Growing pains: This isn’t a knock on the Blackhawks, it’s just the truth: they’re very young, especially after trading veteran defenseman Connor Murphy, 33, and forwards Jason Dickinson, 30 (both to the Edmonton Oilers) and captain Nick Foligno, 38, to the Minnesota Wild. They’re especially young on defense: Alex Vlasic and Louis Crevier are 24, Wyatt Kaiser is 23, Sam Rinzel is 21 and Artyom Levshunov is 20. Couple that with not much time to practice in this season’s hectic schedule and it was tough to correct errors. Every experience is valuable, though, and they’ll get there.
Not so close calls: The Blackhawks were in more tight games this season, but didn’t fare well in those contests. They had 13 wins in 34 one-goal games (13-7-14) and were 7-14 in games decided after regulation. Again, there wasn’t much time to practice but the Blackhawks had a tough time getting over the top, especially on 3-on-3 in overtime, where they were 4-9.
Reasons for optimism
Bedard: This was the forward’s third season in the NHL, and it was also his best. Bedard leads the Blackhawks with 69 points (30 goals, 39 assists), including a career-high in goals and points. Bedard has also become more of a leader, and it would be surprising if he wasn’t named captain this summer, or at the start of next season. There shouldn’t be much doubt on Bedard signing with the Blackhawks this offseason. The question is, does the pending restricted free agent want to go long-term or shorter to see if the Blackhawks start building around him with established players to go along with their prospects?