Blackhawks Make Same Old Mistakes in 2024-25 Season Opener

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For the most part, hockey is too irregular for lessons or predictions to be made from a single game. The NHL regular season is 82 games, stretching across seven months, and close to 1,000 players will play at least one contest during that time. The best teams will get blown out. The worst teams will blow others out. All-Stars will have pointless streaks and a minor-league call-up will score a hat-trick. It’s a Fugazi.

But sometimes, the occasional 60-minute match can perfectly encapsulate what a team is, and that’s what we got on Oct. 8 when the Chicago Blackhawks played their regular-season opener against the Utah Hockey Club, a franchise so fresh they still don’t have a team name. Playing in front of a sold-out crowd at the Delta Center in their first official contest since leaving Arizona, Utah HC defeated Chicago 5-2, leaving the home fans happy for the win and the Blackhawks with another loss to start a new campaign.

Utah Hockey Club Ceremonial Puck Drop
Utah Hockey Club owner Ashley Smith drops the ceremonial first puck for Clayton Keller of the Utah Hockey Club and Nick Foligno of the Chicago Blackhawks prior to the inaugural game of the Utah Hockey Club on October 08, 2024 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

The same frustrations that followed the Blackhawks last season – slow starts, bad power play, too many chances given up, not enough of their own chances, or a lack of finish whenever they got a chance – were present in the season opener. Despite a valiant effort to come back down 3-2 and be within a shot of tying the game, Chicago didn’t have enough in the tank and start the 2024-25 season with a losing record.

Let’s take a look at some of those frustrations.

Bad Start for Blackhawks

The Blackhawks lost 59 games last season (53 in regulation, six in overtime or a shootout) and there were dozens of games lost in the first few minutes of the game, let alone the first period. Chicago would give up an early goal, either from a bad mistake on the players’ behalf, or a weak shot getting by their goaltender, and before fans get out of the line for beer, they may be down 2-0. It demoralizes a team and leaves them chasing instead of pursuing.

Related: Breaking Down Blackhawks’ Opening Night Roster & Lineup

Even with a new season and new players, and an opponent they never faced, it was another lackadaisical start to the game for the Blackhawks. Utah HC forward Dylan Guenther scored the first goal in the franchise’s history off of, let’s be honest, a weak attempt in the slot that beat netminder Petr Mrazek, giving Utah a 1-0 lead just five minutes into the game.

Just 10 minutes later, a failed breakout and ugly turnover by Craig Smith led to a Utah opportunity, where a fanned pass still found its way onto Clayton Keller’s stick, burying it past Mrazek to make it 2-0.

The season isn’t even 15 minutes old, and we’re still seeing the same mistakes from six months prior. A weak shot let in, a bad turnover, a failure to break out and gain entry of the neutral zone. The Blackhawks had three shots total in the first period, something that felt weird typing just now. Three???

I know, I know, it’s early … real early … but it’s these same little mistakes that were the exclamation point on last season and are now writing the opening sentence to this one.

Chicago’s Lackluster Power Play

Last season’s Blackhawks’ power play finished 28th in the league at 16.6 percent, a success rate of exactly one-in-six. With the additions of forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi, along with a healthy Taylor Hall, fans came into the season with optimism. No one was expecting them to produce with the man advantage like the Tampa Bay Lightning or Carolina Hurricanes, but perhaps they’d be closer to the league median, around 20 or 21 percent.

Teuvo Teravainen Chicago Blackhawks
Teuvo Teravainen, Chicago Blackhawks (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

However, if the team’s first two chances on the power play were any indication of what’s to come, it’s going to be a long season. Slow breakouts and attempts at entering the Utah zone were either broken up or intercepted, followed by the home team firing the puck down the ice.

What seemed most baffling was when on the second power play unit, Pat Maroon tried to park himself in front of the net in order to create traffic in front of Utah HC goaltender Connor Ingram. There was a time when the 36-year-old winger was a serviceable giant on the man advantage, once potting in five power-play goals in 2015-16 and recording 11 power-play points with the St. Louis Blues during their Stanley Cup run in 2018-19. But in 2024, Maroon is barely a fourth liner and his foot speed, which was never great to begin with, isn’t where it needs to be when it comes to a modern-day NHL power play, where crisp passing and constant movement aren’t just nice things to have – they’re necessities.

It’s only one game, but going forward, there needs to be a higher level of urgency on the Blackhawks’ power play. For god’s sake, you have two full minutes where you have one more player on the ice than your opponent. Do something with it!

Comeback Kids Falls Short

Utah made it 3-0 midway through the second period on a goal by Barrett Hayton, but the Blackhawks eventually got their first goal of the season, with Connor Bedard feeding Teravainen a silky pass in the slot to make it 3-1 five minutes to go in the second.

Early in the third period, captain Nick Foligno tipped in an Alex Vlasic point shot (again assisted by Bedard!), cutting the deficit to one.

All of a sudden, this Blackhawks unit had some juice. Like so many games last season, after starting out down 2-0 or 3-1, Chicago would storm back with these offensive bursts that any club would envy, and make the second half of the third period interesting. But the NHL’s newest club would score an empty netter, more specifically Guenther burying his second of the game, and a weird squeaker would get by Mrazek to make it 5-2.

Another loss. Another poor start followed by a ferocious comeback that fell short. What’s old is new.

Related: Blackhawks Have the Pieces to Score More Goals This Season

Foligno said as much after the game.

“We knew we weren’t at our game,” the captain told reporters. “It was trying to get ourselves back into the style of play that we need to play.” He added that a big part of it was “shooting ourselves in the foot,” and that Utah’s goals were a result of them making a mistake, not really anything of their own doing.

“That’s the difference in the game.”

Head coach Luke Richardson was in agreement.

“I didn’t like our first period,” he said. “I thought it was a great start to the second period and a really good third period. We (hit) a couple posts, a bit unlucky on luck tonight.”

Final Thoughts

Richardson said that when you start 3-0 on the road, it’s a long climb. He’s not wrong. There’s a lot of new talent on this Blackhawks’ squad, as well as veteran blueliners who bring a wealth of success and experience to this club’s blue line. There’s a lot to like. But during an 82-game, six-month-long season, there’s going to be mistakes, errors, frustrations and tough losses. The one on Oct. 8 was no different.

Obviously this recap and reflection is overly dramatic, but we’re also writing about grown adults playing a children’s game, so excuse the hyperbole. The Blackhawks travel to Winnipeg to face the Jets on Oct. 11, and I’m sure Richardson and his coaching staff will try to tighten up the little things. But if this club hopes to be more than a basement dweller whose season is over before February’s Super Bowl is even played, then they have to identify those same mistakes they made last season and fix them.

Otherwise, what’s old is new, and we’re in store for a long year.

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