2 reasons why Blackhawks missed 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Stanley Cup Playoff drought for the Chicago Blackhawks continued into this season, as they finished the 2025-26 NHL campaign with a record of 29-39-14, good for last place in the NHL’s Central Division.

Unfortunately for the likes of star forward Connor Bedard and company, they’ll have to wait at least another year to bring postseason hockey back to the Windy City for what would officially be the first time since 2020.

Chicago is fortunate to have several young pieces to build around in their lineup, starting with Bedard, whom the Blackhawks made the first overall selection in the 2023 NHL Draft. Anton Frondell, whom Chicago selected with the third overall pick in last year’s NHL Draft, recently made his debut in the League, as did defenseman Artyom Levshunov, the second overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

During Chicago’s locker room clean-out day on Thursday, Bedard made it clear that he has faith in the direction of the team and playing for the Blackhawks.

“We all want to win. I want to win here for as long as I’m playing. At the end of the day, I have so much faith in the management, the coaching, and our players,” Bedard said.

“Unless you’re in the room and around all of us, I’m a pretty mild-mannered guy, and if I looked a little sad on the bench or something, maybe people can take it out of context. I don’t really see a lot of that unless someone shows me. But I think people who know me know I love to be here and really trust the direction we’re going.”

That being said, let’s take a look at the main reasons why the Blackhawks are once again on the outside looking in when it comes to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Blackhawks didn’t have enough goal scoring to go around

Simply put, the Blackhawks didn’t score enough to be able to realistically expect a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They were led by scrappy forward Tyler Bertuzzi, who registered a new career-high in goals with 32, while Bedard added 30 goals with 45 assists.

However, forward Ryan Donato, who tallied a career-high 31 goals last season, saw that number drop nearly in half with only 16 total goals this season. Additionally, Andre Burakovsky, who was brought in to provide timely offense while providing leadership as a two-time Stanley Cup winner, has gone especially cold in recent months.

Burakovsky has managed only one goal and two assists since the beginning of March, nowhere near the kind of production that they expected from him. Additionally, Teuvo Teravainen has gone cold with only four goals and six assists during that same time frame.

Frank Nazar, whom the Blackhawks rewarded with a lengthy contract extension before this season began, scored only 15 goals with 26 assists.

The Blackhawks suffered far too many one-goal losses

Something else that didn’t aid the Blackhawks was their inability to finish out close games, as they finished the campaign with a whopping 34 one-goal losses, 14 of which came in overtime/shootouts.

It would have been a tremendous additional boost for the young Blackhawks to have won even half of that amount of close games, which helps to instill the kind of urgency and game-management skills needed for a club to be successful.

The Blackhawks still have a long way to go before they can even think of approaching the levels of success that they began enjoying at the start of the 2008-09 season, and being able to close out tight games will help make that a reality.

But for now, it’s one of the main reasons why they’re once again having to watch the playoffs from home.