are winning from time to time. Over half way done with the regular season, enjoy the rest of the ride everyone!