How the Chicago Blackhawks played Sunday was going to tell us a lot about them this season.
Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken had been a tough one for them to swallow after squandering a 2-0 lead at home. A day later, they suffered their most lopsided loss of the season, falling 9-3 to the Buffalo Sabres on the road.
This brought the Blackhawks to Sunday and a meeting with the league’s best team, the Colorado Avalanche. Were the Blackhawks as fragile as the past few seasons, where poor performances led to more poor performances and losses stacked up? If that was the case, everyone was well aware Sunday’s game could get ugly, even if the Avalanche were coming in on a back-to-back. Or would the Blackhawks show signs of being the same structured team they’d been through the first 20 games and prove a few losses wouldn’t derail what they were building?
Ultimately, the Blackhawks provided a mixed answer. In their 1-0 loss to the Avalanche at the United Center, the Blackhawks did get back to their game and were much better than against the Sabres. The Blackhawks even arguably outplayed the Avalanche in stretches.
But the Blackhawks are also well past moral victories. They cringe at that suggestion. Still, that’s probably their reality. This team has outperformed expectations and is still mainly composed of younger players who are learning what it takes to be consistent in the NHL over a full season. The fact that the Blackhawks bounced back from the Sabres game and hung with the Avalanche seems telling that they’re not as breakable as in recent years.
Jason Dickinson provided a long, insightful answer to a question about how the Blackhawks viewed such a game Sunday.
“I think I prefer that part of it — the adversity from last game and the response,” he said. “There’s no easy teams in the league. Like you said, Colorado’s, I guess, the bar right now. The way they’re playing, they definitely deserve to be talked about in that light. But there’s no moral victories in the NHL, as much as we’re a growing team that maybe you can look at these that way.
“But personally, I think we’re just trying to find our way and measuring ourself against teams. Although it’s a good thing to see where we’re at, it’s not something that carries a lot of weight because every game is so different. There’s circumstances every which way you can look at it and break it down. OK, Colorado was on a back-to-back. People are going to find ways to kind of minimize what happened. So every game, it matters. It doesn’t matter who it is on a given night, if it’s two days of rest and then into a game. It all matters. It’s just a matter of doing it on a everyday basis. Like you said, responding on a tough one, that’s what matters to me.”
“I think we’re just trying to find our way and measuring ourselves against teams,” Jason Dickinson said. (Kamil Krzaczynski / Imagn Images)
What also matters much more now is how the Blackhawks fare against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday. The Blackhawks hadn’t lost two consecutive games in regulation this season before Thursday and Friday. Sunday’s loss obviously meant they lost three straight for the first time, and Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill is cognizant of that. Just as he thought the Blackhawks’ structure was slipping recently and took time to address a lot of it during Sunday morning’s skate, he planned to hold practices on consecutive days, something he hadn’t done in weeks, to prepare them for Wednesday.
“Going into Friday’s game, we were one of only four teams that hadn’t lost two in a row in regulation, which is pretty impressive for a young group,” Blashill said. “You look around the league and teams seem to be going on runs both ways. We want to avoid those negative runs. Coming and having greater urgency, we’re going to get a couple of days of practice here … Wednesday is going to be critical. Again, building off a lot of things we did positive, just have a better second.”
Here are other thoughts from Sunday’s game:
• The Blackhawks nearly had another tough call go against them in the closing minutes. Tyler Bertuzzi was called for tripping with 2:34 left in regulation despite the Avalanche’s Josh Manson going down because he lost an edge. Bertuzzi angrily disputed the call as he skated to the box. The officials gathered seconds later, discussed the play and decided to rescind the penalty.
“I have (seen that before) and I think the refs are doing a really good job of that now,” Blashill said. “The more recent future and I can’t particularly say it, but I’ve definitely seen them get together, talk about whether the infraction was actually an infraction. It was clear that was not an infraction, so good for them at a critical moment of the game to swallow it. At the end of the day, everybody can live with the right call.”
• The Blackhawks were the better team after one period and had an 11-2 shots advantage, but they had to know they squandered an opportunity. The Avalanche aren’t a team that sleeps for too long.
That proved to be true in the second period. The Avalanche out-attempted the Blackhawks 31-7 and held a 19-1 advantage in shots on goal in the period.
The Blackhawks nearly escaped the period without a goal, too. But in a rare error by Spencer Knight, his attempted breakout pass was intercepted by the Avalanche’s Tristen Nielsen in the middle of the Blackhawks’ zone. Nielsen put a shot on net from the right side, and Cale Makar was there to finish the rebound from the left circle.
You ALL need to hear the call on this one 😂 pic.twitter.com/XLMSbXBbJl
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) November 24, 2025
• Ryan Greene could have had the Blackhawks ahead by multiple goals by himself in the first period. Greene had four quality looks, three of which went down as scoring chances and two as high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
After the last one, a wide-open shot from the slot that he shot wide, Greene put his head in his hands in frustration. When he got to the bench, he slammed his stick against the boards.
“Really good (first period), everything but finish,” Blashill said. “He had great chances. Again, the goalie made some good saves. He did the right things. It just didn’t quite go in. It was kind of the story of the whole first for us, but I thought he played really, really good. I thought the line was really good.”
• Blashill matched up Connor Bedard’s line, which also included Bertuzzi and Greene, up against Nathan MacKinnon’s line a lot on the night. In 10:43 of Bedard and MacKinnon sharing the ice at five-on-five, the Blackhawks had a 15-13 edge in shot attempts, 7-4 in shots on goal, 7-6 in scoring chances and 2-0 in high-danger chances.
“MacKinnon’s line is a great line, one of the best lines in the league, especially with Nate being out there and a lot of times when he’s out there, Makar is out there,” Blashill said. “They play together, I don’t want to say exclusively, but a lot. So there’s a double-edged sword, and I thought they did a good job. I thought there were times when I’d put Dickey (Dickinson) out there against them, but I didn’t want to give Dickinson a full night just coming back from injury. I wanted Connor to check him and be able to check for his offense, and I thought that line did a good job.”
• Dickinson returned to the Blackhawks lineup Sunday. He hadn’t played since Oct. 30 due to a shoulder injury. Dickinson delayed his return this time to be sure he wouldn’t suffer another similar injury soon.
“Unfortunately, I lack that ability oftentimes, so it bites me in the butt,” Dickinson said. “It did early. So this time I took a little longer to make sure I wouldn’t be back on the shelf for another few games after playing a couple. That’s not a good recipe for me.”
NHL GameScore Impact Card for Chicago Blackhawks on 2025-11-23: pic.twitter.com/OUS0dTzaAA
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) November 24, 2025
• The Blackhawks continued to increase their average attendance with a crowd of 20,441 on Sunday. It was their second-largest crowd of the season. The Blackhawks came into the game 16th in the league with a 17,428 average.
The Blackhawks had some smaller-than-usual crowds to begin the season. They averaged 16,806 fans through their first six home games, and four of their first six home games drew less than 17,000. They’ve since drawn more than 17,000 in each of their last five home games. The Blackhawks have three more home games before hitting the road again.
