Blackhawks suffer another home loss

Maybe the Blackhawks need another players-only meeting, because the one Thursday didn't work.

The Hawks can talk all they want about needing to crank up the passion and emotion for the playoffs, but another home-ice loss Friday night demonstrated they still aren't able to bring those things on a consistent basis.

A poor first period helped pave the way for a 5-3 loss to a spunky Columbus Blue Jackets team that played Thursday and started its backup goalie, Wade Dubielewicz, who was making just his third appearance.

"Were fine," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We're coming off a real good game the other day (against Carolina), so I measure performances, not meetings."

Since reeling off a four-game winning streak in mid-February, the Hawks haven't played like everything is fine. They are 3-5-1 in their last nine games and have watched their grip on fourth place in the Western Conference slip to 4 points over Vancouver and 5 over the Blue Jackets.

"Vancouver is really pushing the pace on us on us in the standings," Kris Versteeg said.

"We worry about our game and worry about the way we play," captain Jonathan Toews said. "We go out there and control the things we can control. We can't worry about the other teams. Obviously we let Columbus get a little bit closer to us too, but the only things we can worry about is the games we play and focus on getting better."

The Hawks fell behind 2-0 in the first 11 minutes before making it 2-2 with a spurt of energy in the second.

But Antoine Vermette's second goal on a power play at 17:44 of the second period put Columbus back on top to stay. Raffi Torres' goal at 3:50 of the third period made it 4-2.

Patrick Kane brought the Hawks within 1, scoring with 5:57 to play, but Dubielewicz held the fort.

"I don't think we had a good start to the game," Brent Seabrook said. "I don't know if we weren't focused enough or what not, but we've got to come out more raring and ready to play.

"We were just a little flat for some reason and not focused enough. I thought we had a great second period, we really put on the pressure and took it to them, but you've got to have good starts to be a good team in this league."

The Blue Jackets scored 3 goals on rebounds by Hawks goalie Cristobal Huet, who has started 12 of the last 14 games while Nikolai Khabibulin recovered from a groin injury, going 6-5 with a no-decision.

Khabibulin is healthy again and "likely" to start Sunday afternoon against the Islanders, according to Quenneville.

With 16 games to play, you've got to wonder if Quenneville's plan is to give Khabibulin the bulk of the work to get him ready for the playoffs.

The defense in front of Huet wasn't so great Friday. Duncan Keith and Matt Walker were minus-2 with Seabrook and Brian Campbell minus-1.

"We gave them a couple goals off the rush that I don't think we defended good enough," Quenneville said in reference to the first period. "We've just got to be better with our positioning and our reads."