Have the Chicago Blackhawks already given up on the 2024-25 season?

After last night’s tough loss to the Utah Hockey Club, it’s officially become time to push the panic button if you’re the Chicago Blackhawks. Right now, this is a team that can’t get out of its own way, and it was something alternate captain Seth Jones made very clear. 

While Jones’ relationship with the Hawks is becoming strained, he at least gets some credit to show he still cares, and it shows fans that their team still has a backer in them even if they can’t ultimately move him at or near the deadline. 

Ideally, he goes elsewhere and the Hawks get a haul for Jones. But if he’s still in town, they’ll count on him to break this team out of its perpetual slump. 

Still, Jones’ quip wasn’t the only signal that things may have reached a breaking point in the Windy City. Last night, the look on Connor Bedard's face when he was in the penalty box, said it all. That this situation, as of right now, can’t get any more hopeless than it already has been for what? The last three seasons?

The Chicago Blackhawks look like a dejected bunch as February fades

The city of Chicago has had it rough across the pro sports landscape in 2024 and it looks like the Blackhawks performance so far in 2025 will foreshadow more of the same. You saw the Bears squander a solid start a few months back, and don’t even get me started on what was a historically bad season for the White Sox. 

The Bulls have won under 40 percent of their games this season the last time I checked, and yeah, the Blackhawks, if anything, have stagnated. And that’s me being generous. It’s tough to stay positive in this situation, because, even with another top-three pick likely in their not-so-distant future, it’s a road these fans didn’t think they’d go down yet again. 

Yet here we are, with the trade deadline on the horizon and drawing nearer, and you know there will be ‘sales’ made while players go elsewhere. A few weeks back, I warned that a massive sell-off might be in their future, and they’ve given us no reason to think any differently. Yeah, I gave you some good news, in that they might build chemistry, but that’s just a small speck of light in an otherwise dark abyss. 

Blackhawks simply need to focus on ‘surviving’ until the end of the season

Back in the day, one of my favorite hobbies involved building a team from complete scratch on those pro sports video games. I’d tear a team down in Year 1, then build them back up in subsequent seasons. But the problem here is that the Blackhawks were torn down a couple years ago and should at least be remotely respectable at the moment. 

No, you can’t tear this team down again, except to trade away players like Ryan Donato and Seth Jones, so you can keep adding pieces in what has been a mind-boggling rebuilding project. At that point, you just survive until the end of the year, and really celebrate even those little accomplishments. 

But something, anything at this point, must be done to build this team’s confidence back up. Because right now, everyone’s frustrated and there’s a good chance head coach Anders Sorenson loses the locker room if he hasn’t already done so. So, have the Blackhawks given up? At this point, we might have the answer by the end of the week.