Don’t look now, but after going 0-2-1 to start the season, the Chicago Blackhawks have gone 7-3-2 in their past dozen games, including a 4-0 blanking of the Calgary Flames Friday night.
If the Stanley Cup playoffs began today, the Blackhawks would be a playoff team as they currently sit in the second wild card spot. That’s obviously a stretch, but as we approach the 20 percent point of the season, it’s impressive that the Hawks are where they are in the standings.
But the strange thing about the Hawks isn’t that Connor Bedard is phenomenal. No, the odd thing is that Chicago’s defense has undergone a drastic improvement. To wit: last season, the Blackhawks had the NHL’s second-worst defense, averaging 3.56 goals-against per game. This year, Chicago is averaging just 2.60 goals-against, the fourth-best number in the entire league. If it seems like that is an unsustainable pace for Chicago on ‘D’, that’s because it probably is.
Still, many of the Blackhawks’ ducks are starting to fall in a row. For instance, goalie Spencer Knight was the key reason why Chicago shut out the Flames, turning aside all 33 shots he faced Friday for his first shutout of the season and the sixth of his four-year NHL career.
In six of his past nine games, the 24-year-old Knight has posted a save percentage of .938 or higher, and his overall SP of .926 and his goals-against average of 2.33 this season are outstanding. The Blackhawks indeed gave up star defenseman Seth Jones in the trade that brought Knight to Chicago, but you have to believe Hawks GM Kyle Davidson is extremely satisfied that the trade has improved his team.
The way things are playing out, Chicago is looking like they’re going to be far more competitive this season. If Bedard continues evolving into the icon many thought he would be, and if Knight continues standing on his head, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the Hawks could be on the fringes of the playoff conversation by the end of the season.
To be fair and realistic, the Blackhawks are likely to experience some regression in the weeks and months immediately ahead. But with every game they play so far this year, they appear to be turning the page on a competitive downswing era and returning to being a legitimate Cup contender.
Chicago has suffered through some terrible performances in recent years, and there are still lessons to learn as a group as they continue to establish a new team identity, but at long last, the Hawks appear ready and able to take that next competitive step. Davidson has put many of the pieces in place in the Windy City, and now it’s on the players and coach Jeff Blashill to execute and reward Blackhawks fans for sticking with them through the lean years.
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