One particular sentence that Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson said Thursday held true again Sunday, and it will likely continue to hold true for the remainder of the season.
It accurately sums up the Hawks’ predicament at the moment.
“Our depth chart has been hit well, but we’ve been patching holes as we’ve been going on,” Richardson said that night in Seattle. “But once we get to a certain point, we’ve got to be perfect, and we were definitely not perfect tonight.”
Richardson might as well repeat that line after every game. His team’s imperfections will be more obvious in some games than others — they certainly looked less glaring in a valiant 4-3 loss to the Canucks on Sunday than they did in the hideous 7-1 blowout against the Kraken on Thursday — but they’ll always be present.
And considering how much talent is currently missing from a roster that was already subpar entering the season, the Hawks will have a difficult time overcoming those imperfections enough to earn wins moving forward — no matter how much effort they exert.
For most teams, whether they won or lost ultimately determines whether they played well or poorly. For this Hawks team, the measuring point might as well be shifted to whether they lost by a lot or a little.
On Thursday, they played poorly and lost by a lot. On Sunday, they played well and lost by a little. That formula won’t hold true every night — they’ll face some nearly-as-bad opponents occasionally, and Petr Mrazek will earn them a handful of lucky victories if he continues goaltending the way he has — but it will hold true most nights.
“Forgive me, I hate moral victories,” Nick Foligno said Sunday. “But with what we’re facing right now, with the group we have [considering our] injuries, I’m proud of our guys for competing.”
“[That was] arguably a better team we played tonight than Seattle, and we played a way better game.”
The Hawks were nonetheless defeated for the 14th time in their last 18 games, falling to 4-13-1 since Nov. 11. After a relatively competitive 5-7-0 start, they now sit at 9-20-1, ranking last in the NHL and on pace for just 52 points — down from 59 last season.
The interesting thing is this time period — November and December — represented the lowest point of last season, too. They posted a miserable 4-23-4 record over 31-game span and, as of Jan. 4, found themselves on pace for a mere 44 points.
Veteran defenseman Seth Jones, when asked about that repeating pattern a couple weeks ago (before his injury), chuckled knowingly about the reason why.
“When you start the season, especially with this many young players on the team, everyone’s so excited [and] there’s so much energy. It’s their first 10 or 15 games in the league,” Jones said.
“Some guys don’t realize these are actually the easiest games of the year. Once game 40 and 50 hits, teams really start pushing for playoffs, and the game gets a whole lot harder. I’m excited to see how we’re going to respond when it comes to that time.”
The Hawks actually responded fairly impressively at that time last season. From Jan. 4 through March 17, they went 16-13-2 — winning more games than they lost.
A turnaround will probably also arrive at some point later this season. Perhaps it won’t be that dramatic, but there will be brighter weeks. That’s just what happens in a league with as much parity as the NHL.
This roster is even worse than last season’s Hawks roster, though. This season’s record will probably end up being worse, too.
Even though the Hawks have Connor Bedard now and didn’t then — and even though Bedard, who recorded two more points Sunday, continues to live up to expectations — it’s time to accept that unpleasant fact.
