Rozner: Blackhawks searching for defensive posture

During the Joel Quenneville era, the Blackhawks have generally been a strong defensive team that makes life easier for its goaltender.

That was certainly not the case in the series against Nashville.

It was a breakdown in every way that involved poor defense, bad breakouts, lack of help from the forwards and offensive turnovers in dangerous areas leading to odd-man breaks.

When they get to the video and start talking about a Minnesota team that's just as fast as Nashville, no one will escape the wrath.

The video doesn't lie and it won't be pretty.

"It's true," said Marian Hossa. "There's a lot to clean up.

"We know we have to be better defensively and we have to learn from our mistakes. The teams get better and better as the playoffs go on and coming back like we did won't be easy."

The Hawks fell behind 3-0 in the first period of Game 1 and tied it by the end of the second, before winning in double-overtime.

They scored with nine minutes left in Game 4 and won in triple-overtime.

And in Game 6, they were behind by a pair twice in the first 11 minutes but tied it at 3-3 in the first and won on a late goal by Duncan Keith.

It's not a terrific formula for success.

"It seems like when we are down and we try to turn the game around, we play better, but sometimes it's gonna be too late," Hossa said. "We have to find the desperate play right away and play 60 minutes.

"We had lots of great stretches for sure, but there's definitely room for improvement."

So why the erratic play?

"It's a combination of a lot of different things," Keith said. "When we're doing the right things, we're a really tough team to play against. We use our speed and our skill and we're intimidating in that sense.

"There's some things we know we can work on to be more consistent and I'm sure we'll talk about that. The good thing is we're moving on and we're excited about that and we know we can get better."

Hossa said it all starts with the team thinking defense first, which is also a hallmark of Quenneville teams.

"We try to play smart when we are on defense because when we do that it just creates more on offense and we're good on defense," Hossa said. "So it begins with that part of the game and we know that and we will work on that I'm sure."

The result of an ugly series is that neither goaltender can feel all that great about the net.

Corey Crawford was pulled in Game 1 and bad in Game 2, before getting the win but without having to do much in Game 6. Darling was pulled in Game 6 after looking shaky in Game 5.

"I thought we were horrible to start the game. It was absolutely dreadful," Quenneville said of Game 6. "That's not the goalie's fault.

"It just shows the leadership and character of this team that we can come back, and this time of year your top guys have to be your top guys."

Crawford will get the start Game 1 against Minnesota and he has the championship pedigree but may also be lacking some confidence at the moment.

"It was great for him to win, considering the type of criticism he takes," said captain Jonathan Toews. "Flip of a switch, if things go wrong for our team - especially in the playoffs - everyone wants to point the finger at the goaltender, but he deserves credit."

Regardless of how they got to this point, the Hawks will be facing a very confident team that has been the best club in hockey with the hottest goaltender for the last two months, while the Hawks are searching for their best game.

They can start by tightening things up in their own end.

"We didn't help our goalie in the beginning of (Game 6) and we made a few mistakes and it ends up in our net," Hossa said. "We switched goalies and played better defensively. That happened a couple times in this series.

"We have to be smarter in our end and keep it simple from the start."

As each round gets tougher, sooner would be considerably better than later.

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.