‘Enough's enough': Blackhawks running out of ways to explain poor starts

Share

NASHVILLE — The Blackhawks have been talking about starting on time for a while now. It's putting them way behind the 8-ball because they're not just going down one goal. They're giving up two or three in a short amount of time, and it's snowballing.

It happened again on Saturday night in Nashville after allowing three goals in the opening 4:11, marking the sixth game in a row the Blackhawks have failed to score first. And they're running out of ways to explain why that keeps happening.

"I don’t even know how to explain," Jonathan Toews said following a 5-2 loss to the Predators. "I feel like we’re talking about it, we’re aware, we’re trying to have better starts. I don’t know how to explain that one tonight. I don’t know if it’s lack of effort again or if it’s just mistakes that we can’t be making, but we seem to correct the course the rest of the game. I think it’s a bunch of different things. So we’re trying to figure it out and continue to try our best to have better starts. It’s clearly what’s hurting us lately. "

Duncan Keith was so frustrated about what was developing that he let his emotions spill over after taking exception to a hit he didn't like from Miikka Salomaki that got him ejected.

"At the end of the day we're down 3-0 not even five minutes into the game," Keith said. "Enough's enough. ... We've talked about having good starts and it wasn't a good start tonight. At the end of the day you can talk and talk, but it's about actions and we all have to be better. That's the bottom line."

It's now 362:32 minutes and counting since the Blackhawks last held a lead in a game. You just can't win with that formula, and the Blackhawks saw it again why.

"I think game to game has been different situations that have come up that have hurt us," coach Jeremy Colliton said. "When you drill down, defensively we got to compete harder. Let's give ourselves a chance. It's so hard to dig yourself out of those types of holes especially on the road. We play hard, but teams clamp down and it's tough to generate offense. Especially the third, they buckled down there and we're getting frustrated. It's like, what do you expect? It's going to be hard, so we got to find a way to give ourselves a chance to win."

It starts with scoring the first goal. Once you get it, it changes the feeling of the game and you can better evaluate yourself as a group.

Until that happens, the struggles will continue.

Contact Us