Toews: Hawks disappointed in themselves

The Blackhawks know they are facing an elite team in the Vancouver Canucks, but Jonathan Toews felt Saturday's 5-1 loss in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals resulted more from what the Hawks didn't get done.

"It's not what they did, it's what we didn't do," Toews said Sunday. "We're going to give them credit for doing what they had to do to win and we're not taking anything away from that. It's good team over there.

"We like to think a lot of their offensive chances and goals came off our mistakes and opportunities that we gave to them. Like I said, they played well and we give them credit for that, but we're disappointed in ourselves for given them those opportunities."

The Hawks were hit with questions Sunday about whether they were caught off guard by the Canucks. The questioning was in response to what Patrick Kane said following Game 1.

"Maybe we came in and thought it was going to be an easier series, which obviously it isn't," Kane said. "Especially playing a run-and-gun team, maybe we thought it was going to be different."

Kane was referring to the difference between playing Nashville and Vancouver.

"We respect (the Canucks) completely," Hawks defenseman Brent Sopel said. "We didn't disrespect them at all. We knew they were a very talented team. We knew what was coming, we just didn't match it."

Canucks coach Alain Vigneault, to his credit, couldn't be dragged into a controversy that wasn't there.

"I know I've said this a few times, I think, but I don't really care about getting credit for our players," Vigneault said. "What we care about is, (Saturday) we cared about winning that game. And (tonight), when we move forward, we're going to care about winning this next game."

Upon further review: Alain Vigneault would like to see his team tighten it up defensively in Game 2 after being outshot by the Hawks 37-28.

"We did win 5-1, but we gave the (Jonathan) Toews and (Patrick) Kane line a lot of opportunities," said Vigneault, claiming his review of the tape had Kane with 14 scoring chances.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said the bigger problem in Game 1 was defensive mistakes and inconsistent checking.

"We generated a lot of offense (Saturday) night and that usually leads to some type of production," Quenneville said. "That's why I feel in this series we've got to be measuring our performance by how well we check.

"We generated enough that generally we're going to find the net, whether it's three, four or five times. The quality and quantity was enough where we should have had more than one. I'm not concerned about that part of our game because it's always there."

Fatigue factor? Tonight's game will be the 97th for Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith counting regular season (82), the Olympics (7) and playoffs (8).

Keith is minus-5 so far in the postseason.

"I think he's accustomed to playing up to 30 minutes and every game is different," Joel Quenneville said. "(Saturday) night he didn't play those kind of minutes (23), but he can absorb a lot of ice time and he's got a lot of energy in his body and takes care of himself pretty well. We'll keep an eye on him, but he's not a guy you have to worry about too much."

Tip-ins: The Canucks have scored 22 goals in the last four playoff games. ... Neither team practiced Sunday, though both were at the United Center for meetings.