Despite Connor Bedard’s resurgence, the Chicago Blackhawks remain stuck at the bottom of the NHL standings. After a three-game winning streak, the Hawks have lost in consecutive outings on the road. Following a close 4-3 loss during their visit to the Minnesota Wild, interim coach Anders Sorensen voiced a very strong statement to the players in the locker room.
It’s clear as day, the Blackhawks are not built to win in today’s NHL. Their primary focus right now is developing their young stars and advancing their rebuild. Regardless, fans in Windy City would appreciate some wins in the meantime.
After firing Luke Richardson and promoting Sorensen, Chicago witnessed an impressive growth spurt from their franchise cornerstone, 19-year-old Bedard. Since the interim coach’s appointment, Bedard registers 11 points in 9 games. He scored a beautiful goal against the Wild, to open the scoring and give the Hawks an early 1-0 lead.
However, it wasn’t enough for the team and Bedard himself to escape Sorensen’s stern comments postgame.
“I thought it was little bit same story,” Blackhawkscoach Anders Sorensen said, via NHL.com. “Little bit late again. The biggest thing I think is when the game is on the line, it’s a 2-2 game, right? We got to be willing to go and play offensively at the same time. I thought we sat back a little bit too much there.”
Bedard and the Hawks will take advantage of the NHL’s three-day Christmas break to rest and prepare for their next matchup against the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 27. Buffalo just snapped its 13-game losing skid with a commanding 7-1 victory over the New York Islanders.
Veteran calls out the team
Blackhawks center Jason Dickinson has been in the league for a while, experiencing both successful teams and struggling sides. However, he didn’t let the team off the hook following their loss to Minnesota.
“We just kind of let it slip away a little bit,” Dickinson said. “Going 2-2 into the third period is not a bad place to be on the road. We give up that one point shot there to make it 3-2 and they’re able to sit back and kind of control the pace of the play through the neutral zone and not really let us get in the zone, get any scoring chances. So, it’s kind of not something, not a position you want to be in.”
Chicago’s hex in the Twin cities
The Blackhawks cannot win on the road in Minnesota. Chicago’s losing streak at Xcel Energy Center extended to eight games after the loss to the Wild on Monday night. They lost both games in St. Paul this season (both one-goal games) and will not play the Wild on the road until next season.
The Blackhawks last win at the home of the Wild took place on February 2, 2019. Jeremy Colliton was the head coach under the bench then, and Erik Gustaffson scored the game-winning goal in overtime to secure the 4-3 triumph.