SALT LAKE CITY — There have many low points for the Chicago Blackhawks over the last three seasons.

Tuesday’s game against the Utah Hockey Club may have just been the lowest.

For anyone who didn’t watch and wakes up to the score, they may assume the game was close and the Blackhawks were in it. Simply by score, they were. The Blackhawks lost 2-1 and nearly tied the score on a few chances with their goalie pulled in the final minutes.

But beyond the score and the individual heroics of goalie Arvid Söderblom, the Blackhawks couldn’t have been outplayed any more than they were by Utah in every facet of the matchup.

“Sody’s got to stand on his head,” Blackhawks defenseman Seth Jones said. “We have no business being in that game.”

They didn’t. Let’s start with strictly the numbers. In five-on-five play, Utah had 69 shot attempts to the Blackhawks’ 19. That’s the largest margin in the last three Blackhawks seasons. The five-on-five scoring chances were 40-5 in Utah’s favor. That was the largest difference in three seasons. The Blackhawks’ expected goals percentage of 17.15 was their worst in three seasons, according to Natural Stat Trick.

In all situations, the numbers were even more lopsided. Utah held a 93-39 advantage in shot attempts, 36-22 in shots on goal and 52-16 in scoring chances. In 1,000 simulations of the same game events, Utah HC would have a 91 percent chance of beating the Blackhawks, according to MoneyPuck.com.

The Blackhawks wouldn’t fare much better in the eye test. They were undisciplined, taking six penalties. They struggled repeatedly to get the puck through the neutral zone and found themselves back in the defensive zone. With the game on the line in the third period, Utah just took over. It finished the period with a 15-0 advantage in five-on-five scoring chances.

“Yeah, they were stifling us,” Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “They were staying above us a lot, so we didn’t find a lot of space there and then. But we did have some space, I don’t think we made the plays maybe quick enough that we needed to make.”

Sorensen hoped to find a spark by reuniting Connor Bedard, Tyler Bertuzzi and Frank Nazar, but that line was invisible most of the game. Bedard had just one shot attempt, which was blocked. and Utah outattempted the Blackhawks 26-5 with him on the ice. To be fair, though, all of the Blackhawks’ lines had similar issues. The Blackhawks’ lone goal came on the power play when Jones scored from the left circle on an impressive deception play with Bedard.

Utah is fighting for a playoff spot and has some talented players, but there shouldn’t have been that much separation between those two teams. The Blackhawks are searching to cling to any signs of progress at the NHL level at this point of the season, and it’s hard to find it when they have games like Tuesday’s.

No one may want to listen to Jones, especially as he seems to have one foot already out of the door, and may not be living up to the expectations of his contract, but he has been through a lot of trying times since he arrived. He spoke some truths after the loss.

“Well, this has been almost four years of bottom of the league, so it’s not just this year — for me at least,” Jones said when asked to measure the Blackhawks over time.

This season wasn’t supposed to be like this. There was hope when the Blackhawks began the season opener, which happened to be in Utah. But 58 games later, the Blackhawks haven’t progressed.

“I don’t know (what needs to change),” Jones said. “We’re the exact same team right now as we were Game 1. It’s pretty evident out there. We haven’t made any strides to be a better, more simple hockey team, and it shows. We don’t get a lot of wins because of that.”

It’s hard to imagine that much will change from now to the end of the season. Fans can be angry that Lukas Reichel was benched or question Sorensen’s coaching or the lineup, but so much of it has so little impact on what’s happening on the ice. The Blackhawks were built to be slightly better than last season, and it’s debatable whether they are, but they’re still far from even meeting the middle of the league, which is about where Utah is.

Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson has a little more than a week until the trade deadline. He may be proposed trades for Jones and Ryan Donato, among others. If so, he’ll have to make some decisions that could affect the Blackhawks in the short and long term.

There’s also a chance nothing materializes. The Blackhawks may be the same team after the March 7 deadline. Regardless of what happens, Davidson must be feeling some urgency that the Blackhawks don’t end up looking like they did against Utah another year from now.

For something more positive, did you see what Blackhawks prospect Jack Pridham did Tuesday?

THAT’S JUST SILLY 🫢#RTown | #BattleBuilt | #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/MSV5XFjSGy

— Kitchener Rangers (@OHLRangers) February 26, 2025

(Photo of Utah’s Josh Doan with the puck in front of Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom: Rob Gray / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)