Somehow, Connor Bedard has more assists in five games than the Blackhawks do

So, the Chicago Blackhawks are back at the bottom of the league, lost Frank Nazar for a month, and no one is scoring or producing goals. Here's a stat that shocked me earlier today: Connor Bedard, with two assists in his final game before injury vs. the St. Louis Blues, leads the Blackhawks in assists over five games...

I'm sorry... What?

Look, I get that the Blackhawks don't have an offensive dynamo outside of Bedard, and when he is out, the entire team's offense implodes. I also understand that Nazar was playing his way out of a slump before taking a puck to the face. But, come on, Bedard hasn't played in four games and still has more assists than the rest of the forward core in that time. Andre Burakovsky, Teuvo Teravainen, Ryan Donato, Ryan Greene, Oliver Moore... None of them is producing any offense despite their potential.

The game against the Ottawa Senators definitely showed a better side of the Blackhawks' new-look offense: "keep it simple." Shoot the puck, get traffic in front, and get the rebound when it's there. It's not pretty, like it was with Bedard leading the charge, but it works. Like Eddie O says: "It's not about how, it's about how many!" Ilya Mikeyhev led the charge with two goals, each one of them simple, basic hockey. It would be nice to see Donato get some depth offense going, but the way it's looking right now, that's not going to happen.

Nick Lardis scored the first goal of his career off a soft rebound, allowing him to get a shot off at the crease. The team will generally be scoring goals like this for a while, given that they have no noted passers. Ryan Greene should have gotten going a bit after playing with Bedard, but he was great in the faceoff dot against Tim Stutzle at times. Oliver Moore has been invisible outside of his occasional burst of speed to break into the zone, and Tyler Bertuzzi is a human backboard, but the team seemed to have abandoned that strategy for some reason.

There is no quick-fix

The Blackhawks will have to concentrate on solid defense and scoring goals for the next month or so. I don't see how they can win unless they keep the opposition under three goals at most. This team has too many holes in its game, and it's not on one side of the rink. Their penalty kill is pretty good, but that's all they have going for them. With no answers in sight and the Blackhawks' dynamo out for a while, it could be time to scout top prospects for another top-five pick.