Chicago Blackhawks: It can only get better from this pointon January 16, 2021 at 5:00 pm 2024 Events Concerts Things To Do

TAMPA, FLORIDA - JANUARY 13: Steven Stamkos #91 of the Tampa Bay Lightning looks to pass during a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on opening night of the 2020-21 NHL season at Amalie Arena on January 13, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) — TAMPA, FLORIDA – JANUARY 13: Steven Stamkos #91 of the Tampa Bay Lightning looks to pass during a game against the Chicago Blackhawks on opening night of the 2020-21 NHL season at Amalie Arena on January 13, 2021 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The Chicago Blackhawks can only go up from where they are right now.

The Chicago Blackhawks are officially 0-2-0 after two games to open the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have given up ten goals and have only scored three. It has been tough sledding and their goaltenders, Malcolm Subban and Collin Delia haven’t made things much better for them. The good news for Chicago is the fact that they aren’t going to be playing against the defending Stanley Cup Champions on the road in every single game. They are going to play Tampa Bay a total of eight times and two of them are already out of the way.

The good news is that despite the score, the Hawks looked a little bit better in this game compared to the first. The first period of this game especially was Chicago’s best period of the six they have played so far. This isn’t going to be a season that sees them make the playoffs (in all likelihood) so they should focus on improving the game of their young players that will be there long term.

Dylan Strome scored a goal in game number one but it is what you would describe as a “fluky goal”. In this game, Chicago managed to score two goals that you would call “hockey goals”. Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat are officially on the board this season which is very important for this Chicago Blackhawks team. They are going to be relied on to score a lot this season and going forward. Kane is in the second half of his career but he is still one of the best players in the NHL.

Both of those players should get more chances as the season goes on, especially as the competition becomes lesser. The Carolina Hurricanes are an elite team and the Dallas Stars are the defending Western Conference Champions but nobody compares to Tampa Bay right now. Even without Nikita Kucherov in their lineup, it doesn’t yet look like anybody can keep up with them for a long time.

The next game that Chicago plays will be against an old friend. They aren’t leaving the state of Florida before playing two games against Joel Quenneville’s new team in the Florida Panthers. On paper, the Cats are better than Chicago but that doesn’t mean they can’t win. They certainly aren’t as good as their cross-state rivals but they will present a big challenge.

It isn’t going to be easy but the Blackhawks can finally start to work on things for a game against an opponent that isn’t quite the Tampa Bay Lightning. When a team has that many great players coming at you in waves, and you aren’t that deep yourself, it is going to be hard to win.

In this next game against the Panthers, it would be nice to see some of these young defensemen step up and help the forwards out. We don’t know who is going to get tapped on the shoulder to play goal but whoever it needs to play better. Delia wasn’t very good in this second Lightning game as he turned the puck over a few times and it even led to an Ondrej Palat goal on one occasion. Things are looking bleak for this season and potentially the future but they need to continue working on these things as the competition gets less stiff.

The Chicago Blackhawks can only go up from where they are right now.

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