No excuses: The league is showing the Blackhawks where they need to improve

In the big picture the Blackhawks' five-game road trip to open the season went fairly well.

But Nick Foligno wasn't in the mood to widen the lens after the Hawks were thoroughly outplayed and outclassed during a 4-0 loss at Colorado on Thursday.

"We are not in the position to be making excuses at all," Foligno said. "Every team gets screwed (by the schedule) somehow, someway throughout the season. So who cares?

"And we're a team that needs to fight for respect now, right? We're not a team that's gonna be given any easy nights and we shouldn't expect that."

That was certainly the case against Colorado, which outshot the Hawks 22-8 in the first period and 41-18 overall. The Hawks actually played OK for the first 10 minutes, but everything fell apart after Logan O'Connor scored short-handed at 11:46 of the first period.

"(The Avs are) a whole 'nother animal," coach Luke Richardson said. "When they get moving and skating, they're powerful and it sometimes paralyzes you a little when you're not playing well. When we got off our game after the first half of the first period, we started watching them."

The Hawks (2-3-0) are finally home, but there's no rest for the weary as they face the defending champion Golden Knights (5-0-0) on Saturday and the Boston Bruins (3-0-0) on Tuesday.

After five games, this is a great time to unveil our first Five Things of the season:

Cold as ice:

After beginning his career on a three-game point streak, Connor Bedard was held off the score sheet against Toronto and Colorado. He didn't manage a single shot attempt in almost 20 minutes of ice time against the Avs.

Hey, no one said this would be easy.

"It's a hard league," Foligno said. "Every team has great players. Every NHL player deserves to be in the NHL. So you're getting the best of the best every night, and I think he's learning that - and a lot of our young guys are learning that you have to bring that too."

Bedard had 36 total shot attempts and 20 shots on goal in the first four games.

Powerless:

One serious problem thus far has been the power play. Not only are the Hawks just 1-for-21, they've also allowed 2 short-handed goals and 8 high-danger chances.

How bad is that? Well, only seven other teams have allowed 3 or more high-danger chances while on the power play.

"Just (need to) move the puck and shoot the puck a little bit more," said defenseman Seth Jones. "Faceoffs are kind of killing us a little bit too right now. We're not starting with the puck very much."

Indeed, the Hawks have won just 51.4% of their faceoffs on the man advantage, which ranks 22nd. Eleven teams are at 60% or better.

Stunning:

Petr Mrazek and Arvid Soderblom have been spectacular in net. Mrazek has stopped 119 of 128 shots for a .924 save percentage while Soderblom has turned away 65 of 68 attempts (.956).

What makes those numbers even more impressive is that at even strength, the Hawks have yielded 36.03 scoring chances per 60 minutes (second worst) and 13.86 high-danger chances (fourth worst).

Mrazek turned in an otherworldly performance against Colorado by making 37 saves - many of which were flat-out spectacular.

"Petr played unbelievable tonight," Foligno said. "Some of the saves he made? That game might have been 10-0."

Slow and steady:

For those who watched at least part of Tuesday's game you saw what makes the Avs so special. Their speed overwhelms. Their passing is precise. Their shots are explosive and accurate. And they don't yield many quality chances.

Yet, it wasn't long ago that Colorado was where the Hawks are today. The Avs qualified for the postseason just once from 2011-17 and went a horrific 22-56-4 in 2016-17. But after that season, the pieces that were in place started coming together and the Avs lifted the Stanley Cup in 2022.

It's a reminder that this rebuild will be a long process for the Hawks. Former Anaheim Ducks coach Dallas Eakins really brought that point home during a conversation with me last season.

"We move on so fast in our society on everything. News comes fast," Eakins said. "People are like, 'Man, the Avalanche! They're so awesome! They've been so great.'

"Yeah, but it was only (seven) years ago they were 34 games under .500. And they had to endure that. Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen were there. They had to endure that. Their coach had to endure it. ...

"They've had great patience in a number of areas. They're not saying, 'Aw, you know what? This young guy's not developing as fast as we want. Let's get rid of him.' Or, 'Let's change this staff.'

"They've had great patience. It's the one thing that always shows up on my radar."

Must-see TV:

Tuesday will be a fun night with all 32 teams in action. The league set the schedule so that games start almost every 15 minutes. It begins with Toronto at Washington at 5 p.m. (CDT) and ends with Philadelphia at Vegas at 10 p.m. The Hawks host Boston at 7:30.