CHICAGO — Connor Murphy knows a thing or two about losing streaks. Since he arrived in Chicago in the dimming afterglow of the Stanley Cup years, the Blackhawks defenseman has endured a whopping 56 losing streaks of at least three games over his first eight seasons — 28 of them in the last three years alone. Thirty-seven of those lasted at least four games, 19 of them in the last three seasons. There have been embarrassing losing streaks during which the Blackhawks were utterly overwhelmed. There have been frustrating losing streaks during which all the breaks go against them. And there have been dispiriting losing streaks during which the Blackhawks felt like they deserved better.

Sad as it sounds, they used to cling to those. A good period here, a good period there. A decent effort. Something, anything. It was all they had, really.

“In the past, that was looked at as almost acceptable, maybe,” Murphy said.

Not anymore. The bar, at long last, has been raised in Chicago, but the Blackhawks haven’t been meeting it. So what if they played 60 strong minutes against the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Sunday? They lost, 1-0. And so what if they had perhaps their best start of the season against the red-hot Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night? They lost 4-3 in overtime.

Pretty good is no longer good enough.

“Now, it’s, ‘No, we know what team we can be and what we’re capable of,” Murphy said. “So we need to push out of our comfort zone to make sure we’re pushing to be the team that wins those games, versus the team that says, ‘We played pretty well for the most of it.’”

The Blackhawks aren’t despondent about four straight losses. Nor are they furious with themselves. Rather than sulk or spiral, there’s a defiance that’s brewing among the younger players instead. It’s a subtle, but significant distinction. Even those who haven’t been around for the years of misery can sense it.

“It’s a different feeling around here, I think,” first-year Blackhawks defenseman Matt Grzelcyk said. “Now, it’s like, ‘Let’s get back to work.’ We know we have the game to play with anyone. We can get back on track pretty quick. Everyone’s still very confident. … Everyone’s been in a good mood. We just trust that good things will happen.”

There was some palpable frustration in the Blackhawks dressing room after they squandered a 2-0 lead for the third time in their last five games on Wednesday night. Connor Bedard, who had a goal and an assist, blamed himself for losing Matt Boldy on the Wild’s second third-period equalizer. Artyom Levshunov lamented defensive mistakes despite a stellar offensive performance that included his first NHL goal. And coach Jeff Blashill warned against letting a coincidence turn into a trend — or, worse, a habit.

“We had 18 chances against a really good defensive team,” Blashill said. “Shame on us if we don’t come with the same effort on Friday (against Nashville).”

For the first time in ages, there’s no reason to think these Blackhawks won’t. What makes this four-game losing streak different than all the others is that there really isn’t much concern. Consternation, sure, but not concern. More than a quarter of the way into this season, we still don’t know if this is really a playoff team or not, but we know it’s not some doormat, some weak-willed pushover. Even in a come-from-ahead defeat, that was evident.

Just go back to before Ilya Mikheyev was called for an iffy-at-best interference call in overtime — “It’s not interference,” Blashill said bluntly — that led to Kirill Kaprizov’s game-winner. The mood was quite different then, back in the late second period. The rout was on, and the United Center roof was coming loose.

a Bedard beauty🤩 pic.twitter.com/0a2XFqXAVg

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 27, 2025

Tyler Bertuzzi had just buried a Bedard rebound to give the Blackhawks a 3-0 lead in the second period, just four minutes after Bedard scored one of the team’s prettiest goals in recent memory. Chicago was running the Wild — a team that came in at 9-1-1 in November and coming off two straight shutout victories — out of the building. A holiday crowd of nearly 19,000 was lapping it up, fully engaged from the first note of the national anthem, oohing and ahhing with every scoring chance — even screaming their heads off during a stoppage poll in which they voted stuffing the best Thanksgiving food over worthy contenders like mac-and-cheese and mashed potatoes. Happy Holidays, indeed.

It was perhaps the best 40 consecutive minutes the Blackhawks had put together all season.

Well, 39 minutes and 45 seconds, at least.

The Bertuzzi goal was overturned because the Blackhawks entered the zone offside. Then Brock Faber’s flip from the point hit Bertuzzi’s skate and fluttered past Spencer Knight with 14 seconds left in the period. Suddenly, that 3-0 lead was a 2-1 lead, and the Wild, which had nearly a full power play to start the third, tied things up at 2:15 on a Nico Sturm goal.

The Blackhawks didn’t fold. Just three minutes after Sturm’s goal, Bedard found Levshunov in the right circle. Nine out of 10 defensemen immediately shoot it right there, but Levshunov is anything but typical, so he held the puck, moved to the net and lifted a backhander past Filip Gustavsson to take the lead right back at 3-2. That Levshunov’s mom and brother were in town to see it made it sweeter.

thankful for Arty’s first NHL goal🥹👏 pic.twitter.com/rvEnsWOw9M

— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 27, 2025

“He’s just poised, he never panics,” Bedard said. “His heart rate has to be 25, 30 during the game. And that’s something you can’t teach. … Either you have it or you don’t. He has it. We’re lucky to have him, and he’s just getting better.”

That it was Bedard and Levshunov — the two highest draft picks in the Blackhawks organization, Nos. 1 and 2 overall — combining for such a big moment was fitting. Bedard had his 10th multi-point game of the season, in just Chicago’s 23rd game. Levshunov had the goal and hit two posts, looking dangerous every time the puck was on his stick. On top of that, Sam Rinzel had his fourth assist in five games since being a healthy scratch against Toronto, setting up Bedard on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play with Bertuzzi. And Wyatt Kaiser played a big role in a spectacular first period where the Blackhawks out-attempted the Wild 16-3 and out-chanced them 12-2, including 7-1 on high-danger chances in less than five minutes of five-on-five play with the young blue liner on the ice.

“Over the years we’ve done a lot of talk about rebuilding, we’ve talked about, ‘Oh, we have this draft pick and we have this player and it could lead to this and this guy could be this,’” said Murphy, by far the longest-tenured Blackhawks player. “To see some of these young guys and actually see the players they are — talented NHLers that belong and are earning their way and really pushing the pace to getting wins on their own, almost — it’s exciting. For years, we had the Patrick Kanes and guys that were leaned on to get wins, and everyone else was trying to figure their way. Now we have young guys taking charge and leading this team, building a new core.”

Murphy said that after Wednesday’s morning skate, some 10 hours before Levshunov scored. It was almost prophetic. It was still poetic.

The Blackhawks didn’t win, but they should have. It’s a familiar, frustrating refrain. We’ve heard it for three of the last four games, and for too many years before that, more years than Murphy and so many Blackhawks fans care to count.

“Part of the learning process is to find a way to make sure there’s no way to lose that game,” Blashill said. “We played too good to lose it.”

Close your eyes and you could hear the same thing coming out of Jeremy Colliton’s mouth. Or Derek King’s. Or Luke Richardson’s. Or Anders Sörensen’s. Or even Jonathan Toews’ or Patrick Kane’s.

But it feels different now. Less like a lamentation. More like a promise.

“It always sucks to lose,” Levshunov said, barely even trying to stifle his smile or his excitement over his first NHL goal. “But world goes on.”