The Chicago Blackhawks had a promising start to their season but things have not gone well lately.
The Blackhawks followed up a 2-2-1 start with four consecutive losses, including a defeat to kick off a five-game road trip on Saturday on Da;;as. That trek continues on Monday in Denver against the Colorado Avalanche, who have won five in a row.
Chicago went into a rebuild a few years ago and has not won 30 games in each of the past three full seasons. The Blackhawks have stocked young talent, led by 2023 top overall pick Connor Bedard, but have not seen the results on the ice.
“We can’t focus on what’s going to happen; we’ve got to focus on the process right now. I’m sick of losing,” forward Patrick Maroon told reporters after Chicago’s 4-2 loss in Dallas on Saturday.
Coach Luke Richardson has shuffled his lines but it hasn’t stopped the losing streak. A silver lining from Saturday night is the Blackhawks trimmed a three-goal deficit down to one before the Stars scored an insurance goal with 18 seconds to play.
It wasn’t much comfort for Bedard, however.
“We’re not just going to be happy that we stayed in a game,” he told reporters. “We’re all NHL players; that’s not the goal. It’s frustrating. We’re what, (2-6-1)? That’s pretty bad. Losing is not fun, so we’ve obviously got to figure it out.”
Colorado seemingly has figured things out after starting the season with four straight losses. A big reason is the play of goaltender Justus Annunen, who was in net for Sunday night’s 5-4 win over Ottawa.
Annunen has started the past four games and allowed just four goals in the first three starts before the Senators slipped four pucks by him in the final 11:45 of the third period.
Coach Jared Bednar publicly has said that Alexandar Georgiev is the No. 1 goaltender, however Annunen has made a compelling case for additional playing time.
Georgiev likely will start the second game of the back-to-back on Monday, and a good performance would make an intriguing situation for the Avalanche. Georgiev has a 4.99 goals-against average in his five games this season, well above his 2.89 career average.
Bednar didn’t panic when his team lost four straight to start the season, and he’s not getting too complacent after five straight wins.
“We learned a lot of lessons in those four. It happens all the time. It’s not exclusive to us,” he said after Sunday’s win. “When you’re losing, then you feel like you’re not playing well, and you start digging in to start playing better, and it’s the attention to detail and the buy-in, the commitment that it takes to win, just doing everything harder and cleaner.
“You’re digging into every aspect of your game. So when you develop those habits, and it comes around for you, it gives them confidence back and it tends to go that way.”
