With the type of year the Blackhawks’ offense is having, just about every goal this season has come as a surprise. That’s why it wasn’t shocking when Chicago was nearly shut out once again by the Golden Knights Tuesday. The Blackhawks narrowly avoided hanging another donut on the board with less than four minutes remaining in the game thanks to a Vegas skater running into his own goalie. Chicago put 24 shots on the net in its penultimate game.
With just one goal Tuesday night, the 2023-24 Blackhawks continued to make history, and not in a good way. Chicago all but secured a new franchise record for the fewest goals scored in franchise history. With just one game to play, the Blackhawks have only tallied 174 goals. That’s well below the previous lowest number of 188, which was set by the team in the 2003-04 season. The only other times where Chicago failed to eclipse 200 were in 1997-98 (192) and 2006-07 (195).
Given the Blackhawks are setting the wrong kinds of franchise records, they’re not faring too well in the NHL rankings, either. Their 174 goals beat out the Sharks’ 179 for the fewest in the league. The third-fewest? Anaheim with 199. Not a great look. Chicago is also lowest in the league in goals per game, fourth-worst in power-play percentage, and second-worst in shots per game with only 26.5.
Perhaps the hardest stat to swallow this year has been the amount of shutouts the Blackhawks have found themselves on the wrong side of. With an NHL-leading 13 times shut out this year, Chicago is tied for the tenth-most in a season in NHL history. The narrowly avoided shutout Tuesday would have catapulted them into a tie for the fifth-most EVER.
The fact that the Blackhawks are setting the wrong kind of scoring records isn’t exactly a surprise. With a 23-53-5 record with one game still to play, Chicago’s point percentage is the franchise’s worst mark since 1954-55. Shockingly enough, however, there’s a silver lining in such a horrific statistic.
We talk enough about the Connor Bedard vs. Brock Faber Calder Trophy debate, but the fact that the rookie superstar is able to score at the impressive clip that he has been is even more impressive with the obvious lack of support from his fellow forwards. Bedard picked up his 61st point of the year with a nice assist Tuesday while playing in only 67 games. The only Blackhawk even close to that production is his linemate, Philipp Kurashev, who has picked up 53 points in 74 games. The new record is a horrific statistic, but is further proof that Bedard is this year’s top rookie.
