Chicago Blackhawks: How the suspended season affects the team

The Chicago Blackhawks and the rest of the NHL were forced to suspend the regular season for the time being, so how does that affect the team?

The Chicago Blackhawks and the rest of the National Hockey League have suspended play due to the worldwide pandemic that is Coronavirus. It is a virus that has already affected players in the National Basketball Association which caused them to cancel their season. The NHL has followed suit until further notice. That hits every fan of every team in different ways and the Blackhawks are no different.

If the NHL decides to end the regular season and just move to the playoffs, the Blackhawks would obviously be out by six points. 72 points in 70 games played would go down as a less than the ideal season, but no matter what happens we will probably be saying that anyway. They still had some good performances by certain individuals but it ultimately wasn’t enough to get it done.

Patrick Kane was elite yet again. He was amongst the NHL leaders in points with 84 in 70 games. That is a 98 point pace over the full 82 game schedule. There is always that chance that he reaches that 100 point plateau if they resume play. If not, he will be the Hawks scoring leader by 24 points. The next leading scorer is Jonathan Toews, who is having a good season in his own right. This was another good year for Chicago’s dynamic duo that won’t end in the playoffs.

The biggest surprise of the season to this point has been rookie Dominik Kubalik. He has come into the NHL and simply been one of the best rookies in the league. He has an outside chance at being nominated for the Calder Trophy even though he is likely to only come in third if he is. He has been one of the best rookies in Chicago Blackhawks history. He reached the 30 goal plateau as a rookie in his final game before the league stopped play. He is second on the team in goals as he only trails Kane.

The goaltending is also something to be proud of this season. Before Robin Lehner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights, he and Corey Crawford formed one of the best tandems in the league. Even on nights when the team defense left them out to dry, the goalies played well. Crawford stuck around beyond the deadline, but there is no doubt goaltending wasn’t the problem this year.

Hopefully, the NHL is able to resume play for the regular season at some point because this fan base deserves it. If it is unsafe to do so, it was an up and down year that should cause the organization to make some changes.