Announcement: The 2018-19 Chicago Blackhawks Are Officially Dead

Hit the music

It was a fantastic ride to start 2019, but after the weekend the 2018-19 Blackhawks are officially dead. It’s over. The Colorado loss was a gut punch, and the Dallas loss caused heavy bleeding, but the loss against the Kings was the final nail in the coffin. Then the San Jose Sharks came and pissed on their grave. Eight points back with 16 games to go is an impossible hill to climb. There’s only so many times Kane and Toews can push the boulder up the hill. It’s rolling down now. Crashing towards the lottery.

You won’t see Stan banging the table and angrily talking about changes like he did after the Nashville. This is exactly what he wanted. He took the same team that finished 7th in the Central last year and then added…Chris Kunitz and Brandon Manning. Those moves allowed him to get exactly what he wanted. Power consilidation with the firing of Joel. The promise of a young core “new” core of Strome, Debrincat, a top 5 pick, and Mitchell, Boqvist, Jokiharju, and Beaudin on defense. It was a Cersei Lannister move and he executed perfectly. The only thing that ALMOST tripped him up was Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews refusing to bend the knee. They are champions. They are winners. And they brought it every single night.

And that is what I will remember most about this season. Those two guys made watching the Blackhawks fun. I had a low threshold for success and them being two of the very best players in the game blew the expectations out of the water. They made us believe. It was fun to hope and dream and long for the playoffs again. They made it seem possible. As someone who uses hockey to truly pass the time during long Chicago winters, they made January and February fly by. It was a fun year. They played with winning habits and made me at least a little hopeful for last year.

So what does the Blackhawks fan mean for YOU?

1) We can talk about Jack Hughes and Kakko

–Look I love winning. I will never sit here and root against the Blackhawks. I can’t do it. It’s not in my DNA. I think tanking has unintended consequences and you end up being a loser franchise. I also don’t think the guys at the top of this draft are of the McDavid/Crosby variety. Meaning I don’t think they’ll transform a team in an instant. Having said that…you will not get banned for rooting for losses at this point. Playoffs are long gone. I can understand the argument for wanting to lose. For wanting to add an instant top 6 player for under a million bucks per year.

2) Fire Stan

Don’t forget that Stan should be fired for this abomination. Toews and Kane both had the best years of their career. They were good enough to be the best players on the best team and Stan failed at his job. They should’ve been fighting for a Cup. Not absolutely killing themselves to sneak in as a wild card. This is a complete and utter failure. He cleared all that cap space and did nothing with and now it looks like it’ll be harder to add to this team next summer as well.

3) Toews and Kane 2020

I am ready for next year.