Are the Chicago Blackhawks living up to preseason expectations through mid-November?

The Chicago Blackhawks have some serious issues, but for a team that’s still looking for an identity, could we have expected anything less? Plus, it’s not like 2024-25 is a make-or-break, and another bad year could counterintuitively work in the team’s favor.

Some of the team’s more legitimate concerns have been what to do with a suddenly upstart player named Arvid Soderblom (seriously), why Connor Bedard isn’t scoring more goals, and perhaps most importantly, when will this team show an iota of consistency? Legitimate, and while the team’s inner circle of fans may be worried that 2024-25 may be another clunker, we need to measure progress. 

With some new, experienced names like Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi, it was easy to raise expectations. Connor Bedard, entering his second season, plus other young players like Philipp Kurashev and Alex Vlasic, further raised the standard. 

But not all rebuilding teams will become playoff contenders so quickly, and the Hawks look like they’re another year out unless their chemistry picks up. But let’s look at some real numbers and determine whether this group is where they should be. 

The Blackhawks have shown improvement from this time last season

Let’s check out the 2023-24 team’s numbers, which saw them sitting at 5-11-0, with 41 goals scored and 56 goals allowed. That averages 2.56 goals scored per game and 3.5 goals allowed. 

At 6-9-1, the Hawks have 13 points or three more than they did through 16 games last season. Goals, however, remain hard to come by, and they’re exactly where they were last season, but they’ve allowed just 49 total, a seven-goal improvement from 2023-24. 

Other critical numbers from last season (in 82 games) include a 16.6 power play percentage, a 75.76 penalty kill percentage, a 6.5 shooting percentage at 5-on-5, a 44.3 Corsi For, 118 actual goals for at 5-on-5 with 202 allowed, and a 41.3 to 50.7 high-danger chances for to against ratio from a percentage standpoint. Overall, the Hawks finished the year with pedestrian numbers that were all expected to improve this season. 

Their 20.83 power play percentage has been a vast improvement so far, as has the 79.17 penalty kill percentage. Currently, the Hawks are shooting at just 6.7 percent at 5-on-5, so that number isn’t at expectations. But, they have a 46.7 Corsi For, 25 actual goals scored at 5-on-5, and 29 allowed, but their high-danger chances for-to-against ratio sits at a meager 39.2 to 60.8.

Have the Hawks at least played to expectations?

At best, the Blackhawks would have competed for a wild card spot in the Western Conference, but they still look like one of the worst teams so far. But, there have been some improvements as shown above, and far more progression than there has regression, so that’s an excellent sign. 

No, improvements alone don’t answer whether this team has played to expectations, but we also went into this year knowing that the Hawks were, realistically, going to build on the foundation they established last season, weak as it was. So far, they’ve been doing that and have at least looked relevant at times, including their recent 2-1 upset win over the Minnesota Wild.