It's only one game, but it was a bad one

You hear all the time about what a close-knit group the Blackhawks are, and how they do everything together.

If you believe it, then you wouldn't have been surprised to learn they went to the bathroom as a team Saturday night.

All over the ice.

In a game televised throughout North America, the Hawks embarrassed themselves at the UC as the Canucks pounded them, 5-1, before 22,184 fans who were so quiet the last two periods you could hear a stick break.

That's something the Hawks did plenty of, over the net after a goal, over the boards after a bad shift, and over and over again.

As Game 1s go, this one went the way of Vancouver and was as bad as it gets.

"The good news is no matter how bad you get beat, it only counts for one game,'' said veteran John Madden. "The negative is we made some bad decisions and then got into a track meet, and that's not the kind of game we want to play.''

The Canucks had only to withstand the Hawks' typical early charge, with Roberto Luongo standing tall, and then took control of the game midway through the first.

That's when they went to work on Antti Niemi, who was bad and - unlucky for him - he had a lot of company.

Jonathan Toews - as always - gave an honest effort, even though he looks like he's hurting still from a hit he took in the Nashville series. Otherwise, the Hawks were outworked, outhit and outmuscled only when they weren't being outsmarted.

The Canucks' passes were tape-to-tape, while the Hawks threw hand grenades at each other, pucks bouncing everywhere and hitting skates more often than sticks.

They fumbled around like they were nervous about being in the quarterfinals. They played far too much 1-on-5, failed to get pucks deep, and allowed odd-man breaks like it was a Sunday morning pickup game.

After they trailed 3-0 a mere 32 seconds into the second period, the Hawks mailed it in, but the first two Vancouver goals summed up the night for the Hawks.

Ryan Kesler put aside his hatred for Andrew Ladd and outworked the Hawks for a 2-0 Vancouver lead.

About 14 minutes into the game, he beat three Hawks down the ice and held the puck for what seemed like an eternity along the half-boards, while Brent Sopel was unable to take him off the puck.

When help finally arrived, Kesler shoveled it back to Christian Ehrhoff, who fired from the top of the circle through a Patrick Sharp screen and beat Niemi for the first goal of the series.

The backbreaker came with only 10.5 seconds left in the first, when Kesler had the puck in the same place - to Niemi's left along the boards - and sent a weak shot on net that Niemi kicked 40 feet out to Mason Raymond at the opposite point.

The Canucks defenseman blasted it past Niemi, who appeared stuck in quicksand as he tried to move to his right and get back in position.

"We were careless," Madden said. "They're too good offensively for us to get away with that."

Down 5-0 after two periods, Joel Quenneville went to Cristobal Huet for the third, but with a comfortable lead the Canucks were content to sit back and play it smart.

Besides, Huet isn't the answer to any question, except perhaps, "Who's been one of the worst goalies in hockey the last two years?"

No, the answer isn't Huet and it won't be Niemi if the Hawks show up Monday with the same game they played Saturday.

"This is a different series,'' Madden said. "When you make mistakes against these guys, they can bury you.''

That they did.

brozner@dailyherald.com