Blackhawks in search of some answers

The Blackhawks have gone from a work in progress to a team searching for answers.

It was another dismal night at the United Center on Wednesday for the defending Stanley Cup champs, who dipped below .500 for the first time since five games into the 2008-09 season with a 2-1 loss to the Phoenix Coyotes.

Not only are the Hawks 8-9-1 after 18 games, they fell to 4-7 at the UC with their fourth straight loss on home ice.

“It's 18 games into it and it's not early in the season anymore,” goalie Marty Turco said. “There's no real excuse for saying anything about early in the season. It's all about team play and collecting points.

“No one is feeling sorry for the Chicago Blackhawks right now. We're the ones that are going to have to pick ourselves up. I know we can do it real soon.”

The Hawks have blown their chance to pack away the points with a favorable early home schedule. Now they must play seven of the next eight games on the road, where they are a healthier 4-2-1.

“It's been a busy start to our season and we certainly didn't take advantage of it by playing some games and playing home games, which could have put us in a good spot,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “Now we have a tough challenge ahead of us to find some momentum and build on our team play.

“I know we've had a decent road start to our season and we're going to have to capitalize there and find any way to put one win and go off that.”

The Hawks outshot the Coyotes 36-22 but had little traffic around goaltender Jason LaBarbera.

“We have to find a way to get that swagger back and get things going again,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “It feels like a cheap loss. I think we did a lot of good things tonight and we're showing some progress.

“We're not going to turn on each other, we're not going to get frustrated, and we're not going to get negative. We're going to keep believing we're a good team because we know we are.”

The Hawks controlled most of the play in the first period and led 1-0 on Bryan Bickell's third goal of the season at 9:22, but the second period was all too familiar in terms of what has ailed them all season.

The Coyotes got early goals from Kyle Turris and Eric Belanger 35 seconds apart to change the momentum of the game.

Turris scored at 6:23 after Duncan Keith failed to get the puck out of his zone. Belanger beat Marty Turco on a 2-on-1 at 6:58.

It was the eighth time this season the Hawks allowed a score on the next shift following a goal against.

“This was a tough loss tonight knowing the 2 points we left on the table with all the things we were doing right at the start of the game and then they turned it on us,” Quenneville said. “We know it's a long season and there's some positive behind tonight's loss we want to build on.

“Let's try to be positive through a tough stretch here.”

Quenneville benched Keith for the final 3:53 of the second period after he mishandled the puck before both Phoenix goals.

“He can be better,” Quenneville said.

Tim Sassone's game tracker

<P>Coyotes 2, Blackhawks 1</P>

<P><B>Three stars:<B></P>

<P>1. Jason LaBarbara, Coyotes: Made 35 saves to go 4-0 against the Hawks for his career.</P>

<P>2. Ed Jovanovski, Coyotes: Big defenseman logged 22 minutes and had 4 hits and 3 blocked shots.</P>

<P> 3. Brian Campbell, Hawks: Played a solid 23 minutes, most among Hawks defensemen, with 5 shots on goal.</P>

<P><B>Oh, shoot:<B> Patrick Kane had 1 shot on goal in 21 minutes for the Hawks. Marian Hossa had just 4 shots as the new line of Kane, Hossa and Tomas Kopecky was no factor.</P>