Blackhawks' woes continue with sixth straight loss
Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has a bigger problem than finding a trade partner.
Bowman's hockey team is fading so fast in the Western Conference that a trade before the Feb. 27 deadline might not make that big of a difference now.
You can only replace so many guys this time of year, and right now the Hawks have a roster full of dead weight.
The Hawks can talk for days about the need to be better defensively, like they did all weekend, but when the bright lights go on it's more of the same old you know what.
The Hawks didn't exactly tighten things up defensively in a 5-2 loss to Colorado on Tuesday night, their sixth straight and eighth in a row on the road.
There were so many bad decisions and careless giveaways, resulting in one odd-man rush after another for the Avs, that the Hawks were lucky they weren't blown out of the Pepsi Center like they were in Edmonton.
“We're trying to fix the problem,” Jonathan Toews told reporters. “No one is running from it. We can't hide from these problems.”
Goalie Ray Emery was fine, but most everything else around him was a disaster.
The Hawks are only 3 points out of seventh place in the West with five games still left in this road trip. Is it possible the Hawks could be fighting to even have a playoff spot by the time they get home?
“We've got to find a way to win a game now, to get some form of confidence back in ourselves and our team game,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.
Turnovers by Toews, Duncan Keith and Viktor Stalberg led directly to Colorado's first 3 goals.
It was 2-2 going to the third period when Stalberg's turnover at the Colorado blue line led to a 2-on-1 the other way and Gabriel Landeskog's goal at the 38-second mark.
Quenneville wasn't happy with Stalberg trying to carry the puck into the zone.
“We're tied going to the third period and we give up a goal right off the bat on something we just talked about,” Quenneville said. “It's disappointing. The first shift of the period, let's get it behind them and make them work down low in their end and keep ourselves behind the puck.”
The Avs' fourth goal by David Jones came after an ill-advised pinch by defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson led to yet another 2-on-1 against Emery.
“I don't really know what to say at this point,” Toews said. “It (stinks). It's not like we're enjoying this.”
After a scoreless first period, Brent Seabrook put the Hawks ahead with a goal 31 second into the second, but the turnovers by Toews and Keith a short time later led to goals by Peter Mueller and Jones 35 seconds apart.
The Hawks went 0-for-3 on the power play and are 0-for-10 on the road trip.
“We lost a lot of momentum on it,” Quenneville said. “It wasn't good at all.”
Defenseman Steve Montador left the loss with an upper-body injury and will be re-evaluated Wednesday.