The Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup last season in dramatic fashion. This season, they hope to avoid the notorious “cup hangover” and to be the first to win back-to-back Stanley Cups since the Detroit Red Wings did it in 1997-1998. Just over halfway into the season, they have avoided the hangover and look to make a deep run into the playoffs. Or so I thought before the calendar turned to 2014.

So far in the New Year, the Blackhawks have only won two games, lost one in regulation and three in overtime or a shootout. They have slipped from first in the NHL to second in their conference (by five points) to the Anaheim Ducks, who the Blackhawks play tonight.

In the six games of 2014, the Blackhawks only managed to score more than three goals twice. And that occurred against the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday, the worst team in the Eastern Conference. The goaltending duo of Corey Crawford and Antti Raanta has been shaky at best, but the biggest problem has been the offense.

The Blackhawks are the highest scoring in the NHL this season with 175 goals. Since Crawford and Raanta are letting in roughly three goals per game combined, only scoring two goals won’t get the job done. Patrick Kane, named the best player in the NHL for both November and December, has only three points when he had two, 10+ game point streaks in the last two months.

The penalty kill is another problem. This isn’t just a recent struggle; their penalty kill this season hasn’t been above 28 in the NHL, which is where they are now. Last season, there wasn’t one fan who was worried when the Blackhawks were a man down. Now, I hold my breath for two long minutes, waiting for a red sweater to jump out of the penalty box. The power play is clicking on all cylinders. They are currently fourth in the NHL when they have a man advantage, which is pretty similar to last year’s play.

A team who wants to go far into the playoffs needs to have good a special teams unit, so the penalty kill needs to get better in order for the Blackhawks to make a long run.

If the Blackhawks want to have a long run in the playoffs and hopefully win another Cup, either two things need to happen: the Blackhawks can’t take any penalties, or they need to have a better penalty kill.

Forget goal scoring, goaltending or killing penalties. I’m most nervous about the ten players who will represent their countries in Sochi, Russia for the Winter Olympics next month. I’m not saying that those selected shouldn’t go, because they deserve to and should go. There are some players who aren’t on their country’s roster that deserve to play in Sochi.

However, Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Duncan Keith, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Johnny Oduya, Marcus Kruger, Marian Hossa, Michal Handzus and Michal Rozsival won’t have those two weeks off that the majority of other players will have to relax and heal their bodies.

Instead, they will be flown half way around the world, play in at least four games, try to avoid injury, fly home and rejoin their own teams and pick up right where they left off.

As a Blackhawks fan, I couldn’t be prouder of a team with ten Olympians. However, that comes at a price that may affect those players come April and May. The Blackhawks had a long season last year, a long playoff run, a short offseason full of parties and celebrations, a condensed season due to the Olympic break, a two week long vacation playing competitive hockey in Russia, the end of the season and another playoff run. That is a long two seasons.

The Blackhawks have been lucky this season, in that their star players have avoided injury, although I’m concerned that this overly productive and compacted season will catch up with the team in May, when players need to be their healthiest for the playoffs.

As I write this, I understand what it sounds like. I am a spoiled hockey fan whose team has won two Stanley Cups in four years, and complaining that their team is second in their conference, not first. I’ll own up to it.

I have high expectations for the Blackhawks, all of their fans do. The path the Blackhawks are going down is not a great one. I have confidence they can turn it around soon, but “soon” may not be fast enough due to  the Eastern Conference competition.