Chicago Blackhawks: It is time to hit the panic button

It was so sweet to watch the Chicago Blackhawks play for the first half of the season. We went into the year believing that they can potentially be the worst team in the National Hockey League. It got worse when they started 0-3-1 to get things started. After that, they really turned it on and started to surprise us all. Lately, however, they have been slumping. When you look at their recent string of opponents, it makes sense but that needs to change.

The Chicago Blackhawks need to get it together and fast if they want to make the playoffs.

Defeating outstanding teams like the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning is very difficult. They went on a six-game road trip and that included two against each of the Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Florida Panthers. They only took two points of the possible 12 which is not good. Florida is one of the best in the division and each of Dallas and Tampa were in the 2020 Stanely Cup Final.

Just because they are good, however, doesn’t give you an excuse. If you want to play in the playoffs, you have to beat some good teams. The Hawks aren’t a Cup contender or anything like that but they have shown they can compete for a playoff spot. It is time to hit the panic button because of how they played in all of those games.

They didn’t just lose them, they gave up four goals or more in every game on the road trip except for the one win. That needs to be cleaned up if they want to actually make the playoffs. The Columbus Blue Jackets have crawled all the way back up to catch the Blackhawks in the standings and they have the tiebreaker as of right now. Those pesky Dallas Stars are coming up slowly too.

The good news for the Blackhawks is that they now have a six-game homestand coming up. It is a set of six games against the Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, and Carolina Hurricanes. It is another tough slate of games but they will be playing on that United Center ice again where they have been so good this season. They need to find a way to snag some points here.

The depth scorers on the team have been really good but they all need to get back to the level they were at before the slump. They need guys like Kevin Lankinen, Patrick Kane, and Alex DeBrincat to take over games. If they get that, they should be able to start winning again.

They have proven more worthy of Columbus so far so if they can hold off Dallas, they will be sitting pretty. There are a lot of games in a short amount of time coming up so they need to snag as many points as they can get. These 12 points that are on the table right now at home are about as important as any they will be all season long.