{"id":458353,"date":"2026-02-09T15:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/458353\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:22:15","slug":"analyzing-the-blackhawks-season-so-far-nine-trends-stand-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/458353\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing the Blackhawks’ season so far: Nine trends stand out"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blackhawks<\/a> have already passed the two-thirds mark of their 2025-26 season, and it has been a much more interesting and eventful season than the past few.<\/p>\n

At 22-26-9, they\u2019re on pace to finish with 76 points, which would represent a sizable improvement upon their 61 and 52 points each of the last two seasons. That\u2019s in spite of losing nine of their last 12 entering the now-ongoing Olympic break.<\/p>\n

While players relax on beaches across the continent and await the season\u2019s resumption Feb. 26, here\u2019s an examination of the Hawks\u2019 most encouraging and discouraging trends so far.<\/p>\n

Encouraging: Bedard\u2019s breakout<\/p>\n

Connor Bedard\u2019s injury and somewhat slow post-injury return to top form has distracted fans from the fact Bedard has still taken a huge step forward this season.<\/p>\n

With 53 points in 44 games, he\u2019s averaging 1.2 points per game, up from 0.9 and 0.82 in his first two seasons. If not for his injury, he would be on pace to reach nearly 100 points. His defensive work ethic has also increased substantially.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt Bedard has become<\/a> the superstar everyone expected him to become when the Hawks drafted him \u2014 even if San Jose\u2019s Macklin Celebrini\u2019s even faster road to superstardom has also distracted fans from the impressiveness of that fact.<\/p>\n

The Hawks don\u2019t have to worry about finding their next franchise cornerstone \u2014 because they have that guy already. That\u2019s something very few other NHL franchises can claim. <\/p>\n

The price tag of Bedard\u2019s new contract this summer will be interesting, but the Hawks can easily afford any number. Locking him up long-term is a matter of when, not if.<\/p>\n

Discouraging: No star \u2018D\u2019 yet<\/p>\n

The Hawks hope either Artyom Levshunov or Sam Rinzel will eventually emerge as a No. 1 defenseman. Neither has done so yet, though, even though they still have plenty of time.<\/p>\n

Levshunov enjoyed the best stretch of his career around New Year\u2019s, but then his game fell off a cliff, leading to his removal from the lineup for a fundamental reset<\/a>. Rinzel hasn\u2019t replicated his excellence from last spring, although he has looked better<\/a> (in a small sample) since his recent call-up.<\/p>\n

In the AHL, too, Kevin Korchinski hasn\u2019t demonstrated he\u2019s made a substantial leap forward in terms of on-ice ability, even though his mindset has matured<\/a>. That means none of the Hawks\u2019 top three defensive prospects are exceeding expectations this season.<\/p>\n

Encouraging: Crevier, Kaiser\u2019s growth<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Louis Crevier and Wyatt Kaiser have evolved from depth defensemen of debatable relevance within the rebuild into trustworthy top-four defensemen who deserve to stick around long-term.<\/p>\n

Kaiser\u2019s quick brain and quick feet have earned comparisons<\/a> to a young Duncan Keith and provided the glue holding the Hawks\u2019 defense together. He extinguishes fires defensively and makes things happen in transition.<\/p>\n

Crevier, meanwhile, continues to smash through assumptions about his ceiling. His size and reach make him reliable defensively, and his strength gives him the Hawks\u2019 hardest shot, but he has rounded out<\/a> his game with improved skating and passing this season.<\/p>\n

Discouraging: Poor analytics<\/p>\n

The Hawks had the worst cumulative five-on-five scoring-chance ratio in the NHL over the last three seasons combined, and they have the worst scoring-chance ratio yet again this season.<\/p>\n

That ratio has improved, from 41.9% previously to 44.6% this season. But it\u2019s still dead last, and that\u2019s certainly discouraging. The Hawks also rank last in expected-goals ratio (44.3%) and second-to-last in shot ratio (45.3%).<\/p>\n

Coach Jeff Blashill has brought up some interesting shortcomings of public analytics models, clarifying that the Hawks\u2019 internal analytics model paints a slightly rosier picture of their performance \u2014 although nobody disputes the fact they have a ways to go.<\/p>\n

Encouraging: Blashill\u2019s coaching<\/p>\n

Blashill has brought time-tested authority to his role that his predecessors lacked. No offense to Jeremy Colliton or Luke Richardson, but Blashill exudes far more confidence and legitimacy.<\/p>\n

Players have praised the efficiency and purposefulness of Blashill\u2019s practices and video sessions, mentioning how everything they spend time on eventually ties together in easy-to-follow and productive ways.<\/p>\n

He has the Hawks running relatively complex systems designed for a real contender, not for a bottom-feeder just trying to muck up games enough to earn some points. The penalty-killing system has especially paid dividends; the Hawks rank in No. 1 in that category.<\/p>\n

Fans often over-analyze lineup construction and player deployment, but it feels like Blashill and his assistants \u2014 especially defensive assistant Anders Sorensen \u2014 have done a generally good job with that, too.<\/p>\n

Discouraging: Nazar\u2019s slump<\/p>\n

In October, Frank Nazar \u2014 fresh off signing a seven-year contract extension<\/a> \u2014 appeared to be making the leap everyone expected, racing out of the gates with swagger and scoring (11 points in his first 10 games).<\/p>\n

Since then, however, he has tallied only 13 points in 31 games \u2014 and missed another 16 games with a broken jaw. That trend, combined with veteran forward Andre Burakovsky\u2019s own substantial dropoff after a promising autumn, has taken some punch out of the Hawks\u2019 top six.<\/p>\n

Nazar will resume centering his own line after the Olympics, and the Hawks would love to see him find a rhythm again before the season ends.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/p>\n

Frank Nazar hasn\u2019t been able to replicate his October hot streak.<\/p>\n

Encouraging: Knight\u2019s endurance<\/p>\n

One Hawk who has largely sustained his early-season success is Spencer Knight, their new franchise goalie. He did fall back to Earth after spending October on Mars, but his stats remain solid. His .908 save percentage ranks 15th among 65 goalies league-wide, and his plus-12.8 GSAA ranks eighth.<\/p>\n

His work last summer to prepare for a full-time starter\u2019s workload for the first time has paid off, too. He has proven he has stamina<\/a> and staying power.<\/p>\n

Discouraging: Top of the Central<\/p>\n

The Avalanche, Wild and Stars \u2014 owning three of the NHL\u2019s five best records \u2014 have a stranglehold on the Central Division that doesn\u2019t seem likely to loosen anytime soon, even if the Hawks improve enough to challenge them for it a few years down the road.<\/p>\n

The Avalanche set the standard for star forward\/star defenseman combo that the Hawks hope to eventually match. If the Wild manage to extend Quinn Hughes, they will match it. And the Stars\u2019 skill for prospect development also sets a standard for the Hawks to try to replicate.<\/p>\n

Encouraging: Western mediocrity<\/p>\n

The good news is the rest of the Western Conference isn\u2019t intimidating whatsoever. The playoff cutoff line is on pace to be just 92 points this season, compared to 99 in the East. If that pattern repeats itself next season, the Hawks\u2019 road to contending for a wild-card spot wouldn\u2019t be daunting.<\/p>\n

Regardless, it doesn\u2019t seem like it will take long for the Hawks, Sharks<\/a> and Ducks \u2014 the three up-and-coming teams loaded with young talent \u2014 to surpass many of their relatively aimless peers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blackhawks have already passed the two-thirds mark of their 2025-26 season, and it has been a much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-458353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}