Blackhawks lose to Kings as Their Season Slips Away

Three years ago, the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanly Cup for the third time in six years. Two years ago they were 47-26-9 (103 points), finishing third in the NHL Central Division, and last year they were the top seed in the Western Conference with a record of 50-23-9 (109 points). Ominously perhaps, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs each of the last two seasons.

This year, Chicago played inconsistently for the first three and a half months of the season, but was 22-16-6 after a victory over Winnipeg on January 12th. Since then, the Blackhawks have gone off the rails. Beginning with a 4-0 shutout at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings, the Hawks have gone 3-11-2, most recently losing 3-1 to the Los Angeles Kings on February 20th.

With that loss, the Blackhawks fell to 25-27-8, or 58 points. They are last in the Central, eight points behind the Colorado Avalanche, and 12th overall in the Western Conference. With eight teams from each conference making the playoffs, the Blackhawks have their work cut out for them if they are to make the post season.

Sure, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are putting up solid, if not career high, numbers, and center Nick Schmaltz is having a fine sophomore season with 40 points through February 21st. But the Hawks have had some nagging injuries to important players, most notably to goalie Corey Crawford. Crawford has played well when he’s been in there, with a record of 16-9-2 with a 2.27 goals against average and a .929 save percentage. But injuries have limited him to just 28 games. His backups are a combined 9-18-6, and the team is 16th overall in goals allowed with 2.9 per game. But it’s not all the fault of the goalies; the Hawks are 18th in the league in scoring at 2.8 goals per game and 29th in the league in power play conversion, scoring at just a 16 % rate when having a man or two advantage. Those numbers scream mediocrity. Still, Chicago is basically a solid team, so this is could just be a season where multiple factors have conspired to cause an off year.