Chicago Blackhawks: When will they finally win a game?

With a defense this leaky and efforts this sloppy, the Chicago Blackhawks won’t be victorious anytime soon.

The 2019-2020 Chicago Blackhawks are 0-2-1 as I write this. Normally, losing the first three games in an 82-game season wouldn’t be cause for much concern, especially since the Hawks picked up a point. Even San Jose – a Cup contender last year – started 0-4-0 before beating, the you guessed it, Blackhawks last week.

So, yeah, I am being hyperbolic. Of course the Blackhawks will win a game. They’ll win many games. But enough to make the playoffs? Not if they can’t fix the issues that they themselves say are fixable.

I attended Saturday night’s tilt against the Winnipeg Jets as a fan and I didn’t much care for what I saw after the first intermission.

The second period was a total reversal of the first frame. In the first, the Hawks were the dominant team, and they scored both short-handed and on the power play. Even five-on-five, the ice looked tilted in favor of the Hawks, at least to the naked eye.

That wasn’t the case in the second. Winnipeg had too much zone time and backup goalie Robin Lehner bailed his mates out a few times. It’s a minor miracle the Hawks still led to start the third.

The Hawks effort was better in the third, but not good enough. Sloppy giveaways in bad areas of the ice became even more noticeable. Shifts seemed a little too long (and indeed, they were). Easy passes were missed. Some of these problems were present in the previous period, but with the Hawks clinging to a one-goal lead, they became more magnified.

Then, the Jets struck with an equalizer that was the result of the Hawks being caught puck-watching. Andrew Copp had an easy goal, taking advantage of a defensive failure that wouldn’t be acceptable in beer-league floor hockey, let alone at the NHL level with a three-time Cup winner and one of the best (in theory) two-way forwards in the league (Jonathan Toews) on the ice.

I can’t recall which Hawk said it after Thursday’s loss, but the Hawks apparently believes their problems are fixable. And perhaps they are – it shouldn’t be too hard for pros to get better at defensive coverages, and getting off the ice quicker, and being smarter with the puck in their own end.

But what if they aren’t? What if the problems are caused by Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook simply being old? Is Toews declining? Are the younger and/or newer players not yet ready to play at a playoff level, or are they simply not good?

After all, bad turnovers and sloppy play might be explained by a lack of speed due to age. Mental errors aren’t just the purview of young, developing players – aging guys might not be quite as sharp out there. And players who are simply bad often commit physical errors that look like mental errors.

By the way, Kirby Dach alone can’t fix this. A raw prospect won’t be the answer.

I don’t know if the dynasty is dead. Perhaps, given how long it’s been since the last playoff appearance, it was already deceased. Either way, it’s sad to watch the remaining years of Toews and Patrick Kane’s primes (or are they merely prime-adjacent at this point?) slip away. Yes, Hawks fans got spoiled with three Cups in six seasons, but we expected more from this franchise, given the talent that’s been there even in years in which they fell short. Perhaps a fourth Cup was too much to ask, but had you asked me after the first championship, I’d have told you that the Hawks wouldn’t miss the playoffs, or even be bounced in the first round, before 2020.

Obviously, I was wrong about that. But I was hoping that what’s left of the dynasty would get at least more bite at the apple. Or perhaps a new run of contention would began, with the aging superstars being a bridge to the future as younger players developed.

Instead, for a variety of reasons, the Hawks have stumbled into mediocrity. There’s still talent on the roster, and some of it is young still (Brandon Saad). But right now, the team is playing the same game every night – flashes on offense followed by sloppy puck management and defensive gaffes that are simply embarrassing, not to mention unacceptable, at the NHL level.

It’s getting tiring, just three games in. Hopefully, these games will be but a distant memory come spring, and this little rant will have been rendered meaningless. For the moment, though, I see a lost team with no answers to questions that have dogged them since last season – a team that’s on the verge of digging a hole it can’t climb out of.

If the Hawks really can fix their problems, now would be the time to start.