3 takeaways from the Blackhawks 6-1 preseason loss to the Wild

Which would you prefer – scoring two goals but giving up seven or giving up six but only scoring one. Neither option seems that appealing and unfortunately for the Chicago Blackhawks, both are reality after the last week of hockey.

The Blackhawks were outmatched and outplayed on the road in Minnesota on Tuesday. Losing 7-2, Chicago followed up a poor performance with another rough showing now in front of the team’s home crowd last night. After the Blackhawks preseason record fell to 0-4-1, while making the journey down to the locker room I started to think of a few main takeaways from the game and the preseason in its entirety.

The Blackhawks are almost entering the regular season on a must win game.

It almost seems impossible to enter the regular season with a must win game. At the end of the preseason, every team will start fresh with a clean slate – both with the standings and with each individual players stats. Still, while the record book might be swiped clean, the Blackhawks will still remember the last two weeks of hockey.

This team has looked anything but improved in comparison to last season. While it may still be too early to judge how the year will turn out, the preseason has given fans little reason for hope.

The Blackhawks are an improved team on paper – but that hasn’t translated to the ice.

After the loss, Luke Richardson spoke with the media on the veteran presence in the locker room.

“I think I heard lots of the right things on the bench to keep us going in the right direction, but we just couldn’t pull ourselves together and get going in the right direction,” said Richardson. “But I trust those guys in the dressing room when I leave to say the right things and to get the guys motivated in the right way.”

While preseason hockey may not mean anything in the standings, Richardson spoke of the impact the piling up losses has had.

“They have pride in there, and they’re probably embarrassed and not happy with what went on, from what I took from the bench and in the dressing room after,” Richardson said. “So that’s a good sign. They care. We had a couple good practices this week in between last game and this game. Did we transition it into the game? No, but I think we saw the work that we did and felt good about the work, and we have to have a few more days of that to really get things going in the right direction here quickly.”

Who steps up?

Do the Blackhawks get their first win tonight? Chicago has one more game this preseason to right the ship. If the Hawks go out and hand the St. Louis Blues a decisive loss, few will remember just how poor the preseason has been.

That is a big factor here. While the Blackhawks may be in their head after yet another loss – this is a time for the Hawks to answer. Someone needs to step up in the Chicago dressing room and help carry this team on his back. Chicago has one more opportunity to show what they are about. Puck drop tonight in Milwaukee!