Why Chicago Blackhawks have been digging themselves into early holes

You can't hit a 5-run home run.

Baseball teams that fall behind by big margins early in games are often reminded of that fact and urged to chip away at the deficit in hopes of pulling out a victory.

It's a totally different sport, but Joel Quenneville said there have been times over the past few weeks that he's noticed the Chicago Blackhawks attempting to hit the equivalent of a 5-run homer when facing 3-0 or 4-0 deficits early in games.

"Certain nights you're going to be behind," Quenneville said. "We had the longest stretch where we were in control and had the lead basically from start to finish. Getting behind … we're trying to get it back too quickly and (opening) ourselves up."

The stretch Quenneville referred to was the Hawks' team-record 12-game winning streak in which they trailed just once. The Hawks have gone a pedestrian 6-6-1 since the streak ended on Jan. 21, and three times have looked up at first-period deficits of 3-0 or 4-0.

Against Minnesota on Sunday, it was more of the same as the Wild went up 2-0 in just 7:10, then 3-0 two minutes into the second period and 4-0 midway through the second.

"No one was happy," Andrew Shaw said. "No one was happy with how we played - our effort or any of it. You've got to take that sour taste in your mouth, learn from it and move on."

Quenneville would like his players to learn from it by not taking too many chances with so much time remaining in the game. He said the Wild had "two or three times" as many rush chances as a Hawks opponent normally gets "on a bad effort."

Oof. Now that's saying something.

Quenneville pointed to too many turnovers in the high slot, not getting the puck in deep and trying to make "plays at the blue line and it goes the other way. So you gotta be respectful for the other team's attack and speed."

It's not like the Hawks haven't come back during this mediocre stretch, but the deficits they rallied from were just 3-2 holes against the Coyotes on Feb. 4 and the Rangers on Feb. 17.

The Hawks also nearly roared back against Dallas at the United Center on Feb. 11 after falling behind 4-0, but Kari Lehtonen made some spectacular saves to keep Quenneville's squad from closing the gap to 4-3 late. The Hawks lost 4-2.

The team held a brief, spirited practice at Johnny's IceHouse West on Tuesday and will practice again Wednesday in advance of their game against Nashville at the United Center on Thursday. After playing at least every other day from Jan. 3-26 and getting just one two-day break from Feb. 2-17, the Hawks are suddenly staring at a stretch of just two games in nine days.

It's a stretch they welcome with open arms.

"You take this opportunity to clear the head, get away from the rink, get prepared for the last push of the season," Shaw said.

A push that figures to come down to the wire as far as who comes out on top in the Central Division between the Hawks (81 points), Stars (80) and Blues (79).

"Keeps you on your toes, that's for sure," Shaw said. "All teams are battling and you want to stay where you are so you've got to go in and win every night."

Of course, the odds of that improve drastically by playing the right way.

Right from the start.

"We're better with a check-first mentality and that's usually when we're successful starting games," Quenneville said. "From that, you usually have the puck going forward."

Said Shaw: "Our overall team game in those games where we've been blown out is not what Hawks do to play hockey. We got away from our game. We've got to learn from that."

• Follow John on Twitter @johndietzdh