The Chicago Blackhawks came to life too late to avoid another close loss — this one a 3-1 defeat by the Vancouver Canucks on Monday night at the United Center.
The four-game winning streak in January that started in Las Vegas seems like a distant memory. The Hawks have since gone 1-4-2.
A team that had been a tough out in regulation has been held to no points in three of the last four games.
“I thought we were kind of flat,” Alex DeBrincat said. “Obviously we tried to pick it up in the third period, but a little too late. Yeah, I mean, we have to come out better.”
Said coach Derek King: “I think they’re trying. I really do believe we’re trying. Sometimes they don’t try the right way, if that makes sense. They work hard at times, and then sometimes they don’t work smart.
“I’ll keep pushing it on them. I’ll keep sending the message that we have to play a certain style of hockey to be able to at least have a chance to win.”
The Hawks knew the stakes ahead of time. Patrick Kane said after the morning skate: “You have Vancouver, who’s a team that’s kind of in the same position as us or a few points ahead of us. It’s a big game tonight. You win tonight and you play Minnesota on Wednesday and see if you can go into the (All-Star) break with a little momentum.”
After the puck dropped Monday, the momentum was all Vancouver’s.
The Canucks dominated possession in the first period and frustrated the Hawks offense in the second.
Whenever a Hawk tried to find space to create something, there was a Canuck with a stick down to block DeBrincat or a defender riding a streaking Dominik Kubalík.
Blackhawks center Kirby Dach (77) misses the puck during a scoring attempt during the third period against the Canucks on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, at the United Center. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)
That’s when the Hawks could get into the offensive zone. Breaking Vancouver’s neutral zone pressure proved a chore, even thought the Hawks placed an emphasis in practice on their forecheck.
“(We) worked on a few things and just kind of go back and have a little reboot on D-zone coverage, neutral-zone forecheck, just to refresh their memories,” King said after the morning skate. “As players, you can forget things or get lazy or get some bad habits.”
The Hawks fell back into some other bad habits.
Jake McCabe made a bad pass from the defensive zone, and Alex Chiasson capitalized with a wrister off Justin Dowling’s setup 12:21 into the game.
In the second period, the Canucks played keep-away until Brock Boeser deflected in Quinn Hughes’ sharp-angle shot that trickled through a sliver of daylight to Marc-André Fleury’s stick side.
“First few shifts, we couldn’t handle pucks, we were giving them away,” King said. “We settled in and we were kind of in it, but we made a couple mistakes and they capitalized. Seems to be our MO.
“We don’t have that luxury of making two or three mistakes.”
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In the third, Kirby Dach had a takeaway, and Connor Murphy’s one-timer with 6:59 left gave the Hawks some life.
The Hawks showed more jump, but a late penalty for too many men on the ice forced them to spend precious minutes on defense.
“Any penalty with three minutes left and you’re down by one is tough,” DeBrincat said.
Luke Schenn added an empty-netter for the Canucks in the final minute.
The Canucks’ 31-21 edge in shots on goal doesn’t tell the whole story. The Hawks also blocked 30 shots, indicating how one-sided the offensive pressure was for much of the game.
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