Blackhawks News: A new team has entered the Bedard sweepstakes

The Chicago Blackhawks don’t have a lot of talent anymore. However, it is hard to argue that they don’t have a lot of fight and effort in their game. Under Luke Richardson, this team plays very well.

If they keep this attitude and play style with good players in the lineup, they will become a contending team again soon.

On Friday night they took on the Florida Panthers. That is a very good team that is having somewhat of a down year but there’s no doubt that playing them in their building is difficult. In order to get a win against them you have to play a good solid game for 60 minutes.

The Blackhawks got out to a 2-0 lead which was nice but they allowed the Panthers to tie it. Once the game was tied, Florida took a 3-2 lead shortly after.

The Chicago Blackhawks gave a good effort on Friday night in Florida.

It would have been easy for the Blackhawks to just roll over and let Florida end up winning in regulation but they ended up getting the game tied once again with the goalie polled.

Cole Guttman scored the goal for his fourth of the season. He is now looking like someone that might continue to get a look as the team continues with its rebuild. From there, the game would go to overtime.

In overtime, the Panthers got the game-winning goal thanks to a goal scored by Brandon Montour. It was good to see the Hawks put up a fight like that against a good team but they came up just short once again.

As you know by now, losing is actually winning because of the Draft Lottery odds. Everyone wants Connor Bedard (and Adam Fantilli is a nice consolation prize).

Getting a point in the loss isn’t ideal but it’s better than getting two points when you look at it from a long-term point of view. The Blackhawks will be in a fight for the number one seed in the draft lottery for the rest of the season and it is not going to be easy to watch.

For the entire year, it has been the Blackhawks down there with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Anaheim Ducks, and Arizona Coyotes.

You figured all season long that one of those four would have the best odds at landing Bedard and would probably win the lottery unless something crazy happened. Well, now a fifth team has entered the equation and could be a legit lottery threat.

The San Jose Sharks were never having a great season but they are really falling off now. After snagging a point from the Florida Panthers on Friday, the Hawks tied them in total points. For most of the season, they trailed them by a lot.

The Sharks were being a little bit elevated by Erik Karlsson who is having a Norris Trophy-type season. He should break 90 points from the back end which is remarkable and doesn’t happen every year.

Before trading him to the New Jersey Devils, the Sharks also had Timo Meier scoring goals at a very high rate. Now he is gone and the Sharks have fallen off in a lot of ways. They, like the Hawks, are only three points removed from being in last place. It is something to keep an eye on now.