Richardson on Blackhawks: 'There’s not one problem with our team'
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The struggles for the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks continued on Wednesday night, dropping a 4-2 decision to the Boston Bruins for their fourth consecutive loss and eighth loss in their past 10 games.
A season removed from finishing second last in the NHL with just 52 points, the Blackhawks are currently in the league's basement with an 8-16-2 record and 18 points through 26 games.
“We’re not happy with the record, for sure,” Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson told NHL.com after the loss. “The guys are trying to work within the system the right way and unfortunately, like I said before, we don’t seem to have one Achilles heel. There’s not one problem with our team. It’s like one night there’s one area, maybe our defence or our forwards or one player, and then the next night it’s another area by a different player. So, it’s just an accumulation of one-offs every game that put us behind the 8-ball.”
The 'Hawks have scored the third fewest goals in the NHL with 64 and have allowed the 10th most goals with 82.
“We did it to ourselves again,” Blackhawks defenceman Connor Murphy said of Wednesday's loss. “We were sloppy. Seems like we were sloppy with the puck when we had a lull. There are going to sometimes be lulls in periods like we had, and we have to be able to manage that and not do damage to ourselves with costly turnovers and just sloppy play.”
Currently, Chicago owns two selections in both the first and second rounds for the 2025 NHL Draft as well as two picks in the fourth round.
Despite leading his team in scoring with five goals and 14 assists across 26 games, 19-year-old centre Connor Bedard is going through a bit of a sophomore slump in 2024-25.
Bedard tallied 61 points in 68 games in his rookie season to capture the Calder Memorial Trophy.
Off-season acquisitions in Tyler Bertuzzi and Ilya Mikheyev have done little offensively this season, combining for seven goals and 15 points. Meanwhile, veteran winger Taylor Hall has just 10 points in 25 games this season with three of his five goals coming in a single game on Nov. 27. Hall was a healthy scratch for a game last month.
The Blackhawks haven't made the playoffs since COVID-19 shortened the 2019-20 season when the postseason was expanded.