Dietz: Where did the Hawks go wrong this season?

When training camp opened for the Blackhawks in September, Seth Jones arrived with fresh hope.

The veteran defenseman's spirits were buoyed by the additions of forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi, as well as defensemen T.J. Brodie and three-time Stanley Cup champion Alec Martinez.

Jones wasn't exactly expecting the Hawks to go on a tear to the Stanley Cup Final. But — at the absolute minimum — he figured they'd be “competing for a wild card.”

That was a best-case scenario, but most pundits figured the Hawks would drastically improve from their 52-point campaign in 2023-24. FanDuel put the Hawks' over/under points total at 76.5.

It turned out to be misplaced optimism. By everyone.

So what's wrong?

“Our stretches of not playing well are too long,” Jones said. “Lack of mental discipline where that 10-15 minutes we let in 3 goals in a row and then the game's over.”

Some of the blame lies at the feet of former coach Luke Richardson, who was let go on Dec. 6. Plenty of early-season decisions — like yanking Bertuzzi off Bedard's line for the season opener after they'd spent all of camp together — left many shaking their heads. Richardson also scratched Taylor Hall without any advanced warning, moved Philipp Kurashev around the lineup like a yo-yo, and adjusted lines so often you wondered if he wasn't just throwing names in a hat every night.

The lack of chemistry was apparent from the get-go as the Hawks lost seven of their first nine games. They never recovered and were 15-28-5 entering Sunday's game against Minnesota.

“It's draining on everybody. Losing sucks,” Jones said. “You don't want to come to the rink. You're in a bad mood every day. You go home, you don't want to talk to your family. It consumes your life.”

Here's the crazy thing: The Hawks have scored the game's first goal 27 times, which ranks fifth in the NHL. Nearly every other team's points percentage when they score first is .650 or better. The Hawks? Well, they are 11-13-3, a .463 points percentage that ranks dead last.

“We get up early and then we forget how we scored or how we're having success in that same game,” Jones said. “Second periods have kind of been the demise of us. It could be five minutes left, we're up two goals and we have a lapse … and now it's 2-2 heading into the third.”

Incredibly, Jones told me this last Monday when — you guessed it — the Hawks blew a 2-0 second-period lead to Carolina at the United Center.

The meltdown began when the Hurricanes stripped Bedard of the puck as he raced over the offensive blue line with 18:42 remaining in the second period. Jones got turned around and was unable to keep up with Seth Jarvis, who beat Mrazek on a short-handed breakaway goal after accepting a pass from Sebastian Aho. Six minutes later, Jesperi Kotkaniemi got inside position on Brodie and rifled home a perfect feed that Mrazek had no chance of stopping.

While the Hawks retook the lead late in the second period, they still lost 4-3 in OT.

Friday night at the UC, the Hawks were without Jones (illness) and Hall (traded to Carolina), yet still jumped out to a 3-1 lead against Tampa Bay. But the Lightning struck with seven seconds remaining in the second period to draw within 3-2.

“We can’t give up that goal,” said captain Nick Foligno. “A team that really didn’t have much going on early on, now they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re back in it.’ I’ve told you guys: No team thinks they’re out of it against us. It sucks.”

Tampa Bay was relentless in the third period, outshooting the Hawks 17-1. The tying goal by Jake Guentzel came with 42 seconds remaining, leading to another crushing 4-3 OT loss for the Hawks.

Foligno's message was similar to Jones' in that the Hawks “just take a breath” and “sit back a little bit too much” at exactly the wrong times.

“You’re not mad at one guy,” Foligno said. “You’re not saying, ‘Oh, you screwed up.’ It’s collectively as a group because you can see it. It's not the same guy every night. …

“The best compliment you can get as a player is when coaches put you out for really important parts of games. When you have that end-of-a-period, beginning of the period, end of the game, those matter. So when you’re out there, you have to be thinking, ‘How am I going to help this group and what do I need to do in order to have the team have success? Not maybe the play I want to make — it's the play the team needs me to make.’

“And that’s where we’re struggling with a little bit right now and it’s cost us games this year.”

John Dietz worked at the Daily Herald from 1998-2024, covering the Blackhawks from 2014-24. You can reach him at jdietz6917@hotmail.com.