The 2017-18 NHL season was one to forget in Chicago.
So many things went wrong for the Blackhawks, who missed out on the playoffs for the first time in a decade and finished in the basement of the Central Division one year after securing the No. 1 seed.
The Blackhawks have had time to reflect on all that. Maybe too much time.
“This year we tried to turn the page as quickly as we possibly could,” Blackhawks President & CEO John McDonough said Thursday following the 2019 Winter Classic press conference. “It wasn’t fun. When it was March and it was apparent that we weren’t going to make the playoffs, it was painful.