The Chicago Blackhawks are on a similar path to the New York Rangers when it comes to retooling their roster and trying to get back into the postseason.
Unlike the New York Rangers, however, the Blackhawks have tasted success recently having won the Stanley Cup in 2015, 2013 and 2010, although that dynasty is now over and is becoming a distant memory.
The Blackhawks do have some key pieces from that championship run still in place, however, with Captain Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford hoping they have at least one more run in them.
Other than those veterans, however, the Blackhawks sport a new-look heading into 2019-20 and they will be an interesting team to watch this year.
They have an abundance of youth and talent on their roster, but they play in a stacked Central Division and that could be their biggest obstacle to overcome this season.
This is the start of a new era for the Blackhawks, though, and it got underway last year when legendary Head Coach Joel Quenneville, who was the mastermind of Chicago’s three most recent Stanley Cups, was sacked on November 6 following a poor start.
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Jeremy Colliton was announced as the 38th Head Coach in Chicago Blackhawks history on the same day, after the former New York Islanders player impressed while coaching the Hawks’ AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.
Colliton did see some improvement from his team and he finished the year with a record of 30-29-9 as the Blackhawks just missed the postseason.
Spearheaded by the incredible efforts of Patrick Kane, who led the Blackhawks in points with 110 (44 goals, 66 assists), Chicago were in the fight until the last week of the regular season when they were eliminated by the Colorado Avalanche on April 2.
It was the first time since the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons that the Blackhawks had missed the playoffs in back-to-back years, but building blocks had been put in place for the future.
Young stars in the ilk of Alex DeBrincat exploded onto the scene with 41 goals and 35 assists for 76 points, while Dylan Strome benefited from a mid-season trade from the Arizona Coyotes by recording 51 points (17 goals, 34 assists).
Defenseman Erik Gustafsson also had a huge year with 17 goals and 43 assists for 60 points, and nine players registered 30 or more points for the Blackhawks last year.
Chicago ranked 8th in the NHL in Goals For Per Game (3.26), 30th in Goals Against Per Game (3.55), 15th on the power play (20.2) and dead last on the penalty kill (72.7).
So, it is pretty evident that the Blackhawks will need to be a hell of a lot better on the blueline in 2019-20 if they want to avoid missing the postseason for a third consecutive year, although they dropped their opening two games.
They opened the regular season in the Czech Republic with a 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, before losing their home opener 5-4 to the San Jose Sharks. They finally got their first point of the season in an overtime loss to Winnipeg.
Chicago has the offensive weapons in place, led by Toews and Kane, but there are serious question marks over their defensive core and that could be the difference between having a successful season or not.
Against The Rangers
There was an early meeting between these two Original Six franchises as the Chicago Blackhawks were 4-1 victors over the New York Rangers at the United Center on October 25.
Pavel Buchnevich got the lone goal for the Blueshirts while Jonathan Toews, Alexandre Fortin, Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat produced the goods for Chicago.
But the season series was split thanks to a dominant display from the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on January 18.
Brandon Saad fired Chicago into the lead in the first period but three unanswered goals from Filip Chytil, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider put the Blueshirts firmly in the driving seat.
Mika Zibanejad also got on the board in-between efforts from Alex DeBrincat and Dominik Kahun, with the Rangers holding on for a big win.