The Chicago Blackhawks suffered their 14th overtime loss of the 2025-26 regular season on Tuesday, as Kyle Connor lifted the Winnipeg Jets to a 4-3 win at the United Center. It was the Blackhawks’ fifth overtime defeat in March, finishing the month with a 5-6-5 record.
On the back of four consecutive losses, the Blackhawks now find themselves second-to-last in the league-wide standings, with 68 points in 75 games. One of those four losses came during the recent East Coast road trip to the New York Rangers, who now have three more points than Chicago, with seven games remaining on both teams’ schedules. The Hawks are also two points behind the Calgary Flames, who have 70 points in 74 games played.
Throughout March, the Blackhawks have shown they can still hang with postseason contenders, even after trading away their entire leadership group at the deadline. The Utah Mammoth, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, New York Islanders, and Jets are teams currently in playoff position, and Chicago either earned a win or a one-goal overtime defeat to all of them this month.
However, the lack of timely finishing and consistency issues, which shouldn’t be surprising for the youngest team in the NHL, have put the Blackhawks back in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. At the moment, they have the second-best odds to land the top selection in June. While it’s not where the Hawks want to be, adding another high-end prospect through the draft isn’t the worst thing in the world.
Especially when GM Kyle Davidson’s rebuild isn’t as far away from turning the corner as it may seem. Yes, the Blackhawks are at the bottom of the standings once again in 2025-26, but a major reason for that is their overtime record. In 21 overtime appearances this season, they’ve now been defeated in 14 of them, following the result of Tuesday’s game against Winnipeg.
If the Blackhawks were 13-8 in games that require more than 60 minutes, instead of their actual 7-14 record, they would be tied with the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference with 73 points and be just four points back of a playoff spot. After all, their 20 regulation wins are one more than the Los Angeles Kings have, and only two fewer than the San Jose Sharks. Both teams still have their postseason hopes alive with two weeks remaining in the regular season, while the Blackhawks do not.
It’s been a frustrating last few years, but Davidson’s rebuild is finally coming together on the NHL scene. Including injuries, the Blackhawks have eight first-round picks since 2022 who are now together on the big-league roster. Depending on where they finish in the standings in two weeks, there could be another joining the group for the 2026-27 campaign. The results haven’t been there once again this season, but there are plenty of reasons to believe in the progress being made.
Hawks Hits vs. Winnipeg
1. Bertuzzi Hits 30 Goals — Bertuzzi’s second season with the Blackhawks will almost assuredly go down as the best of his career. After scoring two of the team’s three goals on Tuesday, including one that tied the game in the third period, Bertuzzi now has a career-high 31 goals. It’s the second time he’s potted 30 in a single NHL season, with the other coming in 2021-22 with the Detroit Red Wings, also under Jeff Blashill.
While Bertuzzi isn’t one of the shiny up-and-coming prospects on the roster, he’ll still be an important piece of the team during the next two seasons, where he’s under contract. Now serving as an alternate captain, Bertuzzi’s leadership doesn’t come via motivating locker-room speeches. Instead, he leads by example on the ice, as he plays a hard-nosed, rugged style and always provides a willingness to go to the dirty areas.
Of his 31 goals scored this year, most have come from the net-front area from redirects or greasy tap-ins, showing that you don’t need to be the most skilled player in this league to produce offensively. To be fair to him, Bertuzzi also has the skill to score a beauty now and then, as he did with his first of two goals against the Jets. The 31-year-old added to his highlight reel with a spinning backhanded shot that seemed to fool Connor Hellebuyck on its way past him, cutting the Blackhawks’ deficit to one going into the third period.
However, it’s been Bertuzzi’s constant grit and grind that’s led to his success this season, and that’s something a few of the younger Blackhawks, such as Sacha Boisvert, can learn from with a power-forward mold.
2. Frondell’s Debuts — Tuesday wasn’t just Anton Frondell’s first look at the United Center, but it was also his debut donning No. 16, as he switched his jersey number following the four-game road trip.
According to Frondell, the team told him he wasn’t able to change his number while on the road, but could do so once the Blackhawks returned home. The 2025 No. 3 overall pick added that he partly decided to make the change to honor a former Stanley Cup champion in Chicago and one of his former teammates in Sweden from the last two years, Marcus Kruger.
“He’s been a good guy for me for over two seasons back in Sweden, like a mentor,” Frondell said. “It’s pretty awesome to play with the same number… I asked him if he would get angry at me if I did it. But it was fine. He seems happy.”
