The Chicago Blackhawks are not the worst team in the National Hockey League on paper. They are, however, one of the worst teams in the league when it comes to production. It is a top-heavy group that just can’t find a way to consistently win games this season. The excuses about the bad GM and bad coach were valid but they are gone now.

Their most recent issue came on Thursday against the Arizona Coyotes. According to the NHL standing, those Yotes are actually the worst team in the league. Most rational NHL people would probably have them ranked 32 in the power rankings if they were to make a list.

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Sure, it started out well with a Notre Dame passing attack that was moving the ball as well as they can. Unfortunately, the game changed in the second quarter.

It started after Oklahoma State quarterback Spencer Sanders escaped a sack and converted a first down instead of putting the Cowboys in second and long against an Irish defense that was getting consistent pressure.

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — No matter how lopsided the Blackhawks’ 2019 swap of Henri Jokiharju to the Sabres for Alex Nylander looks in retrospect — after Nylander’s unceremonious departure to the Penguins on Wednesday — there’s another player the Hawks can always hold over the Sabres: Brandon Hagel.

When Hagel broke out as a rookie last season, former Sabres general manager Jason Botterill’s 2018 decision not to sign him and relinquish his rights — Hagel had been drafted in the sixth round two years earlier by Botterill’s predecessor, Tim Murray — already looked as dumb as ex-Hawks GM Stan Bowman’s Nylander obsession.

Hagel’s solid performance in 2021-22 has further underscored Botterill’s foolishness.

That’s water under the bridge now for Hagel, though. He passed the threshold of 82 career games Sunday. Though being put in the COVID-19 protocol Thursday could keep him out for a few games, he’s as secure and at home in the NHL as anyone at this point.

But he’s still craving his first taste of true NHL team success — namely the playoffs.

“Everyone takes a little peek,” he said Tuesday. “Everyone wants to play in the playoffs, everyone wants to get there, so you’re always doing the math a little bit in your head every once in a while.”

Unless he’s doing it wrong, that mental math is presumably spitting out some very low numbers.

The Hawks needed to snap their pattern from November and December of alternating wins and losses with a big winning streak if they wanted to become legit playoff candidates. Instead, they went on a big losing streak.

Entering Thursday, their playoff odds sat at 0.4%, according to Sports Club Stats.

Hagel nonetheless insists he and the rest of the Hawks still believe in themselves.

“We’ve been saying it all year: We’ll get out of this,” he said. “I don’t think we’re counting ourselves out anytime soon.

”We’re going to keep pushing, keep playing the way we can and keep sticking together as a group because that’s what’s going to get us out of this.”

He’s doing his part, at least, to help the cause.

With eight goals and eight assists in 30 games, Hagel entered Thursday leading the Hawks in even-strength points per minute.

Significant chunks of Patrick Kane’s and Alex DeBrincat’s totals are generated on the power play, but that’s not the case with Hagel.

Brandon Hagel entered Thursday with eight goals and eight assists this year.Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

His rare combination of breakaway speed, an intense work ethic and a willingness to get physical when needed makes him an ace-in-the-hole kind of option for interim coach Derek King.

“He’s a huge part of [our offense],” King said. “The way he plays, I can put him [in the] top six or bottom six, and he’s going to play the same way. He’s not going to change his game. He helps other players; he helps other lines. If he’s scoring, great. If not, he’s still creating something out on the ice, which helps us.

“He’s going to score more greasy goals than DeBrincat-style goals, but we need a lot more of those greasy goals from our guys.”

If there’s any criticism to be made of Hagel’s performance, it’s his moderate shooting decline over the course of the season.

His shot frequency has dropped from 2.7 to 2.3 per game and his accuracy (on-goal rate) from 58% to 37% when comparing his pre-Dec. 1 and post-Dec. 1 stats.

King said he wasn’t worried about that, though. And Hagel’s mellow personality doesn’t lend itself to getting bogged down and overthinking a slump, as shown by the casualness of another one of his comments Tuesday.

“I’d like to score more — I’ve kind of taken a break off of that — but offensively I’m doing what I can,” he said. “I don’t think it’s been too out of place.”

