Keith, Blackhawks move on from Edmonton debacle

What a way for the Blackhawks to finish the first quarter of the season.

While the Hawks have reached the quarter pole first in the Central Division with a record of 12-6-3, it’s the last two games that have raised a lot of red flags.

There really is no good explanation for what happened Saturday night in Edmonton, and even the Hawks had a hard time putting into words what exactly what went wrong in their 9-2 loss to the Oilers.

They were embarrassed and humiliated. They looked old and slow when they are not. The Hawks played as if they had no concept of how to play defense. And goaltenders Ray Emery and Corey Crawford weren’t very good either.

The Oilers seemed almost apologetic for doing what they did.

“To be honest, it’s never fun to beat up on a team like that,” Oilers winger Jordan Eberle said.

Ouch.

Duncan Keith had one of his worst games as a pro. He was minus-4, on the ice for 7 of Edmonton’s 8 goals and in the penalty box for another.

This coming off a minus-4 performance in Friday’s equally disappointing 5-2 loss at Calgary.

“The last two games have been embarrassing,” Keith told reporters. “I have to find a way to be off the ice for some goals. It’s not going my way.

“Right now it seems every little mistake we make ends up in the back of the net, and we’re making a lot of mistakes.”

It has been mostly a strong first quarter of the season for Keith, who was plus-7 with 5 points during the recent four-game winning streak. But the last two games raise a lot of the same questions people were asking last season about his play.

Keith certainly didn’t look over the weekend like the same defenseman who won the Norris Trophy two years ago, but he wasn’t the only one of the Hawks’ best players who didn’t come to play at Edmonton.

“We’re all embarrassed,” Jonathan Toews said after the game. “At the same time we’re going to stick together and remain a team and not point the finger at any one guy or another.

“We’re going to have to find a way to move on. We know our effort has to be way better. The way we played the last two nights was completely unacceptable.”

A road trip that began on the highest of notes with a 5-1 win at Vancouver now has the potential to be a disaster. The Hawks have to play a San Jose team next on Wednesday that many believe is the best in the Western Conference.

Despite Saturday’s debacle, Hawks general manager Stan Bowman and coach Joel Quenneville decided to go ahead with the planned side trip to Las Vegas with off days scheduled for Sunday and Monday in the desert.

The Hawks won’t practice again until Tuesday in San Jose.

“We have to get some pride back in our game,” Quenneville said.

The Hawks need to get Brent Seabrook back as well. The defenseman missed the last three games with a leg injury, and he was missed. There’s a good chance Seabrook will return against the Sharks.

Bowman said before the losses that he was in no rush to make a trade. While that’s probably still the case, there are holes on this hockey club that get exposed from time to time.

Do the Hawks still need a No. 2 center? Another defenseman? Probably the answer is yes to both questions.

Bowman has about $5.5 million in cap space at his disposal, and he shouldn’t be afraid to use it.