Seth Jones era in Chicago begins in disaster.
A complete clown show in Chicago.
The Chicago Blackhawks have not advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs since winning the Stanley Cup back in 2015. Looking to fix that problem Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman went out and made some big moves over the summer, the kind of moves that signalled the team would be in win-now mode.
The Blackhawks shored up their goaltending by acquiring veteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the Las Vegas Golden Knights and followed that up with a move to acquire veteran forward Tyler Johnson from the Tampa Bay Lightning on the very same day. The biggest move of the offseason however was the acquisition of veteran defenseman Seth Jones, and the subsequent decision to sign him an 8 year deal at a cap hit of $9.5 million.
Thus far this season those moves have yet to pan out and although we are only 6 games into the regular season there is a rapidly growing sense of disaster surrounding this team.
On Sunday night the Blackhawks were once again soundly defeated, this time at the hands of the Detroit Red Wings who just 24 hours earlier had been hammered by a winless Montreal Canadiens team by a score of 6 - 1. The loss, and the way they lost, helped the Blackhawks enter the National Hockey League record books for all the wrong reasons. The Blackhawks are now the proud owner of an NHL record for futility, the longest start to a season without ever holding a lead.
Chicago Blackhawks insider Mark Lazerus was quite vocal on Sunday night, openly questioning how the team's ownership could sit idly by and let things continue to degenerate in the way that they have.
Lazerus was not alone in his commentary, with John Buccigross also calling for "major changes now."
Of course it would be unfair to lay all of this at the feet of Seth Jones himself, but there's little doubt that he has not provided what the Blackhawks were looking for. At 5 on 5 this season the Blackhawks have been outscored by a margin of 10 - 0 when Jones is out on the ice, not the kind of statistic you want to see from a guy you just invested $76 million into.
As if that wasn't bad enough, there were audible chants for the opposing team at the United Center on Sunday night. When you consider how much the Red Wings have struggled in recent seasons, that becomes all the more damning.
There may very well be a good explanation for that however. It could very well be that the team's lack of success has driven some of the team's fans away, with Ben Pope reporting that the Blackhawks sellout streak had come to an end after over 500 games.
And of course the cherry on top of it all was a bizarre moment during the third period where head coach Jeremy Colliton appeared to hand over control of the game to his players.
There's little doubt that ownership will need to step in if things continue to trend in this direction.
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