He has been working during this season on his timing, his play along the boards and his ability to flip back and forth between right and left wing. He’ll hope his time away doesn’t derail that momentum.

And at 23, he almost certainly hasn’t reached his NHL peak yet. When the Hawks finally manage to rebuild themselves into playoff contenders, Hagel stands as good a chance as anyone on the roster to still be around.

The wait until that moment might just turn out to take longer than he hopes.

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When the Los Angeles Lakers host the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night (10 p.m. ET on ESPN and the ESPN App), the team and the NBA will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Lakers’ 33-game winning streak in the 1971-72 season, regarded as one of the most unbreakable records in NBA history. It was Jan. 7, 1972, when the Lakers beat the Hawks 134-90 to run the streak to 33 games before falling in Milwaukee two nights later.

In the 75-year history of the NBA, there have only been five 20-game winning streaks within one season, an indication of just how rare such a run is. To frame what it takes to put together something even close, consider the last two.

The 2015-16 Warriors started 24-0, and all they had was the best regular-season team ever, finishing 73-9. The 2012-13 Miami Heat won 27 in a row, and all they had was LeBron James at the peak of his physical powers as well as three other Hall of Famers (Ray Allen, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade) playing in perfect harmony.

Yet the 1971-72 Lakers, led by Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Gail Goodrich (Elgin Baylor had retired nine games into the season, literally just before the streak began), posted a record that has remained relatively safe.

Here is a look at some of the individual records that have stood and likely will stand the test of time as unbreakable, even 25 years from now when the NBA celebrates its 100th season.

Season

o Wilt Chamberlain‘s entire 1961-62 season is essentially written in statistical concrete, never to be duplicated. He averaged 50.4 points per game, the highest ever — and no one is close. Michael Jordan is the only player besides Chamberlain to average more than 37. Chamberlain averaged 39.5 shots per game, the highest ever — and no one is close. No one else has averaged more than 30. Elgin Baylor once averaged 29.7, Jordan and Allen Iverson each averaged 27 once.

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Another mark sure to stand forever is his 48.5 minutes per game average. He was never substituted out that season; he only missed eight minutes of one game after he was ejected in the fourth quarter. He reached an average of more than 48 minutes because he played seven overtime games. He was miraculously almost never in foul trouble, averaging a career-low 1.5 a game.

o Rasheed Wallace‘s 41 technical fouls. Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference finals lives in infamy in Portland because of controversial whistles. Wallace’s relationship with officials went from bad to worse, and it played out the following season as he racked up a record 41 technicals on the way to 18 ejections. In 2006, the NBA put in new rules that called for suspensions once a player reaches 16 for a season, and it has probably iced Wallace’s record for good. He’s third all time in technical fouls with 317 over his 16 seasons, behind only Karl Malone, who had 332, and Charles Barkley, who had 329.

o Walt Bellamy‘s 88 games. In 1968-69, Bellamy started with the New York Knicks and played 35 games. Then he was traded to the Detroit Pistons and, because of an unbalanced scheduling quirk, played 53 games there to reach 88 for the season. Players have played more than 82 games 41 times, most recently when Josh Smith played 83 in 2014-15 for the Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets. Second to Bellamy is Tom Henderson, who played 87 games between the Bullets and Hawks in 1976-77.

Career

o Moses Malone‘s 6,731 offensive rebounds. When you include his ABA numbers, it’s 7,382. That’s 2,500 more than second-place Artis Gilmore and 2,100 more than Robert Parish when looking at only the NBA numbers. He has the two highest offensive rebounding games in history with 21 and 19. The current active leader in offensive rebounds is Dwight Howard, who is still 2,600 behind Malone.

o John Stockton‘s 15,806 career assists. Stockton led the league in assists nine consecutive seasons from 1987 to 1996. He is nearly 4,000 ahead of No. 2 all time, Jason Kidd, and 5,000 ahead of No. 3, Chris Paul. At 36 years old, Paul is averaging a league-leading 9.9 APG this season. He’d have to keep that up until he was 42 years old to pass Stockton. The former Utah Jazz legend owns the four highest assist seasons in history and seven of the top 10. He had 31 games of 20 assists or more. Stockton is also the all-time leader with 3,265 career steals, which is almost 600 more than Kidd at No. 2.

