With a new coach, and many off-season additions to the team, can the Chicago Blackhawks make the playoffs this year?

Offense: For the most part of last season, the offense played pretty well. Unfortunately, the offense needs to play at a much higher level if they want to give their team a shot at making the playoffs this year. I’m pretty optimistic for what this offense can do this season. Dylan Strome had a breakout season with Chicago, scoring 51 points in 58 games. Him and Alex Debrincat can form a deadly second line that will provide more depth to the Chicago offense. Toews and Kane, Chicago’s two main superstars, looked great last season and there should be no problem for them to remain consistent this year. I like the addition of Andrew Shaw to the roster as he provides a large physical presence that Chicago seemed to be missing last year. I’m excited to see what Kirby Dach, Chicago’s top draft pick, can do this year. Eliteprospects.com said that Dach is “a highly skilled playmaker who sees openings that most players don’t”.  Although he is still young, I have high expectations for him. His skill level and elite hands were evident at training camp and he can almost immediately make high contributions to this Chicago offense.

Defense: According to Foxsports.com, Chicago ranked 31st of 32 teams in goals allowed. Although some of this maybe due to bad goal-tending, the defense was completely lackluster. Both Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook have had significant declines in production in the past few years. While Gustafsson and Murphy are both solid defensemen,  but they need to be blocking more shots and clearing out rebounds from the goalies more. This was a huge issue last year, as opponents were able to. It will be interesting to see how Adam Boqvist, Chicago’s top defensive prospect, will fit into this Chicago blue-line core. The defense this year must prioritize playing defense over playing offense. If they allow too many shots to be taken at Crawford or Lehner, it could cost  many games for them if the offense under-performs even a little bit..

Goal-tending : This was a big issue for Chicago last year, as an aging Corey Crawford missed significant amounts of the season. With the signing of prized free agent, Robin Lehner, the Blackhawks goal-tending situation should be mostly resolved.  Robin Lehner had an incredible season with the New York Islanders last year, posting career bests in Goal Allow Average and Save %. He was also the key contributor to New York’s triumph in the first round of the playoffs in 2019. I have high confidence that he will be able to play at the same level this year, so long as he stays healthy. Both him and Crawford can propel Chicago into the playoffs if they play consistently well.

If Chicago can play with a more gritty and aggressive style of play they can for sure make the playoffs. Chicago was able to thrive under solid defense and solid offense during those playoff years.  As of right now, I’d bet on Chicago to make the playoffs this year.

Links: https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/268089/kirby-dach

https://www.foxsports.com/nhl/team-stats?season=2018&category=OVERALL&group=1&time=0