Three games left.
After falling to the host San Jose Sharks 4-1 on Saturday, the Chicago Blackhawk are left to play out the string.
Or perhaps it’s more akin to performing last rites.
The Hawks host their final two games at the United Center — against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday and Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday — and wrap up the season on the road Friday against the Buffalo Sabres.
“These are the grinds that are not easy to grind out,” coach Derek King said before the game. “These are the ones that you’ve really got to dig deep to find a way to motivate yourself or just figure a way to win that puck battle, shorten that shift, do all the little things right.
“And it’s a challenge for us.”
And afterward, it’s ready, set, rebuild.
General manager Kyle Davidson got a big jump on his roster reconstruction last month, trading Brandon Hagel in a deal that netted two first-round picks in 2023 and ‘24 and promising rookie forward Taylor Raddysh, who has four goals and four assists in 17 games with the Hawks.
The Hawks also are holding onto a couple of long shots at gaining a couple of first-round picks in the upcoming draft: a 7.5% chance at winning the lottery if they stay in the sixth slot or winning the second draw, which would mean they keep the top-two-protected pick instead of sending it to the Columbus Blue Jackets; or upgrading the Minnesota Wild’s second-rounder if the Wild reach the Western Conference Finals and ex-Hawks goalie Marc-André Fleury wins four games in the first two rounds.
The Hawks already were eliminated from the playoffs for the second straight season and fourth time in five years.
So other than improving or worsening their lottery fortunes by a percentage point, the Hawks have nothing to lose or gain by winning or losing the last four games.
But how they finish matters to the organizational mindset.
The Hawks plan on losing, perhaps for several seasons, to build up the roster through high draft picks. But the culture that takes hold during what promises to be lean years either could nourish the rebuild or prove poisonous.
Small cracks in the foundation could become fissures.
This is not a cohesive roster as currently constructed.
The Hawks have a top-heavy side, made up of the last two Stanley Cup veterans in Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and 40-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat. And you have a bottom half of either veterans who could be dispatched in the offseason or young skaters who just as easily could find themselves in Rockford next season.
The Hawks look schizophrenic, alternating between playing “sleepy,” as King terms it, and resorting to hero hockey, perhaps borne out of frustration.
Credit to Tyler Johnson, who has spent enough time on the sideline to be considered an outside observer, for identifying this potential flaw in the Hawks’ team-building.
“I think our compete and everything is there, I just think our decision-making — we make the game way too difficult,” Johnson said after the Sharks game. “We’re all over the ice. We just kind of play one-on-one battles instead of play as a team.
“And when you do that, teams in structure, especially this time of the year when every team is playing at the top of their game, you just start losing. We’ve got to do a lot better job of playing as a team.”
The Hawks to a man have said the right things — that they’re still trying to jell as a team and haven’t retired to their respective corners — but what they’ve shown on the ice much of the season suggests they could be in for a tug of war between development and indifference, which only stands to get worse if they know going in they’re not playoff-bound.
Toews called a recent eight-game winless streak “pretty embarrassing,” and given his storied history he absolutely should feel that way.
Said Seth Jones after Saturday’s game: “Any time you’re missing the playoffs, it’s no fun. But we can continue to grow together and play the right way, try to play consistent through 60 minutes.
“That’s the best thing we’ve got right now.”
DeBrincat’s recent comments indicate he hasn’t quite reconciled himself to what he’s likely in for in the future.
“I think we have a lot we can work on and build off of and obviously next year, with the rebuild, we might lose more games than we win, but that’s obviously never the goal,” he said.
“If we come out hot or (start) doing well, there’s no point to rebuild after that, right?”
No, that’s not right.
Davidson and CEO Danny Wirtz have made it clear that plugging in high-priced free agents hasn’t worked, and the Hawks don’t have the talent in the pipeline to properly support them anyway. The main way to build up a perpetual contender is by acquiring high draft picks and top-end prospects, and that comes at a cost: the sacrifice of veterans and wins.
So that begs the question: What can the Hawks possibly hope to gain from these last four games?
“Well, play for pride and respect,” King said. “We talked about today in the meeting. Should be a little embarrassed about what happened last game (a 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings), only getting six chances (according to naturalstattrick.com, the Hawks had only three high-danger chances).
“That’s not good enough. I don’t care how bad you are as a hockey team, you can get more than six chances in a game. They’ve got some pride on the line, they’ve got to earn that respect back, and it’s a good time to redeem themselves” against the Sharks.
The Hawks started this trip with a 4-3 win against the Arizona Coyotes, but even that game featured some egregious defensive breakdowns that allowed the Coyotes to rally with two goals in the third period to force overtime.
That win was a blip in a 2-10-2 stretch in which the Hawks were outscored 60-35.
At times, the Hawks show life but either are outmanned by more talented teams or undermined by youthful miscues, such as key mistakes by defensemen Alex Vlasic and Alec Regula that led to Sharks goals Saturday.
“We just made some young errors, some mental mistakes that cost us,” King said. “That’s been our problem for a lot of this year. Anytime we make little mistakes or a few mental errors or lapses, it’s usually in the back of our net.”
Other times they look like a team that has given up the ghost — pick any second period at random — but the Hawks insists they hasn’t checked out.
“I don’t think I’ve been out this early as we were, said Jones, who made the playoffs in five of his nine seasons between the Nashville Predators and Blue Jackets. “But the main thing is we stick together in that locker room, we don’t let any outside noise come in and continue to try to be better and work for each other.”
Said King of the possibility of players checking out: “Even if I thought it I would never say it. They can’t check out. There’s no way these guys are checked out. They’re struggling to find a way to play better.
“Mentally, they’re fried, I would say, and it’s just draining right now. They’ve got to find a way as a team, not individually ... to just overcome all these speed bumps and just fight through it.”
If it’s draining now, just imagine what it could be like for 82 games next season.
