Hawks’ playoff hopes all but over after loss to Tampa originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
The Blackhawks have stayed consistent all season long by taking things one game at a time, no matter where they’ve been in the standings. That approach hasn’t changed.
But after picking up only two out of a six possible points in their three-game series against the Nashville Predators, you could sense the demoralization from a group that’s watching their playoff chances slip away quickly. And it showed on Tuesday.
With the Tampa Bay Lightning in town, the Blackhawks looked like a team that knew their shot at a postseason berth was out of reach. They didn’t play with the kind of desperation required at this stage of the season, especially coming off a three-day break, and weren’t mentally sharp in a 7-4 loss to the defending Stanley Cup champions.
“I think everyone in the dressing room knew what we needed to do,” Brandon Hagel said. “We needed to win. Came out tonight and I didn’t think we were 100 percent for the full 60 minutes. At times we were good, at times we weren’t and they made us pay.”
Head coach Jeremy Colliton concurred.
“[If] we’re going to be competitive and win hockey games at the end here, we’re going to need to be better,” Colliton said. “We had some bad things happen to us, some adversity, which certainly is part of it. But I’d like us to respond better, just being willing to compete defensively. But we weren’t ready to compete hard enough away from the puck to give ourselves a chance to win. That’s really it.”
Three teams in the Central Division clinched playoff berths on Tuesday: Carolina, Florida and Tampa Bay. The seedings are up for grabs, and so is the No. 4 spot.
The good news is, Dallas and Nashville both lost in regulation on Tuesday. The bad news? The Blackhawks have slipped too far out of the picture where scoreboard watching doesn’t matter if they don’t take care of their own business.
Despite all that, the Blackhawks’ mindset isn’t changing until the math says they’re done.
“I don’t think our focus changes,” said Wyatt Kalynuk, who scored his fourth goal of the season. “We still come in, take every game by game, shift by shift. We haven’t looked too far ahead all year, we’re not going to start thinking about that stuff now.”
Even though their playoff hopes are all but over at this point, the Blackhawks aren’t just going to mail it in for the final seven games of the season. Colliton believes there are still some lessons that can be learned as they come down the home stretch.
“First of all, you’re not out of it until they put the letter beside your name,” Colliton said. “And the other part is, we need to continue to build a mentality that we can win with going forward. Those habits and details and work ethic, they protect you, they allow you to have success on the ice.
“We’re going to play these games, and someone’s going to win them, and someone’s going to lose them. And then after, we’re going to have to live with our performance. And your name’s on it. Your name’s on the sheet and you stand for it.
“Ultimately, to me, when you come in after you did everything you can to win a hockey game, you did the right things away from the puck, and you did everything you could to win 50-50s and play for the team, then you’re proud of it. That’s what needs to happen, for me. I just think that’s so important that as we prepare for these games, that’s ultimately how we should measure ourselves: Did we give ourselves a chance by how we played?“
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