Friday, Jan. 7
Bucks at Nets, 7:30 p.m.
Hawks at Lakers, 10 p.m.

Wednesday, Jan. 12
Mavs at Knicks, 7:30 p.m.
Nets at Bulls, 10 p.m.

All times Eastern

o A.C. Green‘s 1,192 consecutive games. The run lasted 16 consecutive seasons with four different teams from 1986 to 2001. Green passed Randy Smith, who played 906 consecutive games from 1972 to 1982. The longest recent streak was that of Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles, who played in 384 consecutive games from 2015 to 2021. Tristan Thompson played 447 consecutive games with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2011 to 2017.

o LeBron James‘ 1,067 consecutive regular-season games (and counting) of double-digit scoring. James started the streak in 2007 and has had a few close calls, including last season when he hit a 3-pointer to reach 10 points only after badly spraining his ankle in a game and then leaving for the locker room. Earlier this season, he left a game with an abdominal injury after scoring 10 points. James passed Jordan, who had the previous record of 866 consecutive games, in 2018. The only ongoing streak that was close belonged to James Harden, but that ended last season at 450 games after he had to leave a game with a hamstring injury. James has scored fewer than 10 points in two playoff games during the span, the last in 2014 when he scored seven points against the Indiana Pacers.

o Hakeem Olajuwon‘s 3,830 blocks. Mark Eaton‘s record of 5.56 blocks per game in a season is far-fetched, too, but Olajuwon’s number is enormous. He’s more than 500 ahead of second-place Dikembe Mutombo, who is closer to ninth place than first on the list. To match Olajuwon, a player would need to play every game for 15 seasons and average 3.1 blocks a game. There are only three active players who have averaged 3 blocks in a season even once (Myles Turner, Serge Ibaka and Hassan Whiteside).

Game

o Scott Skiles‘ 30 assists. This record has already stood the test of time, as it’s been on the books for more than 30 years dating to Dec. 30, 1990. He was stuck on 29 assists, the record held by Kevin Porter from 1978, for six minutes in the fourth quarter before getting the record dime with a minute to play. Skiles, who averaged 8.4 assists per game that season and later had a 20-assist game, scored 22 points that night (and the Orlando Magic scored a team-record 155 points in a win over Denver). The closest anyone has come recently was in 2017, when Rajon Rondo had a 25-assist game with New Orleans. Over the past 10 seasons, Rondo and Russell Westbrook are the only players to have more than 22 assists in a game.

Want to forecast where your favorite NBA stars could wind up? Create your own deals with ESPN’s Trade Machine.

o Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 points. The 60-year anniversary of this feat, accomplished March 2, 1962, is coming up, and there’s an excellent chance the 100th anniversary will come without it being touched. Chamberlain had a 78-point game earlier that season (in a triple-overtime loss to the Lakers when Elgin Baylor put in 63 points) and two 70-point games the following year. The key was at the line, where he was 28 of 32. He was a career 51% free throw shooter, and it was easily the best-percentage free throw night for him in that magical season. Second-most ever, of course, were the 81 points Kobe Bryant scored in 2006 taking 17 fewer shots (46 to Wilt’s 63). Since Bryant, Devin Booker is the only player to reach 70 in a game, still 30 points shy of Chamberlain’s record.

o Wilt Chamberlain’s 55 rebounds. This happened Nov. 24, 1960, in a game Chamberlain later said was one of the most exhausting of his career. The opponent was Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics, who won by three points. It broke Russell’s record of 51 rebounds set the previous season. Chamberlain and Russell have the 12 highest-rebound games in history. Only two other players have had 40 (Nate Thurmond and Jerry Lucas) in history. There have only been a few 30-rebound games in the past two decades, the most recent being one from Enes Freedom, who had 30 in a game last season. To put in perspective how unlikely this record is to be broken, there have been fewer than 50 instances of a team having at least 56 rebounds in a regulation game this season. The Jazz had 68 in a December win over the Hornets (Rudy Gobert pulled down 21 of them), matching the season high the Grizzlies set in a November win over the Kings (no Memphis player had more than 12).

