Overtime loss to Canucks puts Blackhawks at crossroads

Speed bump? Or the beginning of the end?

We won't know for a while, but the Blackhawks' 3-2 overtime loss to Vancouver at the United Center on Monday definitely put Jonathan Toews' team at a crossroads and left the captain in a foul mood.

"The first 40 minutes for sure wasn't good enough, especially in our building (against) a team that's on a back-to-back," Toews said. "We need to take advantage.

"We need to have more speed, more energy through four lines. I don't think anyone really brought their 'A' game today."

Coming off back-to-back victories at Toronto and Montreal, it was a perplexing turn of events.

The Hawks lacked effort. Pace. Intensity.

All things playoff teams have in spades.

The Canucks, meanwhile, came out like their playoff lives were on the line, blocking 15 of their 18 shots in the first two periods and allowing the Hawks just 14 shots on goal to that point.

The Hawks salvaged a point thanks to another standout performance by Corey Crawford (31 saves) and Erik Gustafsson's game-tying goal with just 3:13 remaining.

Unfortunately for coach Jeremy Colliton's squad, Bo Horvat scored just 16 seconds into overtime to lift Vancouver (31-32-10, 72 points) to victory. The Hawks (32-30-10, 74 points) are now 4 points behind Arizona, which lost to Tampa Bay on Monday and holds the second wild-card spot.

Gustafsson echoed Toews' thoughts about the lackluster effort and wants nothing more than to play again to "show the fans that we want to make the playoffs.

"I know everyone wants to make it in this room," he continued. "You can look at the faces tonight."

The Hawks came in riding high on a five-game winning streak and - crazy as it sounds - it's fair to wonder if they might have been a bit overconfident.

That can happen to young squads, especially when you return home and are facing a team on a back-to-back late in the season.

Toews wasn't buying that theory, though.

"Every team we're playing pretty much right now - regardless of the conference or the division - needs points to get in the playoffs," he said. "So we know the pace and the speed's going to be high.

"We know it's going to be a playoff style of game and we need to bring that level. We just didn't have it early on tonight."

Toews gave the Hawks a 1-0 lead with his 31st goal of the season at 19:25 of the first period, but Vancouver went ahead on second-period goals by Alexander Edler and Markus Granlund.

A Chris Kunitz turnover in the neutral zone helped lead to Granlund's goal. After Kunitz's weak pass was picked off by Troy Stecher, the defenseman quickly fed Elias Pettersson, and the Canucks were in business.

Pettersson slipped the puck to Brock Boeser, who wheeled to the center of the zone and snapped off a shot that bounced off Crawford and right to a charging Granlund.

Granlund had gained inside position on Kunitz and easily pounded home the rebound to make it 2-1.

In the big picture, let's remember the Hawks are 5-0-1 in their last six contests and remain in the thick of the race. They are tied with Colorado in 10th place in the West and have a game in hand on Minnesota (77 points) and Arizona (78).

Now we'll see if this is a lesson learned when they host Philadelphia on Thursday.

"We found a way to get a point and now I guess the meaning of that point will be determined by how we play going forward," Colliton said. "If we go back to playing how we should and winning games then we'll look back at this point (and it) could be really important for us.

"So that's really the bottom line. We got to respond."