The hunger strike continues.
Blackhawks coach Craig Hartsburg and his leaders, Brent Sutter, Chris Chelios and Tony Amonte, have been bemoaning their team’s lack of emotion and hunger of late.
Tuesday night, their starvation for a victory extended to six games when Michael Nylander scored with 1 minute 18 seconds left in overtime to lift the Calgary Flames to a 4-3 victory at the Saddledome.
“A typical Blackhawks loss,” said a furious Sutter, after the Hawks had blown a 3-1 second-period lead. “We’ve done it probably 15 times. It’s (expletive), or phrase it any way you want.”
“We find a way to screw it up,” said Hartsburg, whose club dropped to 10-17-6 and to 11th place in the Western Conference. “Hunger, that’s all it is in this league right now. Get a bunch of hungry guys, you can win some hockey games.”
Get a bunch of satisfied guys, and you have the Hawks, who are 0-4-2 in their last six games.
After falling behind 1-0 early in the first period on a Theo Fleury goal, the Hawks got goals from Eric Daze, Sutter and Amonte. The tide began to turn at 15:00 of the second, when Fleury won a faceoff and Derek Morris blasted a slapper past Jeff Hackett.
Then 3:23 into the third, Jonas Hoglund beat Hackett to tie it for Calgary (10-18-7). Two great saves by Hackett in the final 5:00 of regulation preserved the tie, but Nylander delivered the knockout in overtime.
“Up 3-1, they come back. We can’t let that happen,” Daze said. “There’s no excuse to lose that lead.”
“It’s unacceptable,” Sutter said.
It’s the Hawks’ way of life right now.
