Mama said there’d be days like this.
There was a damn near tangible buzz around these Chicago Blackhawks after that opening-night win over the Pittsburgh Penguins that was just two weeks ago but suddenly feels like ancient memory. Save for the momentary respite of a 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs last Monday, it’s been a pretty bleak stretch for Chicago.
It’s been mentioned in multiple places but bears repeating again: the opening stretch of this schedule presented the Blackhawks with a daunting gauntlet of opponents. Of the first six games, two were against a Boston Bruins side that re-wrote record books last season, one was against a Colorado Avalanche team that’s been at or near the top of the Western Conference for a while, one was against a Vegas Golden Knights team that just won the Cup, and another was against the regular-season juggernaut (thanks, LBR) Maple Leafs.
The only “winnable” game on paper was against the Montreal Canadiens, and that may have been the Blackhawks worst performance from the first six games. And the degree of difficulty ramps up again on Friday night with the Blackhawks in Vegas to once more face the Knights. More bad news? November’s first five games are: two against the Florida Panthers, two against the Tampa Bay Lightning and one against the New Jersey Devils.
It’s going to be tough sledding early. There are going to be more games like the Boston one on Tuesday night or the Vegas one last Saturday. If there’s a glimmer of hope on the schedule before this calendar year ends, it’s a home-heavy stretch in December that sees the Blackhawks plays seven of nine games at the UC with some “winnable” matchups in there (Nashville, Anaheim, St. Louis, Vancouver among them).
Hopefully, there are some moments mixed in there like the ones discussed in this space last week when Arvid Soderblom and Alex Vlasic showed out during the aforementioned win over the Maple Leafs. Connor Bedard is going to figure things out at some point. Believe it. Those moments will arrive and provide the glimpses of future success needed to get through a season that’ll likely provide plenty of disappointing moments, too.
If past can be prologue, the 2005-06 Blackhawks amassed just 65 points and the ’06-07 team finished with a paltry 71. Among the ice-time leaders in those two seasons? Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.
Patience, young Padawans.
The Week That Was
Thursday, Oct. 19: Avalanche 4, Blackhawks 0
This came up during Tuesday’s action but it feels like Chicago and Colorado are due for a postseason matchup later this decade and the idea of facing Cale Makar several times in a two-week span is going to challenge the cardiovascular health of every Hawks fan watching. What a player.
Saturday, Oct. 21: Golden Knights 5, Blackhawks 3
An early trend that can go away quickly is the Hawks giving up a goal early in the third period.
Tuesday, Oct. 24: Bruins 3, Blackhawks 0
Still annoyed by the overturn of Bedard’s goal.
Words in the Water
The NHL took a page from the NFL’s media playbook with its “Frozen Frenzy” on Tuesday night, scheduling all 32 teams to play in 16 games with staggered starts that began at 5 p.m. CT. While the NHL does a lot of things worthy of ridicule, this idea actually feels … really good? Something to build upon?
This isn’t entirely the same product as the Red Zone channel, which does not have to deal with commercials. And football does lend itself to a Red Zone-esque channel because of the nature of that sport with breaks between every play that make it easy to drop in right before a big moment. But power plays can be treated like NFL drives that reach the end zone, getting on-screen treatment from the moment they start. Showing every goal seems like a no-brainer part of the operation, but there are plenty of other regular hockey moments which can fill up the hours: big saves, huge hits, nifty dekes that don’t end up in goals … throw in some fights and it seems like a multi-hour time slot shouldn’t be too difficult to fill.
Since the NHL schedule for this season is already set, there probably isn’t any way to run this idea back in ’23-24, but it’s absolutely something the NHL could work into future seasons. Weekends in the US can be ignored until football season ends, but there are plenty of Tuesday nights available for a busy slate of games that could garner decent attention — especially in the weeks after baseball’s postseason ends. The NFL postseason owns January’s weekends, but that Saturday before the Super Bowl would be an excellent day to line up as many NHL teams as possible for games with that Sunday a good choice for a league-wide day off. Sprinkle in another Saturday or two throughout the rest of the season with a weeknight here or there and maybe the NHL could strike gold similar to what the NFL clearly has unearthed.
The product itself will almost certainly undergo some tweaking as the years go on, but the easiest critique from the first night is to cut back on the studio time and minimize the amount of talking from the on-air talent. Because it was Buccigross hosting, there was even some goofy chicken parmesan segment since that’s something that he must be contractually obligated to say every single time he’s on the air. All of those segments can go in the trash. Let the hockey itself be the star of the show, not the on-screen talent. That’s a key part of what makes the Red Zone channel so good: Scott Hanson effortlessly navigates between the action of multiple games without ever putting the spotlight on himself. The only time they put his face on camera is when all of the ongoing games are in commercial breaks. We’re there to watch hockey, so let us watch the hockey.
With a little bit of work, the NHL could be on to something here.
The Week That Will Be
Friday, Oct. 27: at Vegas Golden Knights
The good news? Last game against Vegas until April!
Monday, Oct. 30: at Arizona Coyotes
This feels like the only life raft available in an otherwise turbulent sea of games to open the season.