Blackhawks By the Numbers: Goal Scoring Since 2020

Over the course of the next week, it’s a way to gauge see what things have looked like since the Chicago Blackhawks last made the playoffs. To be accurate, it was the bizarro Covid-19 bubble setup that saw more than the typical eight make the playoffs from each conference.

Bouncing the Edmonton Oilers in the play-in round provided some false hope for the Blackhawks fans and front office. A sub-par 2021 season was followed by firings and resignations as the 2021-22 season was barely a month in.

Then the rebuild began in earnest.

Here’s a look at a variety of statistics to get a measure of just how different things have gone over the course of the last four seasons. Please note that the 2021 season was shortened due to Covid protocol and divisional realignment that was more geographically based.

Blackhawks Goal Differential With League Rank

Rankings and stats courtesy of Hockey Reference

Some notes from what is available above. Jeremy Colliton guided the team to a 32-30-8 mark before the pandemic shut the season down. When it resumed with the Blackhawks as a playoff team in the bubble, Chicago had a number of players still scoring at a high clip–which included Jonathan Toews. It’s how they upset Edmonton in the play-in round of the playoffs–also enjoying solid goaltending from Corey Crawford.

A season later, despite being in a weaker division, the Blackhawks defense took a major hit not having the two-way forward in the lineup. The Hawks would finish a game below .500 and not qualify for the playoffs.

2021-22 is when the bottom fell out. Bowman resigned and Colliton was fired after a dreadful 1-9-2 start. With only 26 goals scored against 47 given up, the Blackhawks were approaching the -25 differential they posted for the prior season in just over 20% of the games played.

Of course last season needs no explanation–that team was constructed to lose often. Shipping off Patrick Kane, and Max Domi only cemented the lack of goal scoring following the trade deadline. Of the four seasons, last season was as bottom as bottom could be. Adjusted for an 82 games season, the 2020-21 totals would have been approximately 236 goals for.

Final Notes

The addition of Bedard and Taylor Hall should see some help in the goals department. Bedard is averaged out to have 32.5 per FanDuel, which would far exceed the team high of 20 last season. I’d still take the over on the 32.5 but that’s a story for another day.

Nick Foligno could pot a few more than the 10 he had last year, especially with a more pronounced role in Chicago.  Lukas Reichel could hit double digits. Perhaps potentially having the offensive minded Kevin Korchinski and Wyatt Kaiser on the blue line could drive up scoring, too. Can Taylor Raddysh and Andreas Athanasiou hit 20 goals again this season?

No, the Blackhawks won’t be scoring at will. But they certainly should blow past last year’s totals and see marked improvement from even the last three seasons.

After all, it can’t get much worse.