2 dueling Blackhawks thoughts after their first two games

The Chicago Blackhawks are two games into the season, and they lost 5-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sept. 29 and 6-0 to the Utah Mammoth on Oct. 1.

No NHL team comes out of the gate at 100 percent to start the season. There are irons to kink out. Learning curves are expected as everyone gets back into the swing of things.

Look at the Carolina Hurricanes. The reigning Stanley Cup Champions were shutout 1-0 in an overtime loss to the Florida Panthers in their home opener.

No one is immune to the early season missteps. So, why does the Blackhawks' results feel so heavy?

Here are two dueling thoughts after two games,

The Blackhawks have to prove it

Let's start with some of the numbers from the Blackhawks the last two games. They were outscored 11-2, outshout 69-41, outhit 65-26, and went 0-for-5 on the power play. Ryan Greene, Patrick Kane, Jordan Greenway, and Wyatt Kaiser all lead the team in points (1).

The games were frustrating, but especially against the Mammoth. Although the 5-2 loss wasn't ideal against Vegas, you could still point to moments of good play as the game went on, as defenseman Bowen Byram noted after the game. But more importantly, they gave themselves a chance when the score was 2-1 and 3-2 at different points.

Therefore, the Mammoth game was tough to swallow because the Blackhawks didn't give themselves a chance. They were out of it from the second the puck dropped, and everything looked off. Any hope of the team improving after the first period didn't materialize.

The line changes are a significant (and valid) talking point, as head coach Jeff Blashill is still looking for the right combinations. According to Natural Stat Trick, there were seven different forward line combinations used against Utah. I don't think the constant line changes help, even though I understand that if nothing is working, then the solution isn't as simple.

Or maybe it was a night where you can chalk it up to the Blackhawks just not having it. It happens, but it was tough to see it happen in the second game of the season.

Bad starts to the season can happen to the best of them. But not many will give the Blackhawks the benefit of the doubt to bounce back the way they would the Hurricanes.

That is what makes this start feel so somber. The Blackhawks expect more this season. So those two performances made that goal of translating it into results feel like a steeper climb.

But on the other hand...

There's still plenty of season left

The two games were deflating. But what also made them so was the belief that this team is better than what they showed.

Those two games don't reflect what the Blackhawks can do. With Patrick Kane, Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, Nick Lardis, Anton Frondell, Roman Kantserov, Bowen Byram, etc., there is skill.

We don't know what the Blackhawks' true potential is this season. But those performances certainly were not it.

Defenseman Ian Cole said after the Mammoth game on Oct. 1, "It's tough to say. I'm sure we're going to have a lot of conversations going forward here. We have a long flight ahead of us. I'm sure they'll be approached on that. But, like I said, it's not good enough. We think that we're a much better team than this. Good teams don't lose two games, three games, four games in a row. So we understand the urgency, and we understand that we need to right this ship right away."

Frank Nazar also said postgame about what was talked about during the intermissions or after the game in terms of not overreacting to the games: "Just focus on the process. Obviously, haven't seen our best hockey yet, by far. So continue to focus on the process and keep working towards that because it's going to come."

With 82 games left, there will be better games. But now they have to perform.

Their third game is against the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 3, and they have another chance to have a stronger showing.

As Nazar said when asked whether the team still had confidence, he replied, "It's two games. Yeah."

They still have time to figure things out, and show the team they want to be.

Overall, their third game will be big for them in more ways than one.