The Blackhawks are minus-27, and Blashill picked 'urgency' from the thesaurus

The Blackhawks have been outscored 63-36 this season. That's not a hockey team, that's a Jeopardy score with the wrong guy winning.

Look, I watched the Sunrise game Wednesday night. Down 2-0 after one, outshot 10-5 in the first, lost 5-3.

They're 4-11-1 with nine points in 16 games, and that minus-27 is the worst goal differential in the league, by our count from NHL data. Their power play is clicking at 10 percent. I've seen better conversion rates on a gym membership in February.

The urgency speech

Jeff Blashill was asked if this is a desperate team. He said he'd "prefer the word 'urgency' over 'desperate.'" Buddy, I'm begging you. When you're picking synonyms, the thesaurus is not your problem.

He also said "we've got to stay steady with what we believe in." Great. Tremendous. The belief system is a 2-1-2 forecheck that leaves one guy on an island and man coverage that asks kids to make NASA decisions in the slot.

It's a system built for the contender they might be in 2029. The schedule, rudely, keeps making them play in 2026.

Grade: D. Not for effort. For the speech.

The TV guy said it

Paul Bissonnette called them "a soft team" on the TNT broadcast and said watching the third would be "more torture." Blashill said he respects Biz and disagrees. That's the most diplomatic thing a coach has said since "we'll look at the tape."

And here's the part I actually like. Connor Bedard stood up for his coach. "Blash is great. We love Blash," he said.

The kid has points in seven straight games and 12 in 10, per NHL data. He's the one guy on the roster doing his job, and he's also doing PR. Somebody give him a raise and a press secretary.

Kept off the sheet

Teuvo Teravainen, three straight games without a point, 14.7 minutes a night. Tyler Bertuzzi, two straight, at 17.3 minutes. That's a lot of ice for a lot of nothing. I've had longer shifts at the DMV and left with more to show for it.

Bruins tax

In Boston, a minus-27 in November gets the GM a police escort to the parking garage. In Chicago it gets a road trip.

Where it goes

Next up is Tampa and Carolina, then four days off before Buffalo comes to town Nov. 12. Kyle Davidson's choices are the usual menu: fire the coach, fire the assistants, or trade a piece of the young core.

They haven't won a road game yet this season, and they open the trip against the two teams in the East you'd least like to see when you're winless on the road.

My call: if they come home 0-2, somebody on that bench is updating a LinkedIn profile before the Sabres game. I'd start with the assistants, because it's the move that lets everybody keep pretending the plan is working.

Florida beat them twice this year, and I'd like the record to show the Panthers didn't even need the humidity to do it. I said what I said.