Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Chicago needs to raise its level of concern

Image (1) Quenneville-thumb-250x166-8257.jpg for post 597

The Chicago Blackhawks better get things figured out in a hurry. They’ve won just twice in the last nine games, and stumbling your way into what is supposed to be a Stanley Cup run is not exactly what was expected of this team just a few months back.

Of course, now we’re at the point where Joel Quenneville is focusing on the ‘efforts’ of the players in bad losses, which is never a good sign for what’s supposed to be a dominant team.

“The approach was good,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “The attitude on the bench and in the locker room (was) everybody worked hard. To play like that is a sign that there’s some positive things coming.

“I don’t think we should be happy, (but) looking at it in the right frame of mind is important and trying to be positive. If there’s anything positive, it’s the pace of our game was quicker and better and more effective. That was the positive we can take out of here knowing that (Wednesday night against the Wild) is a big game as well. So let’s get excited.”

The Hawks are doing a lot of talking right now about doing the right thing, working hard...but it’s just not showing up on the ice.

Quenneville’s words echo as a coach who is a bit blind to what is happening with his team. They Blackhawks were far from good against the Blues; perhaps what this team needs is a swift dose of a reality check.

They aren’t guaranteed success in the playoffs, and with the cap issues Chicago will have next season this might be the best chance they have a Stanley Cup. You can talk about effort all you want, but that doesn’t get anything done on the ice.

Just ask Marc Crawford and the Dallas Stars.