Apologies in advance, because starting off a Friday with this level of pessimism isn’t something I enjoy doing. But I also come to this site to sometimes share opinions with like-minded folks regarding our favorite professional hockey team and this is, regrettably, what I have to offer at the moment.
I’m having a hard time distinguishing the 2021 Blackhawks from the ‘18-19 and ‘19-20 versions of the team.
Take the “rebuilding” label away for a moment, because we’re going to revisit it. But analyzing the teams as a whole from each of the last three seasons yields an eerily similar result: a team with forward talent somewhere between “decent” and “good” that scored enough to overcome inconsistent, shoddy defensive play that was also routinely bailed out by stellar goaltending.