Instant Analysis: Blackhawks Fail to Show Up in Loss to Blue Jackets

If this is the lowest point of the season, at least it comes in November. But the Chicago Blackhawks and its fans weren’t thankful for the effort–or result of the 7-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets Wednesday night.

The Blue Jackets headed into Wednesday’s contest with all sorts of dysfunction surrounding the organization–all of it in the forefront of what was a nine-game losing streak. If there was ever a time for the Blackhawks to grab some momentum and take advantage of a situation, it was tonight.

A 7-3 beating later–and well now, it’s a five-game losing streak and bringing back some of the painful lessons of last season. Coincidently, it was last year at this time where the Blackhawks were in the midst of what would be an eight-game losing streak.

For the Blackhawks and their fans’ sake, they surely hope it’s not recent history repeating itself.

Blackhawks Again on the Wrong Side of a Rout

The Blue Jackets jumped out to an early 3-0 lead before Connor Bedard answered with his tenth goal of the season. That would be one of the sole highlights of the game. From the onset, the Blackhawks were beaten to loose pucks, and looked like they were a stride behind for most of the game. Jason Dickinson would add another making it 7-2 and then Ryan Donato notched his fourth of the year late in the third making it 7-3.

It also didn’t help that Corey Perry was a late scratch and was one of several Hawks out with Taylor Hall and Andreas Athanasiou all scratched as well.

The result was a tough effort that saw Adam Fantilli notch an assist and like Logan Cooley in the 8-1 rout back in October, get the better of Bedard and the Blackhawks in a lopsided fashion.

But this one was an outright embarrassing effort, especially as it pushes the losing streak to five games now. In what could have been a great time to turn things around, the Blackhawks had a massive swing and a miss.

Yep, these games happen and it did before this season. But this is a team that cannot afford to miss its chances. Tonight, they missed a big one.