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5 Negative Takeaways From the Chicago Blackhawks’ First Half of the Season

By Todd Welter |
/ Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
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The Chicago Blackhawks season is not going well and that is putting it nicely.

The Hawks are currently dead last in the NHL standings. While that is great for the NHL Draft Lottery odds, the hope was fans would not have to monitor those chances daily once the team drafted Connor Bedard.

Taylor Hall being lost for the season and Corey Perry's off-ice behavior that led to his contract being terminated started to send this season into a tailspin. Injuries made sure the Hawks' very slim chances of the postseason came crashing into the ground.

There have been some positives this season despite being one of the worst teams. For the most part, there are a lot of negatives that have happened during the first half of the season.

Lukas Reichel is struggling.

He was the Blackhawks' top prospect before Bedard was drafted. It seemed like everyone forgot that. It feels like Reichel did too.

The hope was Reichel could be the team's second-line center and an offensive force on the same level as Bedard. Instead, he has just nine points this season. The plans for him to be a center has already been scrapped.

Now Luke Richardson is trying anything he can think of to get the talented player going. He has benched him, had him skate on the first line along with Bedard, and Richardson has also demoted him down to the fourth line. The result has been a player who has lost his confidence.

However, his most recent benching might be what snaps him out of his struggles. He did not score against Calgary, but Reichel skated strong and was active.

If he can skate like he did against the Flames, and score like he did in December against Colorado, he has a chance to finish the season strong.

Arvid Soderblom failed to become the No. 1 goalie.

The hope coming into this season was Soderblom would secure the top goaltender position in his first full NHL campaign. There were four reasons for that.

The first reason was Petr Mrazek was likely to spend time on injured reserve. Second, Mrazek was set to be an unrestricted free agent and the Hawks could move him at the trade deadline to get some assets back. Third, Soderblom has the talent to be a top goalie. Finally, he is young and still has another year left before he hits restricted free agency.

Well, Mrazek has stayed healthy, and Soderblom has played like a goalie destined to be a backup goalie. His numbers are so bad, that his future forecasts him as just an organizational depth piece who goes back and forth between the AHL and the NHL.

He has -10.3 goals saved above expected which ranks him as one of the worst goalies in the NHL in that category. That is a simple stat that measures the number of goals a goalie can save over an average netminder. Think about that. Soderblom is ten goals worse than an average goalie.

Arvid's biggest issue is he is incapable of making key saves to keep the game from getting out of hand.

With the way the offense has struggled, the team needs a goalie to at least limit the opposition to three goals. Soderblom has had eight games where he has given up four or more goals. That is eight games in 18 starts.

Mrazek was given an extension recently for two years. That lines up when Drew Commesso will be ready for the NHL. It also means Soderblom's chances to be the long-term No. 1 goalie are not very good.

The offense is bad, like really bad.

The Chicago Blackhawks are tied with the San Jose Sharks for the worst average goals per game with 2.08. The Hawks have the worst power play in the league. They also rank dead last in shooting percentage.

The advanced stats are also not kind to the offense. The Blackhawks have the worst expected goal-for-percentage, high-danger chances, and second-to-worst high-danger goals.

Connor Bedard has missed the last 11 games and the Blackhawks have been shut out in four of those contests. They have scored just one goal in four other games while Bedard nurses a fractured jaw.

The offense was not a juggernaut when Bedard was in the lineup. Not having his scoring and playmaking ability has rendered the offense useless. The Hawks are playing hard, but they just do not have the talent to get the puck past the goalie right now.

It is going to be hard to watch for another month as Bedard is not expected back to at least early March.

The road losing streak.

The Blackhawks are in the middle of a franchise-record 20-game losing streak. They last won away from the United Center on November 5th of 2023 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Their past four shutout defeats have come on the road.

The Hawks had some chances to pick up some road wins during this losing streak. They were up on the St. Louis Blues 5-2 two days before Christmas, but Soderblom melted down and the Hawks lost 7-5. They lost in overtime on December 29th at Dallas. They almost pulled off a stunning win at Winnipeg earlier this month before losing 2-1.

Losing was going to happen this season since it was the first one after the roster teardown was completed. What is hard to take is the Hawks have picked up just one point in the standings during this 20-game losing skid. They are not even taking games into overtime.

The streak cannot last forever. They do have some road games against San Jose and Anaheim, so hopefully they can snap the skid there.

Jarred Tinordi and Taylor Raddysh have been bad.

A running theme this season has been Tinordi watching goals go in. The defenseman has not been very good this season. Ideally, he would be a healthy scratch, but injuries to the blue line have forced him to still get ice time.

Raddysh has been invisible this season after a career year last season. It is looking like the Hawks will let him walk in the offseason after he showed a ton of promise.

The hope is the defensive unit gets healthy so Tinordi can watch games from the press box and Raddysh uses the All-Star break to refocus.

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