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As the Omicron variant continues to run roughshod, the NBA is requiring non-boosted players to undergo daily coronavirus testing through the All-Star break in mid-February and is restricting those players’ attendance at large indoor gatherings, bars and clubs, according to a memo obtained by ESPN on Thursday night.

Elevated daily testing of all players, coaches and basketball staff that started Dec. 26 also will continue through Jan. 15, according to the memo.

That testing cycle was originally supposed to end Saturday, but it’s been extended an additional week.

The NBA and National Basketball Players Association agreed on several increased testing protocols in the wake of the ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases. Those testing requirements don’t include team off days, the memo said.

Also, mask requirements for team personnel surrounding travel, hotels and team facilities will be extended through Jan. 19, the memo said.

The NBA had 11 games postponed in December and 300-plus players and 12 head coaches placed into health and safety protocols this season.

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The Blackhawks lost 6-4 to the Coyotes on Thursday. | AP Photos

The Hawks’ 6-4 defeat Thursday against the NHL’s worst team marked their sixth consecutive loss — and arguably a new low in a season full of them.

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Derek King returned to the Blackhawks’ locker room, moments after their 6-4 loss to the Coyotes, to find the door closed.

A players-only meeting had commenced. Jonathan Toews and the rest of the team leadership handled the message. King never stepped foot inside or said a word to anyone.

“The specifics [of the conversation] always stays behind closed doors, but the jist of it was there’s clearly times in these last few games where we’re playing really good hockey, and then we just decide to take a few shifts off,” a stoic Toews said a while later.

“We’ve got to find ways to commit to each other and not have those lapses of energy and focus. We don’t want this little skid to snowball into something bigger than it is. So mentally, [we’re] just trying to flush a couple of those losses down the tube.”

After all that has gone horribly wrong for the Hawks this season, Thursday’s embarrassing defeat to the NHL’s worst team set arguably a new low — on the ice, at least. They’ve now lost six straight.

The night began to derail even more warmups began. The team’s COVID-19 protocol list jumped from one player to four, with Brandon Hagel, Erik Gustafsson and newly acquired Sam Lafferty all joining Kevin Lankinen.

King had just 11 forwards at his disposal and shuffled through virtually every line combination possible. Nicolas Beaudin was dressed as the seventh defenseman and 18th skater, giving the Hawks a technically full-strength lineup, but he played just 71 seconds in his first NHL appearance this season.

“It’s tough to rotate guys in all the time,” King said. “It’s just off. We’re off to begin with, and then we weren’t ready to start the game. Just kind of one of those days.”

The game itself was a strange, chaotic affair, featuring four delay-of-game penalties, countless momentum shifts and a hat trick by a player (Johan Larsson) with zero previous goals this season in front of an extremely sparse crowd at Gila River Arena.

The Coyotes entered the night with six wins in their first 31 games, having never led by multiple goals at any point in those 31 games. They finished the night having produced three different multi-goal leads.

The Hawks did produce some good stretches, particularly early in the second period — ripping off nine consecutive shots and two consecutive goals to tie the game — and late in the third, climbing back from 5-2 down to create some nerve-wracking final chances. They finished with firm advantages in nearly every statistical category, including a 32-22 scoring-chance edge.

But their penalty kill continued to struggle, Marc-Andre Fleury allowed four-plus goals in his second consecutive start since returning from COVID himself and the Hawks themselves felt like they weren’t focused during a number of shifts.

“Our start was pretty flat,” Toews said. “In the second [period], we got into penalty trouble again. Moments like that, we’re giving up one, two, three goals and we get ourselves in a hole. Those are making the difference for us right now.”

Mike Hardman and Ian Mitchell were also recalled to the active roster along with Beaudin during the pregame COVID-induced shuffle. They’ll presumably join the team Friday in Las Vegas.

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