Davidson said he got the same message from several players, not just Bedard, in exit interviews on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players are very motivated to make sure that we\u2019re pushing for the playoffs next year,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cI think that\u2019s realistically something, a goal we believe they should come into training camp trying to achieve.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, it\u2019s something that would require a major step forward, but the group is motivated and talented enough that we feel it\u2019s not unrealistic to expect that. So, we need to take another step forward. We took a nice one this year, but the League doesn\u2019t wait around for anyone, and so young players have to continue that development and translate that to more wins on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks (29-39-14), who finished last in the Central Division, took steps this season. Their young players got more experience. Their penalty kill finished the season ranked second in the NHL (38.6 percent) behind the Colorado Avalanche, who had the League\u2019s best record; it was tied for 14th last season. Chicago was in a lot of close games, 35 of which were decided by one goal, and finished with four more wins and 11 more points than in 2024-25.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I think about the on-ice (performance) in particular, it\u2019s the competitiveness, more games where we were more competitive more nights,\u201d Blackhawks chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz said on Thursday. \u201cWe need to figure out how to close those games for sure, but it\u2019s showing, overall, a better competitiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blackhawks are ready to take the next step. Davidson is willing to add through free agency if it makes sense and helps them reach the next goal. It\u2019s been a rough few seasons, but for this group led by Bedard, it\u2019s time for a trip to the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t be more confident that we are going to get to where we want to get to. It\u2019s going to be a fun journey,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cI think that\u2019s what people say they look back on is kind of growing up together and kind of getting better and better. We\u2019re motivated to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Davidson said he got the same message from several players, not just Bedard, in exit interviews on Thursday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-589176","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\/589176","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=589176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}