Burish's punch fails to be a spark

There was a highlight in the miserable first period the Blackhawks played Sunday afternoon against the Calgary Flames.

That would be Adam Burish clocking Eric Nystrom with a right hand in their fight at 3:10 that had the sellout crowd at the United Center roaring.

Unfortunately for Burish, the punch didn't do the same to light a fire under his teammates, and the Hawks wound up with a 4-2 loss that all but officially eliminated them from the playoff race in the Western Conference.

"I thought the opportunity was right to try to do something to spark the team," Burish said. "I think it sparked the guys a little bit. That's my role."

Burish hasn't delivered a better punch all season.

"That was a good one," he said. "I don't know where that came from."

Hawks coach Denis Savard wished more players had followed Burish's lead. Defenseman Brent Seabrook was even benched for the entire third period, so poor was his play.

"We had some of our best players and some of our guys that have been around here a couple years didn't have their best games," Savard said. "You've got to come prepared. You've got to prepare yourself harder, especially for afternoon games.

"You've got to come ready to play. It took us six or seven minutes and Burish had to really get things going for us. It can't happen, especially at home."

Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane all were minus-2.

Sick about it: Corey Crawford was supposed to be Sunday's starting goalie, but Denis Savard had to switch to Patrick Lalime after Crawford called in sick about four hours before faceoff.

The Hawks think Crawford might have had food poisoning from lobster he ate Saturday afternoon.

Crawford had to be assigned to Rockford on paper since he was up on emergency recall for Nikolai Khabibulin.

Khabibulin played the third period in relief of the struggling Lalime and is expected to start Wednesday against Washington. Khabibulin stopped all 5 shots he faced.

Savard thought about starting Khabibulin on Sunday but changed his mind after the veteran said he wasn't mentally ready after missing 12 games with back spasms.

"We talked about it (Saturday) and didn't feel he was ready," Savard said. "With Corey being sick we had really no choice but to put Patty in, but he's done the job for us."

Tip-ins: Rookie Jonathan Toews and Robert Lang each scored his 20th goal. Tuomo Ruutu was the last Hawks rookie to score 20 goals, which he did in 2003-04. … Niklas Hjalmarsson, Andrei Zyuzin and Yanic Perreault were the scratches. … Sunday's sellout was the Hawks' eighth of the season.