Hawks continue to sink in the West
EDMONTON, Alberta -- A report on the Internet out of Canada on Wednesday included the Blackhawks among the teams still in the running to sign free-agent center Peter Forsberg.
Like Forsberg is going to sign with a team that doesn't make the playoffs.
The Hawks continue to look like a team headed for another draft lottery instead of a playoff appearance. Their 4-1 loss to the Oilers at Rexall Place on Wednesday night was their fifth in a row and 13th in the last 17 games.
"All we can do is look to (tonight) against Calgary, try to snap this and try to move on," defenseman James Wisniewski said.
The Hawks took a 1-0 lead out of the first period, but penalties and sloppy defensive coverage led to a 3-goal second period for the Oilers.
The Oilers got power-play goals from Jarret Stoll and Dustin Penner in the first 8:10 of the second period that resulted from hooking penalties to Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.
"We took some soft penalties and that's the result of the game," Hawks coach Denis Savard said. "The first period we played pretty well and then we took two soft penalties in the second. Two bad penalties."
Ethan Moreau made it 3-1 just 34 seconds after Penner's goal when he scored from in front. Cam Barker made a weak attempt to check Moreau, who redirected a pass from Ladislav Smid past goalie Patrick Lalime.
The goal was similar to the one by Penner, who was left alone by Keith.
"You can't give up easy goals, easy chances," Savard said. "We were soft in front of our net. We didn't clear or box people out. They were pretty easy tap-ins for them."
The Hawks outshot the Oilers 41-27 including a 21-8 advantage in the third period, but stats can be misleading.
"We had a lot of shots, but that doesn't always mean you deserve to win," Keith said. "They deserved to win, and we deserved what we got."
There was a power-play sighting for the Hawks in the first period when Patrick Sharp scored at 19:17 for a 1-0 lead. But eight other times they failed, looking mostly non-threatening.
"Obviously 1-for-9 is not good enough," Savard said.
Lalime had a so-so game. Savard started Lalime, preferring to save Nikolai Khabibulin for Calgary because of his history of success against the Flames.
The plan is to come back with Lalime on Sunday in Vancouver. Savard hasn't ruled out alternating his goalies the rest of the season.
"Why not use both of them?" Savard said. "If somebody gets really, really hot it'll be tough to take that goalie out, but for now I'm going to stick with my plan."
Of the Hawks' 41 shots, Martin Havlat didn't have any. Dustin Bufglien was credited with 11.