Hawks lose more than just game

An identity crisis is bad enough.

But now the Blackhawks are suffering a serious crisis of confidence.

"If we play like this in the playoffs," said defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, "we'll probably be out in a couple of games."

That was the shocking admission of the day after the Hawks blew a 3-0 lead and lost 4-3 in overtime to Washington on Sunday at the UC.

It was billed by NBC as a possible Stanley Cup Finals preview, but only one of these clubs is playing at that level right now, and it's not the group from the West Side of Chicago.

"This was a good challenge for us against a team we're tying to catch (in the overall standings)," said coach Joel Quenneville. "And we didn't get it done."

The Capitals scored 3 goals in a span of 2:16 in the third to tie the game, playing without the best player in the NHL, Alex Ovechkin, who was tossed only 12 minutes in for a dangerous push from behind on Brian Campbell, who left the game and didn't return.

Based on how Campbell hit the boards, a broken collarbone was a real possibility. And that's exactly what it turned out to be, as reported later Sunday night.

It may be the season for Campbell.

"He's gonna be out awhile," Quenneville said. "It was a tough hit, a dangerous hit."

While the Caps were correct in their contention that Ovechkin didn't hit Campbell hard, it still was dirty because Ovechkin caught him off balance and Campbell was unable to defend himself.

Campbell didn't brace for the hit because he certainly didn't expect it at that moment.

"It was a late hit," Hjalmarsson said. "(Ovechkin) should miss some games for that. Brian's gonna miss some games now."

A split second earlier or later and it's not much of an incident, but Campbell was incredibly unlucky to be caught in the worst possible spot. He wasn't close enough to the boards to brace himself on the glass and he wasn't far enough to go straight down.

He barely got his arms in front of him after releasing the puck to his forehand while turning his body to his backhand, and his right shoulder hit first with all the force, square in the boards.

That's a perfect-storm scenario for a serious shoulder injury, and it turned out to be the worst kind for the Hawks. On the other hand, he's lucky he didn't go in neck-first or headfirst.

"Everyone wants the big, flashy hit," said Jonathan Toews. "I'd like to see us respect each other a little bit more. It's getting dangerous out there."

Also precarious is the Hawks' posture as they begin the final month of the regular season and prepare for what was expected to be a long playoff run.

"We have to play 60 minutes," Tomas Kopecky said. "We're not doing that right now."

Since losing a 2-goal lead and giving up 5 in the second period against Detroit in a 5-4 loss March 7, the Hawks have tightened it up defensively.

They beat L.A. 3-2 last Wednesday and played a solid defensive game for all but the final two minutes in a heartbreaking, 3-2 loss Saturday at Philadelphia, having allowed only a goal the first 58 minutes.

On Sunday at home, they had the game completely in hand at 3-0 until some stupid penalties gave life to the Caps, who outshot the Hawks 11-1 in the third.

While improving defensively, the Hawks have stopped adding on to their big leads as they were doing earlier in the season, and the two ideas are not mutually exclusive.

"I don't know where our killer instinct is," said Duncan Keith. "It's not like it was, and I think that's just a matter of working hard.

"Sometimes it comes down to one or two plays, winning battles, and we're not doing that."

So the Olympic hangover continues, with the Hawks having lost four of seven since the break, and their best players have hardly been such after returning from Vancouver. On Sunday, they couldn't even blame their goaltender, as Antti Niemi was very good against Washington.

The rest of the club has some soul searching to do as the players try to locate their lost confidence.

"We were so close to 4 points this weekend and instead we got 1," Keith said. "It's really disappointing. The way we're playing is just not good enough. We have time to figure it out, but not a lot of time.

"The playoffs are going to be here soon and if we're playing like this -"

Keith shook his head and didn't finish the thought. He didn't have to.

Hawks fans already are thinking the same thing.