Chicago Blackhawks: Eliminated in five games by Vegas Golden Knights

The Chicago Blackhawks have been eliminated by the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.

The Chicago Blackhawks ended a hard-fought playoff run as the Vegas Golden Knights took care of them in the fifth game to win the series 4-1. The Hawks were outmatched for most of the series and honestly, they were lucky to even squeak one win out of the Golden Knights. They are a great team that has a legit chance to go on and win the Stanley Cup. They attack in waves, use the defense to attack and defend in all three zones, and get great goaltending.

The Blackhawks were right there in game five as they did have a 2-0 lead and even a 3-2 lead but Vegas pushed hard in the third period to win the game 4-3. They outshot the Hawks 39 to 26 which says a lot about how the Hawks were able to attack and how they were able to defend. In addition to being outmatched because their roster is far inferior, they were outcoached as well. This was not a fine performance by Jeremy Colliton.

Colliton used some of the lower end guys way too much in this game. John Quenneville is an AHL player at best and he was out there down a goal with three minutes left. That is not how you win playoff games let alone a series clincher that you are down in with only a few minutes left. The bench needs to be shortened as it is literally a win or go home stretch of the game.

There is plenty of offseason to discuss the coach and management group so the main focus here should be the players. Most of them, key emphasis on most, did everything they can to make this series feel at least a little bit competitive. Players like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, and Corey Crawford should have had everyone’s ultimate respect before but they somehow gained even more. They returned to play with championship pedigree and the rest of the organization let them down.

As good as it was to defeat the Edmonton Oilers despite Connor McDavid having his way with them, it is clear once they got to Vegas that they are not a true playoff team right now let alone a Cup contender. There need to be some changes made this offseason otherwise 2020-21 is going to be a lot more of the same.

One player who also deserves some respect is Golden Knights goalie, Robin Lehner. He split the net with Crawford for most of 2019-20 before he was dealt away at the deadline. He was a great player for the Hawks and was brilliant in this series. You can tell as you watched him go through the handshake line that he was super great with his former teammates who seemed to all have mutual respect for him. We wish him well moving forward this season with the Golden Knights and beyond as he looks for a contract. This was some series for him and both teams.