Another slow start leads to home loss

As well as the Blackhawks have played at times early in this season there has been one problem that won't go away -- their slow starts.

The Hawks continued a trend of coming out flat, and they paid for it Tuesday night in a 7-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets at the United Center.

There were no dramatic comebacks to be made this night as the Hawks fell behind 2-0 in the game's first three minutes and basically found themselves in a chase mode the rest of the way.

"I think maybe because we have come back that's why we're not really coming out that hard," defenseman James Wisniewski said. "I think we're thinking we're always in the game because we have so much scoring power, but we have to realize as the season goes on and gets going these teams are starting to bear down a little more."

The loss spoiled another impressive performance from Hawks rookies Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews.

Kane had a 4-point night with 2 goals and 2 assists, and Toews had a goal to extend his points scoring streak to seven games.

"The kids were awesome," Hawks coach Denis Savard said. "But we need everyone on board to win a game. Some guys struggled."

Sergei Samsonov, Rene Bourque and Jason Williams each were minus-3 and combined for 4 shots on goal. Samsonov still is without a goal in nine games and is minus-5.

The Hawks (5-4) made too many turnovers, and the Blue Jackets cashed in. Rick Nash and Jiri Novotny each had 2 goals in the win.

"Columbus is a different team, too," Savard said. "Basically it was turnovers that cost us the game."

Sloppy passing led to Nash's first at 2:19 of the first period. A turnover in the neutral zone brought the Blue Jackets right back down the ice, with Novotny beating goalie Nikolai Khabibulin 23 seconds later.

Khabibulin wasn't at his sharpest either, allowing 6 goals on the first 22 shots he faced. The Blue Jackets scored an empty-netter with 2:05 to play after Khabibulin was pulled for a sixth attacker with the Hawks on a power play.

The 18-year-old Kane has 13 points in nine games to lead the Hawks in scoring.

"I don't even think I played that well tonight," Kane said. "I got some bounces and things kind of went my way."

There's no way Savard could have expected Kane and Toews to be his two best players nine games into the season, but they are.

"That line (Toews, Kane and Tuomo Ruutu) has been our best line by far," Savard said. "They give you the same effort every night, and they're getting production."

The Hawks fell behind 3-1 before rallying in the second period to tie it 3-3 on goals by Toews then Kane at 18:10.

But the Hawks couldn't get out of the period tied as Sergei Fedorov scored a killer power-play goal with 22 seconds left before intermission to put the Blue Jackets back ahead.

"Coming into the locker room it wasn't that bad," Wisniewski said. "We were on top of them the whole period, so we just thought 1 shot and we're back in, but everything didn't go our way tonight."