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Chicago Blackhawks’ Biggest Upset in Recent History

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19 hours ago

December 28, 2024

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Chicago Blackhawks’ Biggest Upset in Recent History

Team Canada was defeated by Team Latvia in the World Juniors which was one of the all-time biggest upsets in hockey history. If you are American, you love to see it. But a major upset isn’t absent from the Chicago Blackhawks’ history.

This specific instance when the Blackhawks should’ve not only won, but dominated a playoff series, the team fell in four games. In 2016-17, the Blackhawks finished first in the Western Conference and got swept by the eighth place Nashville Predators.

This was a season where the Blackhawks finished three points ahead of anybody in the conference and ended the regular season as one of only four teams to win 50 games. They also happened to be the only one in the West to do so too.

Chicago had nine more wins in the regular season than the Predators and finished with 15 more points. The Blackhawks had a goal differential 15 better than Nashville. Chicago had two more wins at home and seven more on the road, but once the season turned to the playoffs, everything changed.

The Predators came into Chicago and won the first two games 1-0 and 5-0. The saying goes, a team isn’t in trouble in a series until they lose a game at home. Well the Blackhawks were in trouble right off the bat. The Blackhawks lost the next game in Nashville in 3-2 in an overtime thriller and then got knocked out by being defeated 4-1 in Game 4.

Upsets tend to happen in hockey when a goalie stands on his head. This is how Team Canada was just defeated in a shootout by Latvia. The goaltender Linards Feldbergs made 55 saves and stopped all eight shots in the shootout in a vastly one-sided game.

In Chicago’s case, they were goalied by Pekka Rinne who recorded his only two shutouts of the playoffs in that first round series on the way to the Stanley Cup Final. Rinne finished with a 1.96 GAA and .930 SV%. In most cases, that will win any series, even in the playoffs where the games are more tight checking and tougher.

The early 1990s weren’t always kind to the Blackhawks teams either, but overall, Chicago is one of the most successful franchises in NHL history and are on their way to turning things around so the team can be dominant once again.

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