Blackhawks’ Blashill backs team & the process, but is it enough?

It’s safe to say the Chicago Blackhawks are in a tight spot right now. Four years into a slow and painful rebuild, this is the season where results were finally promised. Except, it’s not happening that way. 15 games into the 2026-27 season, the team has a dismal 4-10-1 record. Where did things go wrong? And how can the organization right the ship?

Many have called for head coach Jeff Blashill’s head. After all, the coach is usually the first scapegoat when things start to go sideways. But this is a smart fanbase, and many understand there’s plenty of responsibility to go around. Kyle Davidson is the general manager that assembled this team. He should share some of the hot seat as well.

Or, are we all just not being patient enough? Is the foundation there, but it will just take time to build the house? This is certainly what Blashill has been preaching. But things have gotten to a boiling point, and it’s unclear what the future holds.

Blashill defends team after loss to the Avalanche

Things got to a boiling point after the Blackhawks lost 5-2 to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday, Nov. 2. It was encouraging to see Chicago jump out to an early 2-0 lead. But then the wheels started to fall off. The team gave up five unanswered goals in the eventual defeat. The theme continued to be the Blackhawks shooting themselves in the foot, making mistakes and beating themselves.

However, postgame Blashill got very defensive about the compete level that was on display for the night. "I think I see the game different sometimes than what you guys do. I think a lot of times just the score dictates how people feel about the game. I heard our guys were getting asked questions, 'What was the difference in the compete level from Boston till tonight or Detroit?' You know, tonight, like to me, if you compare the compete level in Detroit and compete level tonight, you're not watching the game. Not even close to the same."

Later on in the interview, Blashill pushed back yet again.

"I've had zero issue with our compete level, with the exception of two games, and I've said that publicly. The Utah game and the Detroit game are the only games in which I think our compete level wasn't good enough. So I don't know why that narrative's out there. I've been super honest with you guys when I feel the compete level is not good enough. I haven't sugarcoated it...I thought our compete level was absolutely fine tonight. I thought, in fact, I thought it was good for a lot of the game. Does that mean we didn't have any mistakes? Of course, we have mistakes. So we're going to build off that."

I’ve watched every single game this season, and I would agree that the issue isn’t a lack of compete from the players (with the exception of those games that Blashill called out). Even in those contests there were obviously spurts of solid play, but the overall effort got away from them. It happens to every team at some point in the midst of a grueling 84-game season.  

The players are trying. Nobody wants to win more than them, and it's encouraging to see the coach has their back. However, was this just a smokescreen for the deeper issue?

Should Blashill be getting more out of the Blackhawks?

With players such as Connor Bedard, Patrick Kane (who will now miss at least two games with an upper body injury), Tyler Bertuzzi, Frank Nazar, plus Alex Vlasic, Ian Cole and Artyom Levshunov on defense, this group should theoretically be winning more games.

So is there something wrong with the system? Should Blashill and the rest of the coaching staff be getting more out of their players? It’s true that the Blackhawks are currently one of the lowest in the league in scoring, and highest in giving up too much. Their power play is dead last. At some point, this falls on the coaching staff.

I can think of a few examples where Blashill was stubborn about things that weren’t working. He left Teuvo Teravainen up top on the power play when it was clear that wasn’t working. He wasn’t exactly hurting the man advantage, but he also wasn’t much of a threat, or distributing the puck very well. I’m not sure at all why Jordan Greenway, a gritty depth winger, was deployed on the second line one night and then played center for another contest. The incessant lineblending is maddening. Going back to last season, Blashill stubbornly kept Andre Burakovsky on the top line despite an almost comical lack of production.

It’s fair to say some of the blame for this torrid start to the season can be put on coaching decisions.

Will it all fall into place for this young group?

But it also is on the players to execute. Blashill stresses that the team’s identity is based on speed and skill, plus being on top of teams with their pressure.

Looking at the existing roster, this doesn’t seem like an incorrect identity. Players like Nazar and Oliver Moore possess tons of speed. Bedard, Kane, and Roman Kantserov have so much skill. 19-year-old Anton Frondell is already an elite two-way weapon. On defense, Vlasic is an effective shutdown guy who eats up a ton of minutes and can also contribute offensively. Levshunov and Sam Rinzel have great potential and are finding their way.

But that’s the rub. When I made the list above, I was hard-pressed to come up with many established players. Bertuzzi and Cole, sure. Bedard and Vlasic, ok. But they’re both just in their fourth NHL season. Nazar is only in his third full season; the first two shortened by injuries.

Frondell and Kantserov are rookies. Ryan Greene, Moore and Rinzel are all in just their second season. Levshunov too (he only played in 18 games in the 2024-25 campaign). You get the picture. This team is sooooo young.

Let’s also remember the team hasn’t been at full strength all season. Bedard missed the first six games of the season. Nazar was suspended two games. And Bowen Byram, arguably the Blackhawk’s best defenseman and the crux of the defensive corps, has missed the last eight games with a mysterious upper body injury.

My point here is that it makes sense for this group to be struggling. They lack depth due to injuries, and there is a massive discrepancy when it comes to experience. This group has yet to learn how to not shoot themselves in the foot. When to make the play or punt the puck and live to see another day, instead of turning it over. They still don’t know how to finish a game, or believe they can come back when they’re behind. To quote Blashill again (from Oct. 22),

“There's zero down my mind that once it clicks here, it's going to really click. We want it to be tomorrow night, and I think everybody does. But it's a definite kind of model of understanding that when you have a lot of real high-end talent, it just has to kind of learn. I guess at times it's different challenges, but learn how to manage games, learn how to not beat yourselves, learn how to do those things…And there's no getting around the growth process of that. And I think once you do mature and you have that kind of high-end talent, you can be a really good team.”

Is it the coaching, the systems, the players, the injuries? I haven’t even mentioned the super tough schedule the Blackhawks have had to start the season. It’s highly probable the Blackhawk's bad start is a combination of all of the above. These are the questions everyone is trying to answer right now.  

Will it truly fall into place at some point for this young group? And if/when it does, will Blashill still be here to see it? He’s backing his team and sticking to his conviction about the process. But in the long run, that might not be enough.

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