The Blackhawks Part Ways With The Only Reason Fans Would Watch Them On Television Next Year

The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2015 and it's been a rough slide to the bottom of the league ever since.

The Blackhawks would lose a close 7 game series to the Blues in the first round of the 2016 playoffs and then were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Nashville Predators in 2017. They have not made the playoffs since.

NOTE: They technically made the playoffs in 2020, and even won a round against the Oilers, but that was the weird bubble season where they added playoff teams in the middle of the season. It was a weird year that, in my opinion, shouldn't officially count for anything.

Then the Blackhawks had a massive scandal within the organization the culminated in the owner of the team berating a reporter for asking questions. It culminated with Wayne Gretzky (heard of him?) telling a national audience that if he had a son he wouldn't trust the Blackhawks organization to protect him.

It was ugly.

Then the play on the ice got ugly. The Blackhawks haven't finished higher than 6th in the division since being swept by the Predators as the number one seed in 2017.

Then they started to trade anyone on the team that was good at playing hockey, leaving their two stars, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, the two players most responsible for the Blackhawks success in the previous decade, twisting in the wind, wondering if they'll be traded to another team or forced to play on a rebuilding Chicago team before retiring.

Then, Monday afternoon the Blackhawks announced that their LOOOONGTIME and very well loved color commentator Eddie Olczyk, would not be doing their games next season and would instead be the color analyst for the Seattle Kraken.

Olczyk joins the growing list of people associated with the Blackhawks finding other places of employment next season.

It appears, too, that this was a decision made by the Blackhawks. According to reports Olczyk wanted to return to the Blackhawks, but the historic organization couldn't match the offer sheet of the 2-year-old franchise.

The Blackhawks will be bad for the next couple years, that's what rebuilds are about. But now that the historic TV duo of Pat and Eddie has been dissolved, will fans have ANY reason to tune in the next couple years?

We'll find out soon enough, but in the meantime, we'll just keep an eye on the Blackhawks to see what else can go wrong before the puck drops next season.