Connor Bedard Carries Heavy Burden as Chicago’s Crease and Power Play Falter

Before the ice had even dried during the first intermission in Raleigh on Saturday night, Spencer Knight had already fished four pucks out of his net while Jeff Blashill stared motionless across the bench during an eventual 9-2 rout by Carolina. That lopsided defeat punctuated a punishing road swing and dropped the Chicago Blackhawks to 4-13-1, anchored in eighth place at the bottom of the Central Division.

Eighteen games into the 2026-27 campaign, the gap between Chicago’s long-term talent pipeline and nightly NHL survival remains starkly visible. Even with Connor Bedard pacing the club at 14 points and rookie winger Roman Kantserov burying a team-best nine goals, a 31st-ranked offense averaging 2.17 goals per game and a 31st-ranked defense surrendering 4.22 goals against per contest have left zero margin ahead of Thursday’s home date against Buffalo.

Jeff Blashill’s Youth Mandate Collides With Brutal Early Reality

Handing the bench to Jeff Blashill was supposed to marry structured defensive-zone habits with the next wave of cornerstone prospects arriving on Madison Street. Management surrounded Bedard with gritty net-front finisher Tyler Bertuzzi and dynamic winger Roman Kantserov on the top trio, slotted teenage center Anton Frondell between veterans Andrew Mangiapane and Teuvo Teravainen on the second unit, and paired battle-tested defenseman Ian Cole alongside lanky shutdown anchor Alex Vlasic. Yet collecting just nine standings points through 18 outings (4-13-1) has exposed how unforgiving the Central Division remains when half the lineup is still learning pro gap control.

Rather than taking a smooth step out of the Western Conference cellar, Chicago owns a league-worst -31 goal differential (39 goals scored against 76 allowed) following consecutive road losses at Tampa Bay (4-1) and Carolina (9-2). Oddsmakers reflect that steep climb on the championship board, pricing the Blackhawks at +100000 in 2026-27 Stanley Cup futures. For Blashill, the immediate priority is no longer chasing premature standings milestones—it is stabilizing five-on-five shifts before defensive breakdowns erode the confidence of teenagers and first-year regulars across all four lines.

Roman Kantserov’s Finishing Spark and a Surprisingly Feisty Penalty Kill

Amid the heavy losses, Chicago’s top forward combination has flashed genuine chemistry whenever it gains clean neutral-zone speed. Bedard leads the Blackhawks with nine assists and 14 points while drawing every opponent’s premier checking pair, creating high-slot seams for Kantserov to wire home a team-leading nine goals. Down the middle, third-line center Frank Nazar—flanked by speedster Oliver Moore and versatile veteran Ryan Donato—has injected north-south pace, helping Chicago generate 72 takeaways (tied for 16th in the NHL) when forecheckers angle puck carriers toward the boards.

Just as encouraging is the quiet resilience of Blashill’s shorthanded structure. Despite taking 63 minor penalties (tied for 11th most in the league) and surviving 56 shorthanded situations, Chicago’s penalty kill has clicked at 78.6 percent to rank 11th in the NHL. Even better, the Blackhawks have refused to sit back passively in a tight four-man box: they have potted two shorthanded goals (tied for seventh in the league) while refusing to surrender a single shorthanded tally against (tied for first), proving the coaching staff’s defensive reads can hold up when structure stays intact.

Power-Play Paralysis, Crease Waivers, and Veteran Injury Absences

Everything unravels for Chicago when teams hem its young defensemen below the hash marks or force special-teams exchanges. At even strength, the Blackhawks control just 42.8 percent of five-on-five shot share—the share of total shots on goal generated at five-on-five, serving as a direct proxy for puck possession—which ranks 31st in the NHL at 22.9 shots for per game against 30.7 shots allowed (-139 shot differential, 31st). Worse still, Chicago wins an NHL-worst 41.9 percent of its faceoffs (32nd), meaning Bedard, Frondell, Nazar, and fourth-line center Ryan Greene spend exhausting shifts chasing pucks before ever establishing an offensive cycle. On the man advantage, the Blackhawks sit dead last in the league at 9.8 percent (5-for-51, 32nd), dragging their combined special-teams net index down to 88.4 percent.

Those structural leaks forced front-office action in the crease while veteran injuries thinned out secondary skill. With Chicago ranking 29th in team save percentage (.872), management placed goaltender Arvid Soderblom on waivers, assigned him to AHL Rockford after clearing, and recalled backup Drew Commesso to support confirmed starter Spencer Knight (.881 save percentage). Meanwhile, veteran winger Patrick Kane remains on injured reserve with an upper-body injury suffered against Colorado (eligible November 12, though his exact return status for Thursday against Buffalo remains uncertain), and defenseman Bowen Byram sits on injured reserve with an upper-body issue (sidelined since October 13, eligible November 14), leaving young blueliners Ethan Del Mastro, Artyom Levshunov, Wyatt Kaiser, and Sam Rinzel to absorb heavy nightly minutes.

Growing Pains on the Blue Line Versus Snakebitten Underlying Luck

Evaluating Blashill’s system fairly requires separating genuine rookie mistakes from brutal early variance. Chicago currently carries a 96.6 five-on-five PDO—the sum of even-strength shooting percentage and save percentage, where 100.0 represents league-average puck luck. Anything below 98.6 signals severe finishing and goaltending cold streaks, and Chicago’s 29th-ranked shooting clip (9.4 percent) paired with a .872 team save percentage suggests the scoreboard has punished the Blackhawks even harsher than their underlying chances warrant.

Still, positive shooting regression alone will not rescue a club that ranks 31st in blocked shots (200), 28th in hits (309), and 32nd in total assists (65). Pairing physical left-shot prospect Ethan Del Mastro with prized right-shot blueliner Artyom Levshunov on the second tandem—while giving Wyatt Kaiser and Sam Rinzel third-pair runway ahead of depth defenseman Kevin Korchinski—inevitably invites blown coverage assignments and 302 giveaways (22nd). Integrating Kane’s half-wall poise and Byram’s transition skating once both clear injured reserve will be vital to lifting pressure off Frondell and Levshunov.

Navigating the Central Division Gauntlet Into Winter and Early 2027

Returning home to the United Center on Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres offers Chicago a much-needed reset after its bruising southeastern trip. In a top-heavy Central Division where Minnesota (13-3-4), Colorado (11-6-2), Dallas (10-5-2), and the Utah Mammoth (10-7-1) are banking points at a relentless clip, digging out of a 4-13-1 hole to threaten the Western Conference wild-card race by spring 2027 is unrealistic unless special teams and faceoff execution transform overnight.

Instead, the true measure of Chicago’s winter stretch through January and February 2027 will be whether Spencer Knight and backup Drew Commesso can push team save percentage back toward league average while Blashill’s young centers climb out of the faceoff basement. If Bedard, Kantserov, Frondell, and Levshunov turn that depressed 96.6 PDO into cleaner five-on-five shifts over the next two months, the Blackhawks can still convert a painful November into foundational growth.