ST. LOUIS _ Remember opening night, when the Blackhawks looked like they were about to take the NHL by storm with a remade defense and explosive scoring lines after they scored 10 goals on the defending champion Penguins?
Through two periods Wednesday the Hawks were about as far from that as possible. Against the Penguins, they had eight goals through two periods. On Wednesday against the Blues, they had just eight shots on goal through the first 40 minutes and finished with 24, a lackluster performance that led to a 5-2 loss against a division rival at the Scottrade Center.
"It was a bad start and it was a bad middle," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "That wasn't very good. That was as close to brutal as you can get."
Even the return of Nick Schmaltz from a four-game absence wasn't enough to jump-start the offense, which the Blues frustrated all night, nor were revamped power-play units, which looked just as sluggish as the old ones until the third period.
The Hawks have been relying on a red-hot Corey Crawford, but the goaltender couldn't bail them out this time. To make matters worse, Patrick Sharp left the game late in the third period and did not return.
The Hawks looked great against four Eastern Conference opponents to start the season. In the last three games, they have been outplayed by Central Division foes the Wild, Predators and Blues, escaping with an overtime win against the Predators.
Jaden Schwartz, who finished with a hat trick, scored the only goal of the first period when he slipped behind the Hawks defense and got position in front of Crawford.
Schwartz left the game momentarily later in the first period after he tripped and went head-first into the boards. He came back at the start of the second.
Schwartz made a quick impact, scoring the Blues' second goal off a feed from goaltender Jake Allen, who threw a long pass as the Hawks went for a change at 5:59. Schwartz followed the puck into the Hawks zone, where he was all alone with Crawford. The goalie came out to meet him, but Schwartz deked around him for the easy goal.
It wouldn't be a Hawks-Blues game if Vladimir Tarasenko didn't show up on the score sheet. The frequent Hawks nemesis took a turnover from Artem Anisimov in the Hawks zone and sniped a shot past Crawford at 7:49 of the second period. Kyle Brodziak added the fourth goal at 7:01 of the third. The Hawks finally showed a pulse offensively after Brodziak's goal and finally got their stagnant power play going.
After the Hawks were 4 for 27 on the power play entering Wednesday, Quenneville decided to mix up the personnel on those units. But little changed until the third, when the Hawks got a pair of power-play goals from Duncan Keith and Ryan Hartman to cut into the deficit. But the Hawks had mounted too big a deficit to climb their way back after looking listless most of the night.
