Blackhawks Need to End the Jeff Blashill Experiment

The Chicago Blackhawks are the third-worst team in the NHL as of Oct. 25, coming off a 2-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings, a team they should be able to beat. The Blackhawks played an overall decent game and had a solid effort for 55 minutes — the Hawks and the Kings traded places in the standings. Still, against a weak Kings team, the deserve to win o’meter after the game swayed only 50.4 percent in the Blackhawks’ direction; that doesn’t look great, especially for when they play the rest of the NHL, and how much of the win was because they were playing the Kings? 

The Blackhawks are coming off a stretch where they played their worst hockey since the rebuild initially started at the beginning of this season.

It was mainly due to Connor Bedard being out, as he had surgery on his left shoulder over the summer while training in Vancouver. That stretch from September to mid-October was hard on everybody, but you could look at it and say you can’t formally evaluate it without the cornerstone piece in the lineup.

Being 12 games into the season, the Blackhawks are past the honeymoon, they’re going to eventually figure it out stage. Currently sitting at 30th in the league is not good enough, and Bedard missing six games isn’t a good excuse, either. It’s time to start asking questions. 

Blashill’s Seat Should Be Very Warm

Blashill hasn’t had the best go at it in Chicago. The main problem is the system he runs and the power play, which is helped run by assistant coach Mike Vellucci.

Starting with the system of play, the whole thing is flawed and doesn’t fit the style of the players on the Blackhawks whatsoever. The Blackhawks run a 1-3-1 system, which is heavily focused on the neutral zone. Coincidentally, the neutral zone is where they struggle the most. One of the few ways to beat the 1-3-1 is dumping the puck over the defense, because the main goal is to force unclean entries and force the puck out in an east-to-west pattern. However, no team in the NHL has second thoughts dumping the puck in over the defense because they’re either not the first one to the puck or they can’t break it out. Everyone always looks lost. 

For the power play, it’s another steaming hot mess. The Blackhawks’ power play currently sits at 31st in the league at 10.3 percent. Against the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 23, the power play went 0-for-5, and when playing the Florida Panthers, it was even worse, with the Blackhawks going 0-for-7, which included nearly a minute and a half of 5-on-3 play. It was embarrassing. In no world is that acceptable when you have Bedard, Roman Kantserov, Patrick Kane, and when healthy again, Bowen Byram at your disposal. 

Right now, Byram’s out. So, Blashill and Vellucci’s idea was to put Teuvo Teravainen as the quarterback of the first power play unit. Teravainen, over the summer at the beginning of the season, was fighting for a roster spot and was in and out of the lineup. Teravainen being the quarterback is blowing up in their face right now. Not one penalty killer in their right mind thinks that Teravainen’s first instinct is to shoot the puck; the penalty killers don’t even pull to him, and his shot isn’t good enough from the point to be treated as a threat. He needs to get off that unit. 

Overall, the coaches have done a disastrous job over the past 12 games. 

Where to Go From Here

The obvious thing here is firing Blashill. Blashill has used up all of his chances and still has yet to prepare the team to beat the likes of the Carolina Hurricanes, Panthers, Canadiens, or any other top team in the league even once. He’s yet to show any type of competence, and if the group Chicago has right now starts competing again, he has shown time and again that he’s not the right guy to coach a Stanley Cup winning group. He needs to go. 

Blashill and general manager Kyle Davidson share the same vision for the team and how they want them to play, and maybe the same opinions on the players, as well, which will make it more complicated for Davidson to make the firing. 

For what comes after Blashill is fired, well, it’s not our job to figure that out. Bruce Cassidy and Jay Woodcroft are available, though, and will be good hirings. The Blackhawks need to stop galaxy braining for coaches, like hiring Luke Richardson as a first-year head coach and Blashill after he hasn’t been a head coach since 2022 in a failed Detroit Red Wings run starting in 2015. Davidson needs to hire someone established, and those two are a good place to start. 

This problem will be much harder to solve, but it stands with Davidson and how he constructed the roster. It’s filled with flaws, as they get hit around and lose puck battles all night — their only “tough guy” is Jordan Greenway, who leads the team with 23 hits. They also lack a top goal scoring forward right now outside of Bedard, with Kantserov and Anton Frondell still trying to come into their own after just 12 games into their NHL career.

Trading the fourth overall pick for Byram is blowing up in his face right now with Daxon Rudolph playing well in the NCAA. Byram hasn’t had the best start to the season, but he’s only played seven games so far; he has a lot more time to adjust and be what Davidson thought he was when he paid him $12.5 million per year. With the lack of goal scoring and offensive-minded defenders, though, there’s belief that the pick should’ve been dealt for the likes of Matthew Knies or Kiril Marchenko (who were both involved in the blockbuster trade that sent Knies to Columbus and Marchenko to Toronto). 

In terms of Davidson and his job security, his seat is ice cold right now. Ownership believes in him, and Owner/CEO Danny Wirtz just gave him a five-year contract extension. Whether or not it should be ice cold is another story, but there’s no doubt that there is still full trust in Davidson. Going back to the vision, Wirtz seems to be on board with Davidson and Blashill in where the direction of the team is headed. 

In a season where the Blackhawks players promised improvement and had playoff ambitions, this season couldn’t have gone any worse. At the end of the day, they’re in the entertainment business, and they haven’t been doing that. It’s time to make the tough decisions and necessary changes before things go even further downhill.