The Chicago Blackhawks hope to leave a better impression on their fans when they play their season finale against the visiting San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night.
The Blackhawks (28-39-14, 70 points) heard boos from their home crowd during a listless 5-1 loss to the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Monday night.
“I don’t know if it’s unwarranted, but it’s not fun,” Chicago defenseman Wyatt Kaiser said.
The Blackhawks will miss the playoffs for the sixth straight season and haven’t made the postseason in a regular 82-game slate since 2017. They haven’t won a playoff round since winning the Stanley Cup in 2015.
“At some point, I know that this is a young team and we will take off,” Chicago coach Jeff Blashill said. “I just don’t know when. Is it next year? That’s up to us.”
Chicago has lost four in a row and nine of 10, giving up at least five goals in six of those losses.
“I think it’s a little unfortunate these last couple games have gone this way because honestly we’ve done tons of good things to build this in the right direction, and unfortunately this sours your taste,” Blashill said. “In the end, when we look back, we’ll know we built a lot of building blocks to have success in the future.”
Chicago forward Connor Bedard, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2023, said he hopes to get his teammates together over the summer for some much-needed bonding.
“Hopefully we’ll get a week or two where everyone’s schedule lines up and we can either come here (to Chicago) or go somewhere,” Bedard said. “When you ask guys about teams that they win with, (they say) they’re all very tight off the ice as well. That’s such a big part of it. We’ve already got that down, which is nice.”
The Sharks (38-34-8, 84 points) ended a 15-game winless streak against the Nashville Predators with a 3-2 win on Monday.
“They were fighting for their lives, and it just felt good to end it,” San Jose defenseman Vincent Desharnais said. “They had our number the first two games (of the season), and we came here and kind of broke up the party. It was fun.”
Both the Sharks and Predators were eliminated from the playoffs later on Monday when the Los Angeles Kings beat the Seattle Kraken. Despite that, Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic likes the mood in the locker room.
“We got a lot of guys that care a lot, that want to win and want to compete every single night,” Nedeljkovic said. “Those are the guys that I want to play with, you want to go to war with, and do something special with. Those are the guys that you end up winning with at the end of the day.”
San Jose center Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 overall pick in 2024, scored two goals on Monday to increase his point total to 112, which is two behind Joe Thornton for the club record he set in 2006-07.
Celebrini’s 44 goals are also tied with Owen Nolan (1999-2000) and Patrick Marleau (2009-10) for the second most in San Jose history behind Jonathan Cheechoo’s 56 goals in 2005-06.
The Sharks play their regular-season finale on Thursday at the Winnipeg Jets.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to give up,” Celebrini said. “We’re going to keep playing as best we can and give it our all.”
