Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
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(WSCR) With 18 games remaining in the regular season, it’s safe to say the Blackhawks have lacked consistency this year.
If the season were to end today, the team would be locked in the sixth seed in the Western Conference. Still, general manager Stan Bowman said his team has the right core in place to make some noise in the playoffs.
“We haven’t had the consistency in our game, but we’ve seen signs during our four-game winnings streak after we came out of that long road trip where we beat three of the best teams in the league,” Bowman told The McNeil and Spiegel Show. “We played sound hockey. That’s what we need to get back to. The first half of the season, we were in the top half of the standings. We’ve struggled just to maintain that consistency. It’s the same group that got us to the top through 45 games. We need to get back to playing at that level. We’ve added some players to the mix. We brought Johnny Oduya in from Winnipeg and I think he’s going to solidify that back end.”
LISTEN: Stan Bowman on The McNeil and Spiegel Show
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The Blackhawks were relatively quiet as the trade deadline passed. The team made two trades — acquiring defensman Johnny Oduya from Winnipeg and sending John Scott to the Rangers.
Bowman said that given the cluster of teams vying for a playoff spot, he knew there wouldn’t be many trade possibilities.
“All along there was a perception at least amongst the other general managers that there weren’t going to be many trades this year just because there are more teams that are still in the race,” Bowman said. “Typically, in years past, there was a little more separation at this time of the season and you had a number of teams who were not going to qualify. When that happens, they tend to try and move their players out and build for the future. That wasn’t the case this year.”
