The Chicago Blackhawks have been a little bit of a hot team over the last few weeks. That is actually a bad thing because there is a generational player that they can get in the draft if they win the lottery and finishing in last would improve their chances.
Connor Bedard is the generational player that is lighting the world on fire with his play this year. He is dominating in the WHL with the Regina Pats and he was a key to Team Canada winning the Gold Medal at the World Junior Championships. The Blackhawks need him but aren’t guaranteed him.
In their effort to get him (or Adam Fantilli, Matvei Michkov, or Leo Carlsson who are all very good as well), they need to finish as low as possible. The results of some games so far this week have been great for this effort to finish as low as possible.
On Monday, the Calgary Flames hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was Johnny Gaudreau’s return to Calgary after leaving in free agency but all Blackhawks fans are watching for was if they got some standings points. Luckily, although Columbus lost, it was in overtime so they picked up a point.
The Chicago Blackhawks need everything to go their way in the standings.
A day later, the Blackhawks were beaten badly by the Vancouver Canucks. They stayed in it for a little bit in terms of the scoreboard but they were outshot 48-14 and lost 5-2. The Canucks are bad too and they looked like the late 1980s Edmonton Oilers in this game.
On the same night, the Anaheim Ducks played the Arizona Coyotes so a three-point game would have been perfect for the Hawks but the Ducks won in regulation. If you had to pick a team to win there it would be the Ducks because they are worse than the Yotes and will finish with fewer points.
Then on Wednesday, those pesky Blue Jackets went to play the other team in Alberta, the Edmonton Oilers. They got to overtime again which was good but this time they found a way to win this one and make it three out of four points so far this week.
Now, the Coyotes sit in 29th with 35 points, the Blue Jackets sit in 30th with 33 points, the Ducks are in 31st with 33 points (they have one less win so they are lower with the same number of points) and the Blackhawks are in 32nd (dead last) with 32 points.
The Blackhawks players and coaches aren’t thinking about this stuff but you can bet the fans and front office are. The best interest of the team would be finishing as low as possible so this week has been great so far.