Sluggish start to long trip for Blackhawks

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Blackhawks were disgusted with themselves Wednesday night, and for good reason.

After scoring the game's first goal, the Hawks sat back and let the Columbus Blue Jackets do pretty much whatever they wanted in a 4-2 victory at Nationwide Arena.

Poof went the Hawks' three-game winning streak as they started their six-game road trip with a thud.

"We just didn't seem like we wanted to battle tonight," defenseman James Wisniewski said. "When a team comes out hungry and you don't match their intensity, that's what is going to happen 98 percent of the time.

"They were coming off a losing streak, and I think they wanted to end that. But we were coming off a three-game winning streak, and we come out and do that? If you're going to lose a game, at least have your best game."

Duncan Keith gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead at 12:24 of the first period, but the Blue Jackets' Rick Nash answered less than two minutes later.

Columbus got goals from Sergei Fedorov and Dan Fritsche in the second period, and the Hawks never put up much of a fight after that. The Hawks had 4 shots on goal in the third period.

"It's tough to say what went wrong, but obviously we didn't play too well," winger Tuomo Ruutu said. "Part of it is we weren't ready to pay the price out there. We tried to do things the easy way, and in this league you don't win games by trying to do things the easy way."

The Hawks' forwards did little to generate much offense and as a result earned only 1 power play -- which failed.

Hawks forwards had only 8 of the team's 21 shots on goal. Defensemen Keith and Dustin Byfuglien scored the goals.

"We weren't sharp enough," Ruutu said. "We didn't make crisp passes, we didn't shoot enough, all the small things that matter."

Hawks coach Denis Savard was disappointed his team couldn't duplicate the intense and emotional effort it put forth in Sunday's stirring 3-2 victory over the Red Wings at the United Center.

"Our emotion from the last game, we couldn't match it -- it's as simple as that," Savard said. "They showed a lot more determination than we did. It's not how you want to start the road trip, that's for sure.

"I just didn't like the way we played. Our emotion, it didn't seem like we had any."

It was a tough night for Hawks rookies Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane for one of the rare times this season. Toews was minus-3 with 1 shot, while Kane was minus-2 with a single shot.

"The kids, obviously, didn't have their best games, but they were not the only ones," Savard said.

Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock matched Fedorov's line, including Nash and David Vyborny, against the Toews line.

"We had a good game down low," Fedorov said. "We were able to retrieve pucks after they put the pucks in our zone. We just played very tight defensively, and that gave us a chance to move the puck out of our zone and play a little offense against that line."

Tonight's faceoff

Blackhawks vs. Nashville Predators at Gaylord Entertainment Center, 7 p.m.

TV: Comcast SportsNet

Radio: WSCR 670-AM

The skinny: The Predators are one of the hottest teams in the league. After losing six of their first eight, they are 7-1-1 and have been doing it with solid defense and goaltending. Chris Mason has rebounded in his last four games (3-0-1, .945 save percentage) after a personal seven-game losing streak. The Predators lead the season series 1-0, having won 5-2 on Nov. 4 at the United Center. Nashville still is without defenseman Shea Weber (dislocated kneecap), though he might return this weekend.

Player to watch: Nikolai Khabibulin. The Hawks' goalie will try to pick up where he left off in Sunday's 3-2 win over Detroit.

Next: Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena, 6 p.m. Saturday

-- Tim Sassone