The Winter Classic has become the — pardon the pun — Losster Classic for the Blackhawks.
In the NHL’s biggest regular-season event, the Hawks entered winter with a whimper, falling 6-2 to the Blues on Tuesday in front of a crowd of 40,933 at Wrigley Field.
Considering even the Hawks’ dynasty teams never managed to win a Classic, it would’ve been surprising had this last-place group broken the streak. In more predictable fashion, however, the Hawks fell totally flat, and the franchise dropped to 0-5 in Classics and 1-6 in outdoor games.
‘‘I’m shocked at how we played,’’ said forward Taylor Hall, who appeared to be on the verge of tears in the locker room.
‘‘It’s really disappointing. Our fans have been through so much this year, and they really came and supported us today. I really felt the energy before the game. For us to lay an egg like that, I’m really sad for the people that support us. For us in here, it’s got to be a huge wake-up call of how hard we have to play.’’
The Hawks now have lost three consecutive games by four or more goals for the first time in 1987, exemplifying just how horrendous this first week out of the holiday break has been.
Their 6-2 and 5-1 defeats to the Sabres and Stars on Friday and Sunday, respectively, might have been overshadowed somewhat by the anticipation of the festivities Tuesday. But this woeful showing put their flaws on all-too-obvious display for a national TV audience.
The Hawks haven’t merely failed to extend their new-coach bump under Anders Sorensen; they’ve fallen into a new-coach canyon instead.
‘‘It’s sour,’’ Sorensen said. ‘‘It’s not the product we expect from ourselves, [and] it’s not the standard we expect from ourselves. So it’s something we have to get to work on.’’
The Blues grabbed control from the start with two early power-play goals. It was a bad time for the Hawks’ penalty kill, a bright spot all season, to struggle.
Hall responded with his own power-play goal, and the Hawks generated the last nine shots of the first period. That led Sorensen to believe his team had found its footing. But then the Blues then blew things open with three goals in a 10-minute span in the second period, permanently subduing the packed crowd.
Goalie Petr Mrazek wasn’t sharp, as has been the case in his last several starts, and he especially struggled to track pucks through traffic under the atypical outdoor lighting. He was beaten by two shots from the point during the Blues’ second-period run.
The Hawks weren’t sound defensively in front of him, either. Sorensen pointed out that the scoring chances were roughly even — the Hawks actually had a 21-17 advantage during five-on-five play — but he criticized his team’s determination to make critical plays in critical areas.
‘‘The difference is [the Blues] won the battles around both nets,’’ Sorensen said. ‘‘They won in front of our net; they won in front of their net. That’s really what it boils down to.’’
Connor Bedard, whose popularity explains why the NHL wanted the lowly Hawks to participate in this game in the first place, was a nonfactor. He had an assist on a meaningless goal by Tyler Bertuzzi in the third period but had only one shot on goal himself. Like Hall, he said he felt bad for fans who paid for ‘‘tickets [that] aren’t cheap’’ just to watch the Hawks get ‘‘dog-walked.’’
Captain Nick Foligno was less tight-lipped, dropping an F-bomb in frustration before correcting himself.
‘‘It’s just embarrassing to lose 6-2 in an environment like that,’’ Foligno said. ‘‘On this stage, with the excitement that we had before the game, I thought this was going to be a turning point for our club. And obviously it wasn’t.’’