The Chicago Blackhawks have one final game in 2025-26. They are hoping for a strong finish.
The Chicago Blackhawks have lost four straight games in regulation and are 1-8-1 in their last 10 games. No team in the NHL is having a worse finish than them. Going out with a whimper was not a part of their plan, but they have one final chance to go out on a high note.
At the end of Monday night’s game, a 5-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, the home fans made their frustration known. The Blackhawks were booed off the ice, and it was heard.
"I don't know if it's unwarranted, but it's not fun," Wyatt Kaiser said of the booing. Ryan Donato had a similar sentiment.
“Nobody wants to experience that,” Donato said. “It leaves that bitter taste in your mouth. We have to give them a reason to cheer for us.”
On Wednesday night, the Blackhawks will host the San Jose Sharks at the United Center. Although the Sharks were in it until the very end and largely had the season the Blackhawks wanted, they came up just short of making the postseason.
Having one strong game won’t erase what the post-Olympic break was for the Blackhawks, but it could be a positive heading into an important summer.
This is the youngest team in the NHL by average age, so there will be mistakes and developmental curves, but a good showing against a team like the Sharks would go a long way.
"Taking steps forward," Ryan Donato said when asked what he's looking for in the final game. "We're playing against a good team, a team that's been fighting for the playoffs all year. We want to be one of those teams. We have to show it every night. Over a long season, it can get grueling on the body, but you have to be mentally tough, power through it, and just know that it's a long season. At the end of the day, these teams are going on to the playoffs and have a lot more to go through. We want to be that team. We have a good test coming up."
Running out of gas is not an excuse in the NHL. They play 82 games ahead of the postseason for a reason. Ryan Donato, who has been on some good teams in the past, understands that.
The young guys in the locker room must learn how to grind through a season without letting that slip away at the end. They can't take back how this season ended, but they can follow Donato's mentality in the final game and move forward.
"We've talked about how important each game is; Wednesday is no different," head coach Jeff Blashill said of having a good game against the Sharks to end the year. "It would be nice to have a better taste in your mouth than what we had walking out of the building the last three games. There's zero doubt about that."
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