Report Card: Grading the Chicago Blackhawks first two months of 2024-25

It wasn’t long ago when I felt the Chicago Blackhawks looked like a team in a position that everyone expected them to be through Month 1 of the 2024-25 season. Not long after, I backtracked on that as reality started sinking in.

Now, it’s no question, as reality has officially set in, and Chicago Bears football at this time of the year looks more promising than Blackhawks hockey. Yeah, you read that right. Bleak analogy, I know, but can you really argue it?

With just 64 goals scored and 82 allowed, the Hawks are guaranteeing themselves another top-three pick, so maybe collecting so many of them for so many years in a row may eventually help them. But then again, Connor Bedard still can’t score consistently, even if he’s gotten better in that realm with a pair of goals since I last brought his name up.

That said, you can’t help but throw a wide-eyed look over at some place called San Jose, California, where some kid named Macklin Celebrini has 15 points and eight goals in 16 games for a team called the Sharks and wonder, ‘What if?’ What if the Hawks snagged the first pick in this season’s draft, and Celebrini was over here with Bedard?

There’s no kind way to grade the Chicago Blackhawks through two months

Really, it’s like watching a rerun of 2023-24, except there’s this sinking feeling that Connor Bedard is regressing. If the season ended right now, he’d have between 59 and 60 points and between 15 and 16 goals. I’m adjusting his current numbers to the 82-game slate, and there are several reasons behind his regression, and one that warrants a separate discussion. 

As for the rest of the team, those who were supposed to make life easier for the Hawks, like Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen, haven’t. And it’s fair to wonder whether they’re regretting having even skated into the Windy City. As for Philipp Kurashev, he’s an afterthought, as is Jason Dickinson at this point.

“Nowhere to go but up” is the cliche of the moment, and it’s supposed to be a motivating one. But when that’s been the rallying cry in Chicago for the past, what, three seasons now, it’s tough to find anything in it. This team has failed its fans and city, and despite the loyal fans the Blackhawks have, it wouldn’t surprise me if every other home game from here on out felt like a road game.