The Colorado Avalanche show how inferior the Chicago Blackhawks are right now

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The Colorado Avalanche showed in five days just how far away the Chicago Blackhawks are from being competitive. Winning two games in dominating fashion will do that.

The Avalanche went to the United Center last Thursday and put up five goals while keeping the Hawks scoreless. They did the same thing on Tuesday in Denver.

You would have never known that the Blackhawks had a victory over the Avalanche this season with how they played in these past two games. They won this past December with a team depleted by injuries.

The Hawks lost these last two against Colorado with a roster depleted of talent. That is more to say the Avalanche are miles ahead of the Blackhawks and that the Hawks still have a long way to go to think about being competitive.

Superstar Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals and picked up two assists while stud defenseman Cale Makar had a goal and an assist on Tuesday. MacKinnon also had a goal and an assist last Thursday while Makar had two assists.

The Hawks hope Connor Bedard and Kevin Korchinski are producing at that high of a level someday like MacKinnon and Makar. Until then, they are going through their rookie growing pains. Korchinski did find Bedard streaking out on a beautiful pass, but Bedard came up empty.

The "Welcome to the NHL" moments are starting to wear on Bedard like when Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson took an unnecessary slash at his wrist last Thursday. The Hawks were unable to get some justice on Manson as he was scratched on Tuesday because of an injury.

The Blackhawks had chances to produce some offense on Tuesday, but they lack goal scorers right now.

Colorado has nine players already with double-digit goals led by MacKinnon's 39. Mikko Rantanen and Valeri Nichushkin have over 20 goals with Rantanen at 31 and Nichushkin at 22.

The Hawks have five double-digit goal scorers and none of them have reached 20 goals yet. Colorado has four players whose point production would be leading the Blackhawks.

Teams have figured out the Blackhawks offense once again. Harrass and frustrated Bedard, limit him working with Phillip Kurashev and do not allow Jason Dickinson or Nick Foligno to get a shot off. When the rest of the team struggles to score, it is pretty easy to shut them down.

Also, the Blackhawks typically need things to go perfectly to score. The Avalanche can get away with a huge margin for error because they have scorers.

Colorado has the talent to see their season-high losing streak only be four. The Blackhawks are one game shy of tying their season-high losing skid of eight.

If there is a franchise that knows rebuilds take time, it is the Avalanche.

The Avalanche made the playoffs one time between the 2010-11 season and the 2016-17 season. During that time, they finished dead last in the division three times and second to last twice.

They had to win the NHL Draft Lottery to get their superstar in MacKinnon. They still had to build a roster around him after he was taken in 2013.

They had to use first-round picks to get Makar and Rantanen. They then had to make key trades and free-agent signings to build the rest of the team around him. The result has been six straight playoff appearances since the 2017-2018 season and winning the Stanley Cup in 2022.

The Hawks are trying to build up their team much like the Avalanche are in terms of using a generational talent to be the foundation. It took Colorado three offseasons just to get a playoff-worthy roster around MacKinnon (the Avalanche did make the playoffs during MacKinnon's rookie season of 2013-14).

That is why this rebuild is going to take some time. It showed the past five days.

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The Colorado Avalanche Show How Inferior The Chicago Blackhawks Are Right Now

If there is a franchise that knows rebuilds take time, it is the Avalanche.

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