RALEIGH, N.C. — The contrast couldn’t be starker between the Blackhawks’ two biggest storylines right now.
On one hand, they’re a loss machine showing no signs of slowing until the season ends.
After falling 6-3 to the Hurricanes on Monday night, they have now dropped 21 straight road games, a streak that began in early November and will extend into March. They’re 15-38-3 overall, in last place in the NHL, and they’re on pace to finish with just 48 points, which would be the worst full season for the franchise since 1956-57, when a full season was only 70 games.
On the other hand, rookie forward Connor Bedard is a revelation. He looked good in October and great in November, and he’s only getting better and better. It’s mind-blowing to imagine how he’ll look in, say, 2026 or 2030.
Bedard added another three points Monday and could have had a fourth if not for a goal overturned by an offside challenge for a second straight game. The Hawks have scored seven goals as a team in the three games since Bedard returned from his broken jaw; he has contributed to six of them. He now has 39 points in 42 games.
And so the dueling storylines continue, as they will the rest of the season.
Bedard is good. The Hawks are bad. Rinse and repeat.
“This is just a year of lessons,” forward Nick Foligno said. “It sucks saying that, but we’re going to have to go through it as a group.”
Coach Luke Richardson tried to impart one of those lessons before the game Monday, warning his young players who hadn’t yet faced the Hurricanes how fast they move and how dominant their structure can be in controlling puck possession.
Richardson described it as a “different animal.” But there’s only so much to be learned from words rather than experiences, and the Hurricanes indeed swamped the Hawks for long stretches. The 42-17 disparity in shots on goal (it was 27-7 at one point) was as predictable as a 25-shot differential can be in the NHL.
“We just had trouble handling their speed,” Richardson said. “We didn’t have the puck hardly at all [during] the first half of the game. It’s hard to create anything offensively, and obviously [there was] way too much energy wasted defensively. . . . We’ve got to be up to speed at the NHL level, and they really showed us that tonight.”
A spinning backhand goal by Foligno late in the second period gave the Hawks some life, and Bedard was involved in two tap-in power-goals in the third period — the first from Philipp Kurashev to him, the second from him to Tyler Johnson — that cut the deficit to 5-3. It was only the second time this season the Hawks have scored multiple power-play goals, and it came after squandering a long five-on-three advantage early on.
The game never felt remotely up for grabs, but every step forward from Bedard is worth appreciating nonetheless.
“Early on, [Connor] got caught thinking — we all did,” Foligno said. “But then you start to see his instincts and his competitiveness. He was [mad] that the game wasn’t going [well], he wasn’t handling [the puck] as much, and he started to turn it on. He started to want to make a difference, and when he does that, he’s as special as anybody in this league.”
Forward Anthony Beauvillier returned after missing the last 18 games with a broken wrist. He slotted alongside Jason Dickinson on the second line and logged 16:13 of ice time.