Frondell sure honored Kruger with his performance against Winnipeg, as he was arguably the most impactful forward for the Blackhawks in the game, aside from Bertuzzi, his linemate. After tallying four assists in his first four games, Frondell finally broke through for his first NHL tuck on just his second career shift on home ice. He buried a one-timer off a feed from Ilya Mikheyev to put Chicago ahead 1-0 less than five minutes in.
In 16:49 of ice time, Frondell finished second on the team in shot attempts (6), individual scoring chances (4), and shots on goal (3). In his second game at center between Bertuzzi and Mikheyev, the trio looked as if they had spent the last few months together and was the best line for the Blackhawks. Frondell was a huge part of that and continues to produce, despite being thrown into the fire during his first week as an NHLer. It’s been a vastly impressive first five appearances from the 18-year-old, with one goal and four assists (three primary helpers).
3. Bedard’s Linemates — Not only was Connor Bedard held off the statsheet on Tuesday, but he also failed to record a single shot on goal. It was the first time that had happened since Jan. 23, over two months ago, and only the third time in 62 games this season.
Despite the lack of chances he received against Winnipeg, Bedard was still creating looks for his two linemates, Ryan Greene and Nick Lardis. Both had point-blank scoring opportunities off setups from Bedard, only to get turned aside by Jets’ goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. Those were the only two shots on goal recorded by the Blackhawks’ top line in the game.
Lardis’ look came in the opening minutes of the first period, as Bedard made a tremendous pass to find him wide open in the slot as the trailer on the play. As he often does, Lardis found the soft spot in the defensive coverage, but he couldn’t convert from point-blank range to kick off the scoring.
Greene was also the beneficiary of a beautiful pass from Bedard in transition, getting a one-on-one look with Hellebuyck from the left flank. He wired a shot towards the bottom-right portion of the net, but the puck barely caught a piece of Hellebuyck’s glove and deflected wide.
The story of the season, Bedard’s linemates once again couldn’t finish any of the chances he created for them. For Greene, that’s been an issue at times throughout his rookie year. For Lardis, if he wants to prove that he can be a top-line caliber player, those are the chances he needs to finish.
4. Boisvert Scratched — After making his NHL debut in Philadelphia and dressing for each of the final three games during the road trip, Blashill decided to have newcomer Sacha Boisvert watch from the pressbox on Tuesday. It wasn’t done out of punishment, but to give him a chance to watch from a different perspective. Doing so also allowed Sam Lafferty to get in the lineup for the first time in a week.
Here’s what Blashill had to say about the decision.
“He’s not going to play every single game, but he’s going to play a good number of them. It’ll give him a chance to get a feel for it and a chance to watch it. Those are all good learning experiences.”
Some speculated that the Blackhawks held out Boisvert so he wouldn’t burn the first year of his entry-level contract; however, he’s not a slide candidate, as he inked that deal as a 20-year-old. It was likely always well within the plans to have Boisvert sit for a game or two at some point, although the timing was somewhat unfortunate, as Tuesday was his first opportunity to play in front of the home fans at the United Center.
Considering the Blackhawks are lacking physicality and players willing to drop the gloves, Boisvert won’t be out of the lineup for long. His makeup is precisely what the team needs right now, as they’ve been getting pushed around far too often following the trades of Nick Foligno, Connor Murphy, and Colton Dach.
Expect Boisvert to draw back in when Chicago begins their three-game road trip on Thursday in Edmonton.
5. Scheifele Shines — With all six defensemen on the roster 24 years old or younger, with three having fewer than 100 games of NHL experience, it’s not surprising that the Blackhawks have struggled in their own zone lately.
But one area where they must improve is defending the opposing team’s top players. Last Tuesday against the New York Islanders, they allowed Matthew Schaefer to rack up 17 shot attempts, nine individual scoring chances, and eight shots on goal as part of a two-point performance. Then, just five nights later, Jack Hughes had 19 shot attempts, 14 individual scoring chances, and eight shots on goal in a four-point showing for the New Jersey Devils.
On Tuesday against Winnipeg, Mark Scheifele, the team’s leading point-getter, recorded three assists. At the same time, Connor, their most lethal goal-scorer, had seven shot attempts and two points (1G, 1A), including the overtime winner.
The Blackhawks have played with fire against top-tier competition recently, allowing them to have too much time and open space on the ice. When you play with fire, you end up getting burned. That’s exactly what’s happened to the Hawks against Schaefer, Hughes, and Scheifele recently.
With a matchup against Connor McDavid and the Oilers up next, the defense cannot afford to be as lackluster if they want to snap the four-game losing skid.
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