Feb. 23--There have been times this season when the Blackhawks looked like front-runners to win their fourth Stanley Cup in seven seasons. Take their game Feb. 6 against the Stars.
In an opponent's building with a fired-up crowd and a bloodthirsty team that wants to prove itself a worthy adversary, the Hawks dominated in a 5-1 victory.
But then there are days like Sunday, when the Hawks looked like they would rather be anywhere else in the world. The 6-1 loss to the Wild was about as bad as the Hawks have played all season.
There are bound to be days like that throughout the course of an 82-game season. You forget it and move on.
But too many games like Sunday's have been piling up in the Hawks' memory bank for them to delete. It was the ninth time they lost by three or more goals, accounting for almost half of their regulation losses.
It's a trend that has raised some concern.
"Getting behind by a big margin is something that we're unaccustomed to for the last three years," coach Joel Quenneville said. "It's crept in a little bit in our game. It's something that can't happen at that regularity or happen at all."
Captain Jonathan Toews said he's not sure why the Hawks look so good in some games and make fans want to shield their eyes in others.
"In some of these games where we're off, especially against a team that's buzzing, that's playing really well, we need to do a better job of managing the puck and managing chances against," Toews said. "Even if we're not absolutely flying and playing with the most energy we possibly can, we've got to find ways to be smart and to limit the offense we give up."
By comparison, the Hawks had 11 losses last season by three or more goals. While the tendency has roused their attention after Sunday, they are never a team that will overreact to a swoon in the regular season -- they have now lost four of six.
"What we've shown really well over the last bunch of regular seasons," Toews said, "is that when the games have added up, whatever the situation might be, where things aren't exactly clicking in our favor, we can get on top of what's going wrong, what we need to address and be better at it."
This is what the Hawks do during the regular season. They will have stretches in January or February that might leave fans shaking their heads, only to have those stretches vanish from memory come April and May.
But when the Hawks have gone bad this season, it seems as if they can't get much worse.
"We need to learn a lesson from (Sunday) and realize that there aren't going to be any easy games going forward," goaltender Corey Crawford said. "If we don't bring everything we have, it's going to end up like this."
It has ended up like that a little too often for the Hawks' liking.
chine@tribpub.com
