Pat Maroon said something Monday about the Blackhawks that nobody can dispute but that only rare breeds like him are willing to speak aloud.
“The NHL needs us in the playoffs,” Maroon said. “It’s better for us, better for the organization, better for the fans, better for the NHL.”
That’s one of many reasons why the gruff 36-year-old forward, despite being on a one-year contract in his eighth different organization, has been so frustrated by the Hawks’ dire lack of success this season.
“I’ve missed the playoffs one time in my career,” he said. “It’s not something I’m used to, losing this much and trying to figure out solutions to solve the problems that are going wrong on this team. It’s really tough. Certainly when you’re driving your car home after games, you’re more pissed off than you are happy most nights.”
Few people reasonably expected the Hawks to be playoff contenders this season, but things weren’t supposed to be this bleak again, no matter what.
After another rock-bottom moment Monday in a 5-2 loss to the Flames, the Hawks remain last in the league standings and on pace to finish the season with 56 points — just four points better than last season and three points worse than in 2022-23, when they were designed to tank for Connor Bedard.
The demoralizing situation is forcing the Hawks’ newest players — who were brought in last summer to theoretically help the team step forward this season — to grapple with a reality they’ve never had to endure before and/or re-frame their expectations lower than they’ve ever been before.
That’s something forward Teuvo Teravainen, who had made the playoffs each of the last six seasons with the Hurricanes and won a Stanley Cup his one previous full season in Chicago, has struggled to do.
“I’ve never been in this kind of situation where, after [the] new year, we’re last in the league,” Teravainen said last week. “Mentally, it has been tough. Winning is so much fun. When you lose a lot of times, after games I end up thinking, ‘What could I do better?’”
That re-framing process has also been difficult for defenseman Alec Martinez, who had won three Cups and made 131 playoff appearances with the Kings and Golden Knights before joining the Hawks in July.
“It’s definitely an adjustment,” Martinez said Tuesday. “It’s frustrating losing. I don’t think there’s a guy in here that enjoys it. We’re all competitors; we all want to win. Honestly, truthfully, it has been tough. You have to kind of change your mindset.”
Martinez mentioned how human instinct, when things go poorly, is to “try to fix everything, all at the same time.” He’s trying to alter his approach to instead focus on small objectives, like helping others — and himself — one area and one person at a time.
Longtime Hawks insist they haven’t and will never let themselves accept losing, but they’ve nonetheless had years to learn how to go about their business and daily lives amid such frequent failure and disappointment.
For guys like Maroon, Teravainen and Martinez, however, this feels like Mars. The constant losing is so foreign to them, and it causes unanswerable questions to rattle through their brains.
How is it possible for the team to be this bad? Why can they seemingly not fix anything? How come they’re individually struggling, too? The reckoning is both humbling and aggravating.
“We were brought in here for a reason, and [if] we want to win hockey games, we have to lead the way and help mentor…while still playing our game,” Martinez said. “It has been an adjustment, but it’s certainly a challenge we’re all willing to accept.”
Said Maroon: “When we play the right way, we see results from it. I just don’t understand why we always fall back on that trap again.”
