EDMONTON, AlbertaThe Blackhawks talked Wednesday and Thursday morning about getting even against the Oilers up here. They heard the chants of Lets get 10 during their 9-2 loss here in November and didnt like it.
But for all the talk before the game, not much changed during it.
Corey Crawford was pulled in the third period and Sam Gagner tied a franchise record with eight points as the Chicago Blackhawks fell to the Edmonton Oilers 8-4 at Rexall Place. The Blackhawks are now 0-3-1 in their last four, as they failed to gain any ground in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
Gagner was just part of the problem for the Blackhawks, who were once again victimized by the Oilers. Crawford allowed a few bad ones, including a Cam Barker goal, before he was pulled. Ray Emery didnt fare much better, allowing three on 13 shots. It was another night where team defense disintegrated against an Oilers team all too anxious to take advantage.
Forget about payback, forget about all that stuff. It doesnt matter how we win the game; we just didnt do the right things at all, Jonathan Toews said. Again, it was an easy game for tier top players. We let them do whatever they wanted, tap-ins left and right and we hung our goaltenders out to dry.
Patrick Sharp, who scored two goals for the Blackhawks, concurred.
Yeah, forget payback and all that stuff, he said. We wanted to come out and play a good game and talked all season long what makes us a good team is playing a defense-first, check-first mentality. Thats how we create scoring chances. We did that to start the game but somewhere along the line we got away from it.
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Crawford, coming off a strong game in Vancouver on Tuesday night, bore much of the onus for this one.
Our guys deserved better than me, he said. I dont know what happened. Its frustrating. Everyone here is pissed off.
His first goal, to Taylor Hall, wasnt a good one to give up. The Blackhawks were up 2-0 at the time and had much of the momentum.
We did some good things until they scored the first goal and then we got out of what we wanted to do, coach Joel Quenneville said. They like to score, they like to go off the rush, they like to attack and we cant play that way. We have to be more patient. They played run and gun and they were better than us by a long margin.
The ripple effect was evident. Team defense broke down and the Blackhawks didnt help themselves by continually going to the penalty box -- Edmonton had seven power plays, scoring on one.
We have to play together. We have to play all along the same page. When we start thinking about trying to outscore teams it backfires, said Duncan Keith. Good teams, when they lose games theyre in every game. We were in this one (early), but once we get up a goal or two we start forgetting how to play.
The Blackhawks have talked about playing a team game all season. When they do, theyre tough to beat. And at this time of the season especially, they need that again.