January 15, 2019: Treading Water

OK, let’s take a peek back out of the Bears bunker into the rest of the Chicago sports world.  First stop:  Chicago Blackhawks.

They were going good there for a minute.  Starting with the win against Nashville about a month ago, they turned in a 6-2-1 record; that was good for 13 points in 9 games.  I remember checking the standings at that point, thinking after this good run, the Blackhawks surely made progress; they didn’t.  They would have to put together multiple 13 points in 9 games runs.  Since the day after the Bears loss, the Blackhawks have lost 4 games in a row; I guess that bad mojo spread to them.  Yes, they did record 2 points in those 4 straight losses, but surely not nearly enough to make any progress.  If they couldn’t move up the standings after the previous run… and now you put the 4 losses together with that… at 6-4-3 in their past 13 games, the Blackhawks are simply treading water.

It’s better than a complete free fall; we’ll get to the Bulls in a minute.  They have been playing a lot better than they were during either of their 8 game losing streaks, although they are halfway there again…  How good has Patrick Kane been?  Well, in the last 9 games, he’s turned in 20 points; yes, that’s not a typo.  An even 10 goals and 10 assists for the Hawks best player by far.  One of the things I’ve liked about Colliton is that he’s been playing Kane more; double-shifting him is how they refer to it.  I think to myself, why didn’t we do more of this in the past?  Yes, the Blackhawks did have a lot more depth back in the day; I guess that could be one reason.  But it makes complete sense to have your best player on the ice as much as possible.  Problem is, he can’t do it by himself.

Another bright spot for the Hawks has been Delia.  He started off red-hot, winning each of his 1st 3 games.  Since then, he’s suffered each of the 3 Blackhawks OT losses, and 1 loss in regulation.  So out of the 7 games Delia has been in net, the Hawks have recorded 9 points.  At that rate, the Hawks would be pulling in about 105 points for the entire 82 games schedule; not too shabby.  Unfortunately, starting goalies do not play all 82 games.  Secondly, in Delia’s case, this is a very small sample size.  However, it is something to be encouraged about.  We need to play him as much as possible, even if the defense doesn’t do him any favors on specific nights.  Can he be the long term starting goalie for the Hawks?  We need to answer that question.  My initial thought is yes.  My initial thought is that Crow will not be back, period.  If that is the case, the question becomes even more important.

They’re still pretty fun to watch all and all.  The losing sucks.  The falling behind early.  The inability to close out games.  The quick OT killers.  I still enjoy the core guys out there, even if their play has declined…dramatically in some cases.  I see promise in some of the young guys.  I’m interested to see how Colliton will be.  Yes, although we’re only 8 points from the last playoff spot, the postseason remains unlikely… although wouldn’t it be fun to see them go on a run and make it interesting?  Or are we in Bulls fans territory, and already looking towards that high draft pick?  Go Hawks!