Frustration has set in for struggling Hawks

If the Blackhawks thought Monday's game at Calgary was critical, what does that make Wednesday night's game in Edmonton against the last-place Oilers?

While the Hawks seemingly have played one frustrating game after another this season, the 3-1 loss to the Flames has to rank at or near the top of the list.

In a game the 11th-place Hawks themselves knew was important, against a team 1 point ahead of them in the Western Conference standings, only a few of them came to play.

“Last night was a good example: You get what you deserve,” coach Joel Quenneville told reporters Tuesday after putting the Hawks through a grueling, skate-heavy practice at Rexall Place.

Frustration over where the defending Stanley Cup champs sit with just 29 games left is reaching a boiling point.

Angry fans lit up the chat rooms and Twitter with trade suggestions for general manager Stan Bowman on Monday night, but the loudest voice came from the Hawks' dressing room in Calgary where all-star defenseman Duncan Keith raised eyebrows with comments directed at his teammates.

When ESPNChicago.com's Jesse Rogers asked Keith about the power play going 0-for-4 in the loss, the alternate captain didn't hold back.

“(Bleep) the power play,” Keith told ESPN. “Nobody goes to the net to score goals. That's why we don't win.”

It was a calmer Keith who spoke to reporters Tuesday.

“Our skating and our battle and compete level needs to come up,” Keith told CSNChicago.com

Keith could have been talking about any number of his teammates who play forward, with the exception of Jonathan Toews, who leaves it on the ice every night.

Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp aren't immune from what's wrong with the Hawks at the moment. Sharp has 1 goal in the last nine games, but it's Hossa in particular who is a nonfactor more nights than not.

“We need way more out of him,” Quenneville told reporters after Tuesday's practice.

“Like (Keith) said, you get bodies to the net,” Kane told reporters.

Those words from Keith go to the point many critics have been making all season: The Hawks are too soft, too easy to play against, and don't have enough players who play with an edge. The sandpaper guys who played with jam a year ago are all gone, and they haven't been replaced.

Tomas Kopecky, Jack Skille, Viktor Stalberg, Jake Dowell, Fernando Pisani and even Bryan Bickell have been given chance after chance to play key roles on the team but haven't been nearly physical enough or consistent enough with their offensive contributions to provide help for the big guns.

The trade deadline is three weeks from Monday, but Bowman might need to do something sooner than later to shake up his roster. Maybe he gives it to the end of this six-game road trip that concludes Saturday after games against the Oilers, Stars and Coyotes.

The Hawks have had scouts in a lot of places the last few weeks with Bowman saying again during the all-star break that his wish list still included a depth defenseman and another center.

Quenneville shook up his lines at practice Tuesday, splitting up Sharp and Hossa and returning Sharp to left wing on a line with Toews and Kane. As if more evidence is needed for the Hawks needing another center, Kopecky was centering the second line for Hossa and Troy Brouwer.

ŸJoin the conversation with Hawks fans on Tim Sassone's Between the Circles blog at dailyherald.com, and follow Tim's Blackhawks reports on Twitter@TimSassone.