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Chicago Blackhawks: The 2020-21 season is finally over

By Vincent Parise

TAMPA, FLORIDA - JULY 07: Pat Maroon #14 of the Tampa Bay Lightning hoists the Stanley Cup after the 1-0 victory against the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five to win the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Amalie Arena on July 07, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FLORIDA - JULY 07: Pat Maroon #14 of the Tampa Bay Lightning hoists the Stanley Cup after the 1-0 victory against the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five to win the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Amalie Arena on July 07, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) /
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The 2020-21 National Hockey League season was a difficult one. Following the COVID-19 pandemic bubble season, they knew this season wouldn’t be much easier. It wasn’t for a lot of teams and the Chicago Blackhawks were no different. For most of the season, the United Center was empty along with most arenas across the league. Now that the season is over, it is time to start looking towards the future.

The Chicago Blackhawks are officially in the offseason portion of their schedule.

The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup on home ice last night over the Montreal Canadiens. They became the first team to win on home ice since the Blackhawks did it in 2015 against that same Lightning team. It was a spectacular playoff season filled with drama, excitement, and elite players thrilling us all. The Lightning were clearly the best team for the second playoff season in a row and deserved to hoist the Cup.

Now that the 2020-21 season is in the books, the Chicago Blackhawks (and every other team) can get the offseason going. There are some big events on the calendar before everyone breaks away for a month before training camp. It will start with the 2021 Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft. Chicago will lose at least one player in this event as Seattle starts to build their team.

Following that is the 2021 NHL Entry Draft and free agency. Those two events can change the landscape of the league as a whole. The Blackhawks have a long way to go to get back to the top of the NHL mountain so you can expect them to be busy during this time. They are the worst team in the traditional Central Division by far and need to take full advantage of these events.

The 2020-21 season had its challenges due to COVID-19 but there were some great moments. The Blackhawks were hot to start before the lack of depth caught up to them. There were also spectacular moments in the regular season from players like Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, and Marc-Andre Fleury amongst others.

Each team only played 56 games within their division which is much shorter than the traditional 82 games over a league-wide schedule. It was really nice to see the players and teams buy into the protocols put in place to play safely yet at the highest level in the world. It was exhausting at times but everyone made it through.

light. Related Story. Could Duncan Keith be traded to the Seattle Kraken?

As they handle the big summer offseason events, the hope is that they are able to return to the ice with fans at full capacity in all 32 arenas. They also should be able to have a normal schedule, normal divisions, and everything else that makes a normal hockey year so great. If we can get juniors, the AHL, and college hockey amongst the other great league in the world back to the way we are used to as well, the game as a whole will be what we know it can be.

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