Blackhawks skate sharper, but Oilers still still come away with 2-1 win

Better. But still not good enough.

That pretty much sums up how Duncan Keith felt about the Blackhawks' 2-1 overtime loss to the Edmonton Oilers at the United Center on Thursday.

Yes, the Hawks were better than the night before in St. Louis. The passes were crisper, the power play more effective and the scoring opportunities more plentiful.

But still - not good enough - especially against a team that came in on a four-game losing streak.

"We need to find a way to get a win against that team," Keith said. "Maybe their confidence isn't as high as it's been. We just need to find a way to get a win there."

The Hawks had their chances, but Oilers goalie Cam Talbot turned away 30 shots and Edmonton won when Mark Letestu scored on the power play with 15.8 seconds remaining. The Oilers had the man advantage after Patrick Kane hooked Connor McDavid right in front of Anton Forsberg with 75 seconds left.

Jonathan Toews' shot with 7:11 left might have come closest to giving the Hawks a victory, but the puck trickled through Talbot and went just wide of the right post.

Kane scored the Hawks' only goal at 7:33 of the first period. Edmonton tied it at 17:18 of the first on a Patrick Maroon goal. Connor McDavid showed his brilliance on the play as he skated in backward, protected the puck from Keith and fed Maroon with a backhanded pass from just outside the goal crease.

"Just try(ing) to shield the puck and make a play," McDavid said. "Good thing Maroon was back there."

The Hawks enjoyed a 56-second two-man advantage early in the second period and had another power-play chance shortly thereafter, but Talbot stopped 7 stops during the nearly five minutes Edmonton was short-handed.

"I think we came out well," said Ryan Hartman. "We obviously didn't get the win, but overall we made some good plays. Got a lot of good chances. Talbot had a good game. It was a tough loss."

Letestu was pleased with the effort.

"In a tough building against a good team, we played the whole game pretty structured." he said. "We gave up our chances, but the goaltender was there and guys made some big blocks."

Quenneville demoted the struggling Artem Anisimov to the fourth line to start the game and had Tanner Kero centering Patrick Sharp and Alex DeBrincat.

That wasn't the only message the coach sent Thursday as the Hawks held an extremely rare morning skate the day after a road game. It was optional, but only seven players didn't participate.

The Hawks, who now hit the road for games at Arizona and Las Vegas, recorded 10 of a possible 16 points in facing eight straight playoff teams to start the season.

All in all, not too shabby.

"We started off really well," Hartman said of 10-1 and 5-1 wins over Pittsburgh and Columbus. "We kind of got away from it a little bit in the middle there. (Wednesday night in St. Louis) wasn't great, but tonight was a step forward."