With a 4-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on April 14, the Chicago Blackhawks officially completed the home portion of their 2023-24 season. With two games left in the regular season, the Blackhawks are 23-52-5. with 51 points, meaning they won’t finish any higher than 31st in the league standings.
At the end of the game against the Hurricanes, I started looking through the Blackhawks’ schedule, finding any winning streaks or memorable games. The lack of road wins stood out (going into the April 16 slate of games, they had seven in 39 games), and there were maybe two or three big wins that you saw the box score and thought, “Oh yeah, that WAS a good game!” But when you divide them between home and away, you realize that the spaces between wins were much smaller at home than on the road.
Let’s look at the Blackhawks’ home record this season and why it should give fans some as they look towards the 2024-25 campaign.
Blackhawks Held Their Own at United Center
The Blackhawks’ final record at home in 2023-24 was 16-21-4, a few percentage points below .500 but still … not … terrible? Like, not among the worst ever? If you multiply that record by two, a 32-42-8 record with 72 points would make them 27th in the league. Still not great, but far better than the bottom of the barrel.
Beyond just the record, if you look through the 41 games, there aren’t many instances where the Blackhawks got smoked. As the season got closer to the end, they had a 5-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on March 15, a 4-0 loss to the Minnesota Wild on April 7, and a 5-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on April 12, but beyond that, they never lost a game by more than two or three goals.
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Let’s focus on the wins: their 4-3 victory in overtime against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 24 was one of the best games of the year, with rookie defenseman Kevin Korchinski scoring the game-winning goal in the extra frame.
Another one of my favorite highlights of the season was Seth Jones scoring his first goal of 2023-24 in his 31st game of the season on Jan. 19 in overtime against the New York Islanders. For a player who does so much for a struggling group, it was nice to see the team’s No. 1 defenseman have this moment.
Perhaps the finest highlight at home for me was their last win at United Center this season, when they faced the Dallas Stars 3-2 on April 6. Scores through the first frame, 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard scored what I can only describe as one of the most talented goals he’s produced in his young NHL career five minutes into the second period with this toe-drag off the post and in.
The Blackhawks would go on to win 3-2 over the Stars, extending their longest home winning streak to three games. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.
Attendance Remained High in Losing Season
There are only a few certainties in the NHL: a healthy Connor McDavid will score over 100 points, the Vegas Golden Knights will find a way to ice a $140 million lineup in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and Canadian teams will have the highest attendance numbers. It was no different this season, with the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers at the top of the NHL.
But what stood out to me was that Chicago ended up with the fifth-highest average attendance in the league with 18,836. Obviously, a large chunk of that is the addition of Bedard. The team’s season-ticket base nearly doubled after the Blackhawks won the draft lottery, with the team selling over $5 million in new season-ticket packages within 12 hours of the news.
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Last season, the Blackhawks averaged 17,167, 20th in the league and a step down for an Original Six market, despite admittedly going through a rebuild. Since winning three Stanley Cup championships in the 2010s, Chicago has been one of hockey’s most reliable markets for ticket sales, but there were a lot of games at United Center with chunks of empty seats in the stands.
But this season, even with fans knowing full well that this club could wind up near the bottom of the standings, “competing” for a lottery pick in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, they showed up in droves and cheered on the group each and every night. Watching from afar, that was special, results be damned.
Looking Ahead to 2024-25
If you asked me right now how I think the Blackhawks will do in 2024-25, I would give you this prediction: not great, Bob.
I think Bedard will take big steps in his development and could end up hitting the 100-point mark (yes, he’s that good), and another season for the likes of Korchinski, Lukas Reichel, Philipp Kurashev, and Alex Vlasic will do wonders for their development and the future of the franchise.
But we can spill enough ink over that in the future. In terms of those home games, expect Chicago’s attendance to climb even higher next season, with season-ticket packages expected to go nowhere but up and general fan interest in a promising young Blackhawks squad heading in the right direction.
If you’re in the Chicago area, get your tickets, and if you’re not, plan your road trip to the Windy City. We’re not far off from the Blackhawks being must-watch hockey.