Hawks pick up where they left off before break

DENVER -- Blackhawks coach Denis Savard thought his team would come back from the all-star break ready to roll.

Savard thought wrong.

Looking generally listless and sloppy, as if Savard's harsh words from last week went in one ear and out the other, the Hawks gave up 3 goals in the first period and went on to lose 6-3 to the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.

Savard was encouraged by two strong days of practices, but apparently the Hawks left their game at the small rink.

"I think guys felt pretty good," defenseman James Wisniewski said. "We had a couple good practices, guys were in pretty high spirits. We're ready to come back from our break and make a run for the playoffs, then something like this happens.

"It's mind-boggling. I don't understand it."

The Hawks (23-24-4) were awful defensively and were outshot 30-15.

"If you don't have puck possession, you're not going to get many chances," Savard said. "They had the puck all night.

"We turned the puck over too many times and that was the difference in the game."

There were no tough words this night from Savard, who watched his team lose its third straight.

"I don't think it was a lack of effort," he said. "It was a lack of (good) decisions. We'll bounce back."

Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin got his second straight start, but he could be headed back to the bench after looking shaky in the Avs' 3-goal first period.

Milan Hejduk beat him far side at 9:13 with a snap shot from the deep left circle. Defenseman Cam Barker and center Adam Burish botched coverage on Marek Svatos' goal at 11:18, but there was no big stop from Khabibulin.

On Brad Richardson's goal at 18:28, he was left alone in the slot, but his shot trickled through Khabibulin's pads.

"He was all right," Savard said. "It was a tough game and we didn't give him much help."

Khabibulin, who has lost his last nine starts, declined to speak with reporters.

The Hawks were 0-for-3 on the power play, which hardly looked improved despite some new wrinkles.

Yanic Perreault scored twice for the Hawks, but the goals came in the final three minutes when they didn't matter.

Robert Lang's 17th goal early in the second period made it 3-1, but the Avs got a power-play goal from Andrew Brunette at the 12-minute mark on a rocket of a slap shot from the deep slot over Khabibulin's glove.

Patrick Kane was able to play despite a bad case of the flu that kept him at the hotel all day, but he was a non-factor -- as was Martin Havlat.

Havlat had 1 shot on goal, Kane none.

The Avs got 2 goals from Svatos and a goal and an assist from Hejduk, two of their best players.

"We got behind the 8-ball right away there and pretty soon it's too big a lead to come back form," Duncan Keith said. "It's only one game."

Yeah, one more game off the schedule. The Hawks have only 31 games left and are 8 points out of the playoffs with six teams to pass.

Martin St. Pierre, recalled from Rockford on Tuesday to help spark the offense, was invisible as well for the Hawks.