Bad night all around for Hawks in 8-3 loss to Blue Jackets
COLUMBUS, Ohio - So much for making progress.
The Blackhawks took a huge step backward and then some Thursday night in a humiliating 8-3 loss to the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
The Hawks began the night as the NHL's fourth-best defensive team, but they had no answers for the Blue Jackets, starting with goalie Cristobal Huet.
Making his first start since March 13, Huet gave up a soft goal just 32 seconds into the game and was pulled by coach Joel Quenneville in the second period after allowing 5 goals on 20 shots.
Huet was back in the net to begin the third period for the work, but the Blue Jackets scored twice in the first four minutes to go ahead 8-1.
"I'm looking for answers, but definitely it's pretty embarrassing the way the game went, and the way I played is not acceptable," Huet said. "It's just a bad game and I feel sorry for the guys. I let them down."
Despite the loss, the Hawks clinched a playoff spot for the second year in a row and if there was any doubt about who will be in goal when the postseason opens - Antti Niemi or Huet - there surely isn't now.
"We'll see," Quenneville said. "This was a tough outing. Antti's been playing well. It'll sort itself out."
Huet wasn't the only Hawk who didn't play well. Kris Versteeg was minus-4, Duncan Keith and Dustin Byfuglien minus-3 and Brent Seabrook minus-2.
"I don't think anybody played good tonight," Quenneville said. "It was across the board. It was contagious tonight."
Huet wound up allowing 7 goals on 27 shots.
"He wasn't great tonight, but nobody played great," Adam Burish said. "He makes a few mistakes and we never bailed him out of one of them. You can point the fingers at a lot of guys in this game. I'll leave it up to you guys who to point those fingers at.
"I'm sure he'll take heat, but he's taken heat all year. The poor guy's just been getting slammed all year.
"I'm sure he's not going to be surprised to read the papers tomorrow and hear everybody slam him, but it's not one guy. When you lose 8-3 it's impossible to say it's one guy."
At this point the Hawks look like a team just trying to make the playoffs, not one considered to be a Stanley Cup contender. They have lost five of their last seven games and are 5-5-2 since the Olympic break and failed to build on Tuesday's 2-0 win over Phoenix.
"We have to think about this one for a while," Patrick Sharp said. "It's been a long time coming that something like this was going to happen. I don't think this is an isolated incident. I think it's been a trend in our game for the last couple weeks and we need to figure it our pretty quickly.
"We have to find our game pretty quickly because we can't go into the postseason playing like that."
The Hawks didn't play great in front of Huet, but 2 of the first 5 goals he allowed were soft.
Mike Commodore scored just 32 seconds into the game from a bad angle on the goal line right on a shot that went in off Huet's skate.
"I didn't see the puck coming towards me," Huet said. "I should have probably protected the bottom of the net. That's not a good start."
<p class="factboxheadblack">Tim Sassone's game tracker</p>
<p class="News">Blue Jackets 8, Blackhawks 3</p>
<p class="News"><b>Three stars:</b></p>
<p class="News">1. Antoine Vermette, Blue Jackets: Two goals, an assist and won 12 of 19 faceoffs</p>
<p class="News">2. Kristian Huselius, Blue Jackets: Two goals on 3 shots</p>
<p class="News">3. Mike Commodore, Blue Jackets: A goal and 5 hits in 24 minutes on defense</p>
<p class="News"><b>Nothing to celebrate:</b> Hawks coach Joel Quenneville when asked if there was any consolation in clinching a playoff spot because of Calgary's loss: "I'm going to put that at less than 1 percent right now."</p>
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<li><a href="/story/?id=368746">Huet's confidence 'not very high'<span class="date"> [3/25/10]</span></a></li>
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