Happy New Year, Blackhawks fans! I know, I know… the game was awful yesterday. Brutal. A disaster. But everything around the game was top shelf. Wrigley Field looked great, the FanFest was apparently a great time, Turner’s shows on Gallagher Way were packed with fans and the weather was just right for a hockey game to be played. It’s a damn shame the Blackhawks didn’t show up.
The Blackhawks know that. After the game, Taylor Hall was visibly emotional about the game. While he was complimented for scoring the first goal and playing one of the better games on the team, he bluntly told us he was minus-three so he clearly didn’t help much.
“I’m shocked at how we played,” Hall said. “It’s really disappointing. Our fans have been through so much this year and they really came and supported us today… For us to lay an egg like that, I’m really sad for the people that support us.”
After the game, we were told that Nick Foligno, Connor Murphy, Seth Jones — the three formally recognized leaders — and Hall would speak to the media. When we got in the room, we were greeted by Foligno, Murphy, Hall and… then out came Connor Bedard. The teenager spoke after the game. The 30-year-old making $9.5M did not.
And Bedard said the Blackhawks got dog-walked. And Foligno was equally blunt:
“That’s what makes it so damn difficult right now. It’s just embarrassing to lose 6-2 in an environment like that, at home. Our fans deserve better.”
Blackhawks fans do deserve better.
Chicago has been spoiled over the past 15 years with a dynasty, led by two young players who came in together before they could grow playoff beards. Who were named as two of the forwards on the team’s All-Quarter Century Team during the second intermission yesterday. Chicago expects success from the Blackhawks now.
That wasn’t the case when Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane arrived. There were fans back then — myself included — who used a college ID that had expired 3-5 years prior to get tickets for cheap (like… the cost of one beer at the United Center now). But success in a town like Chicago breeds expectations. Toews and Kane carried the weight of those expectations the final years of their respective tenures in Chicago as the team slowly slid out of the playoff picture.
Now, the weight of those expectations is (unfairly) being placed on the shoulder of Bedard, who isn’t joining a roster with seasoned defensemen entering their primes like Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook and young forwards like Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg and Dave Bolland to support them. Bedard’s on an island right now.
There’s plenty of reason to be hopeful about the future. By all accounts the Blackhawks have drafted well under Kyle Davidson. But something has to change before the fans who have high(er than they should) expectations for the franchise right now walk away.
Which is why I tweeted this during the game last night:
5-1 Blues So… who do the #Blackhawks fire now? pic.twitter.com/d7IFKrhMwG
— Tab Bamford (@The1Tab) January 1, 2025 This was a fun note after the game from both captains. Foligno told us as much in the Blackhawks’ room and Brayden Schenn shared it on the television postgame and in the Blues’ room. It was Schenn, not Foligno, who asked for the fight. I respect the hell out of that. There’s no way the Blues should have accepted an invitation to dance at that point in the night but he wanted to make a memory. Love it. Tip of the cap and stick tap to Schenn for getting it.Assumed it was Foligno who asked for this, but Schenn said post-game it was him. He even took Jake Neighbours’ shift: “I would have come back to the bench if (Foligno) said no.”Schenn said he wanted the memory and that on the long walk back to the dugout, “I felt like a UFC… t.co/oNNy8awhtC
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 1, 2025 Good stuff here on the event itself:Wrigley Field proves perfect setting for ‘absolutely awesome’ Winter Classic ⤵️ t.co/y43Fr59Blu
— NHL.com (@NHLdotcom) January 1, 2025 Good read here from Mark Lazerus:Indoor, outdoor, it's all the same. The Blackhawks let themselves and their fans down once again as the hamster wheel of hell keeps on spinning.My column from Wrigley: t.co/Ms5Y0pk9Qr
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) January 1, 2025 There were a few OHL games on Tuesday. Blackhawks prospect Jack Pridham had a nice assist on the game-tying goal and then scored a go-ahead goal for Kitchener. Here’s the game-winning goal:#Blackhawks prospect Jack Pridham scores a go-ahead goal in the third period for @OHLRangers 2-point day for Pridham pic.twitter.com/ULznsZyGIH
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) December 31, 2024 The US beat Canada at the World Juniors. Oliver Moore was on the wing on the second line and skated 13:28. He didn’t have a point but his speed was still noticeable; he was still on a line with Minnesota teammate Brodie Ziemer.MORE FROM BLEACHER NATION: Check Out BN Fantasy | Subscribe to The BN Newsletter
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