With just four games remaining for the Blackhawks and no postseason in the future, the 2021 season is all but over for Chicago. However, the season wasn’t a total loss. Anyone watching knows that the emergence and development of a number of young players into viable NHL regulars, most of whom will be part of the lineup next season, was a major accomplishment.
And they were singular in that regard this season:
Here are each NHL team s total games played by rookies this season. Blackhawks have the most: pic.twitter.com/PLtpoTJvnA
And that should continue into next year, with some new additions, of course.
With just five games remaining in the 2021 NHL season, including tonight’s contest against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Chicago Blackhawks will most likely miss the playoffs with next-to-nothing to play for in the final handful of games.
Heading into tonight, they’ve already lost four in-a-row, and are just 5-8-1 since the beginning of April. What do they have to play for? Who should be playing? Here’s five things I have on my wishlist to see from the Blackhawks over their fain five games.
#1: More Brandon Hagel
Averaging 13:45 minutes per game this season, Hagel has been getting above his average ice-time in the last handful of starts and I would want to see that continue. One of the more effective forwards the Blackhawks have on the roster, Hagel has averaged 14:59 per game since April 8th and has eight points over his last eight games, with a three-game point streak heading into Monday night. I’d love to see him continue to get used on both the powerplay and penalty-kil
The Chicago Blackhawks head out on the road for the final time this season with three games against the Carolina Hurricanes this week to close their regular season series.
Chicago holds a 2-2-1 record against the Hurricanes this year, being out-scored just 18-17 in their five meetings. The teams last played on April 1st, a 4-3 loss by the Blackhawks. While the Blackhawks are technically still alive in the Central Division playoff race, they would need an excessive amount of good fortune and stellar play to keep those hopes alive longer than the next 18 hours. It seems unlikely that the Blackhawks will be able to find that stellar play to break out of their current four-game losing streak against the surging Hurricanes.