{"id":895772,"date":"2026-10-27T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/895772\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T00:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T00:00:11","slug":"why-i-cant-figure-out-how-seriously-to-take-the-blackhawks-bad-start-or-what-to-expect-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/895772\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I can’t figure out how seriously to take the Blackhawks’ bad start \u2014 or what to expect next"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a confession to make: I\u2019m not sure how to analyze the Blackhawks<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n

Oh, they\u2019ve been bad so far. I can tell you that. I could provide many stats as supporting evidence, too, but the standings suffice well enough. At 3-8-0, the Hawks have the second-worst record in the NHL.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m struggling to identify who deserves the bulk of the blame for the team\u2019s woes, though. <\/p>\n

Is it general manager Kyle Davidson, who assembled this roster? Is it coach Jeff Blashill and his staff, whose systems don\u2019t seem to be working well? Or is it the players, who have been universally mistake-prone on the ice?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also struggling to determine how problematic it is that they\u2019ve been bad. Perhaps these early-season struggles were inevitable with a roster this young and recently assembled, or perhaps they\u2019re an indication this roster will never succeed.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m really struggling to predict what will happen the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Blashill\u2019s seat will heat up by January or February. That could then heat up Davidson\u2019s seat, since not many GMs get the privilege to hire and fire more than two different coaches.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Hawks chairman Danny Wirtz\u2019s confidence in Davidson \u2014 whom he just awarded a contract extension<\/a> in April \u2014 and patience with the slow rebuilding plan will hold strong. That could allow Davidson to maintain his belief in and patience with Blashill and keep fans\u2019 impatient (in some cases furious) cries falling on deaf ears. <\/p>\n

Or perhaps the Hawks are about to turn things around \u2014 like the equally young Sharks did around this time last season \u2014 and all questions about seat temperatures will fade away naturally.<\/p>\n

I would love to anticipate which hypothetical path will become reality, so I\u2019ve been searching for any sorts of signals hidden within the first month of the season. <\/p>\n

Every attempt to do so, however, ignites a tug-of-war between different thought processes in my brain. Here\u2019s how it usually goes:<\/p>\n

The Hawks\u2019 results need to be taken with grains of salt because their schedule has been brutal. Almost every opponent has been a Stanley Cup contender. Plus, they\u2019ve only played one game with both their No. 1 forward (Connor Bedard) and presumptive No. 1 defenseman (Bowen Byram) in the lineup.<\/p>\n

But in hockey, bad teams should still beat good teams sometimes. The Predators just walloped the Avalanche 6-2 on Sunday. The Hawks haven\u2019t done that even once yet. Every team deals with injuries, too. And quantity-wise, the Hawks haven\u2019t actually had that many.<\/p>\n

But the Hawks have been snakebitten. Their past three games (in which they\u2019ve scored three goals) have been laden with missed opportunities. That should even out over time.<\/p>\n

But most teams think they\u2019re unlucky \u2014 because scoring is really difficult. The Hawks\u2019 team shooting percentage (10.2%) is only one tick off league average. Meanwhile, they\u2019re 31st in shots on goal per game, and that\u2019s not luck.<\/p>\n

But Blashill is a smart coach. He possesses the right combination of intelligence and flexibility to succeed tactically and the right combination of empathy and assertiveness to succeed developmentally. Many fans have convinced themselves otherwise, but he\u2019s impressive in-person.<\/p>\n

But every NHL coach is smart and well-rounded. The bar is high in this league. And clearly Blashill\u2019s systems aren\u2019t working as intended, regardless of whose fault it is. The Hawks often look lost in defensive-zone coverage, have been awful with defensive-zone breakouts and haven\u2019t been effective on the forecheck.<\/p>\n

But young studs like Anton Frondell, Roman Kantserov and Artyom Levshunov have already shown flashes of immense talent and should get more comfortable in the NHL over time. They have the potential to become stars alongside Bedard, and a few stars can dramatically change a team.<\/p>\n

But it could take them a couple more years to reach stardom, and nobody wants to wait a couple more years \u2014 especially for outcomes that aren\u2019t guaranteed. That would be excruciating.<\/p>\n

But my own expectation bias probably influences my perspective. I\u2019m so accustomed to watching the Hawks lose (after covering five consecutive terrible seasons) that it\u2019s difficult for me to imagine them winning. <\/p>\n

But that track record of losing genuinely can create a cycle that\u2019s difficult to escape. Confidence is real, and not only do the Hawks lack it relative to their peers, but opposing teams have good reasons to feel extra confident against them. Climbing a mountain is harder than defending it from the top.<\/p>\n

I imagine most Hawks fans aren\u2019t encountering the same endless mental loop. I\u2019ve already heard from many with fully formed strong opinions. <\/p>\n

Most fans are affected by emotions, however. Take emotion out, and the logic \u2014 at least to me \u2014 balances on both sides.<\/p>\n

The brutal-schedule element isn\u2019t about to stop complicating the evaluation process, either. After a brief respite against the Kings and Red Wings, the Hawks will enter another six-game murderer\u2019s row against Cup contenders. Things won\u2019t lighten up until the second half of November.<\/p>\n

Conclusions generally become safer to draw as sample sizes get larger, however, so I\u2019m hopeful the next few weeks will show me some light. I\u2019ll keep searching for signals in the meantime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have a confession to make: I\u2019m not sure how to analyze the Blackhawks right now. Oh, they\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":895773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-895772","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\/895772","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=895772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}