As the Blackhawks' playoff hopes slip away, I have had to remind myself what this season was really about more and more often.
It wasn't all that long ago that the Chicago Blackhawks were comfortably in the wildcard mix in the Western Conference. Connor Bedard was making strides seemingly every night, and the game was visibly slowing down for him, unlocking that generational potential that we all hoped was inside of him. But fortune in the NHL comes and goes as quickly as do warm winter days in the city of Chicago, and the Blackhawks have seen their luck change dramatically this December.