The Chicago Blackhawks were blown out on Friday, 6-2, the latest disappointment in a season full of … oh. Hmmm. It seems the Blackhawks had begun this season with an NHL-record streak of points, and that this loss dropped them all the way to 21-1-3. Their winning clip looks like an elite save percentage. In fact, no one had come up with anything but hosannas to throw at Chicago for quite some time now. Read this, this, this, this and this if you want to know what happens when a hockey team becomes a feel-good story. It baffles the masses.
But today, the Blackhawks are, indelibly, indisputably, losers. As the Sun-Times wrote, ruefully, "The circus is closed." And several grateful people had apparently been holding their tongues for too long:
No apologies, Blackhawks haters. No apologies.