NEWSLETTER
This afternoon, The Athletic released their latest NHL power rankings, and the Chicago Blackhawks are dead last at No. 32, trailing even the winless Arizona Coyotes. Yeah. It’s that bad.
Dom Luszczyszyn and Sean Gentille author The Athletic’s weekly NHL power rankings, and they were not kind to the Blackhawks in their latest assessment.
Here’s was Luszczyszyn has to say about the logic to place the Blackhawks behind the winless Coyotes in this week’s rankings:
During the Rankings Process, Sean texted me asking if it was time to put Arizona last because let’s face it — the Coyotes might be the worst team ever assembled. Fair enough, but that’s by design and it’s working flawlessly. When you think about it, it’s a perfectly built team for its stated goal. Chicago? Baby, this was supposed to be a playoff team!
Seth Jones! Marc-Andre Fleury! The return of Jonathan Toews! None of it matters as the team has exactly one (1) more win than a Coyotes team that’s desperately trying to lose. It’s embarrassing; deserved karma for everything that happened off the ice with this franchise. It’s only fitting that the on-ice product isn’t there to distract anyone from it. This franchise is the league’s worst from top to bottom, on and off the ice. Chicago doesn’t deserve to be any higher and 32 honestly feels generous.
I get that power rankings are subjective, so I’m not mad or surprised by this move. Nothing that Luszczyszyn said isn’t true. The Blackhawks were supposed to be a playoff team, or at least a team with their sights set on the playoffs, so yeah, no lies detected there. Their horrendous 1-8-2 start can be viewed through the lens of it being well-deserved karma for the organization’s abominable off-ice behavior for the last decade-plus. Still, I think that would be as silly as me not changing my socks after a Blackhawks win. Then again, this is the sport that drives people to grow ridiculous beards in support of their team during playoff runs, so I guess all is fair in love and war.
All that being said, the Blackhawks are still better than the Coyotes. The Coyotes are 0-9-1 through their first 10 games, and they’re in full tank mode, so to place the Blackhawks behind them in the power rankings is a move that shows how the entire hockey world views this franchise right now. Not great.
Check out the complete power rankings by The Athletic below.
It's Friday, and you know what that means … Power Rankings!
The Panthers are taking care of business, the Hurricanes are perfect, and Alex Ovechkin has propelled the Capitals into the Top 10.
Complete rankings from @seangentille and @domluszczyszyn ⤵️https://t.co/hvYfooxVMi
— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) November 5, 2021
