The Blackhawks’ sellout crowd of 20,075 was allowed to enter the United Center four hours before warmups Saturday for an in-arena ‘‘bar crawl.’’
The beer turned out to be necessary.
Once the game began, the sober Hawks delivered their worst performance in a season full of bad ones, losing 8-5 to the Kraken after surrendering six goals on seven shots in the first 14 minutes of the game. The result ended a three-game winning streak.
‘‘Really, structure had nothing to do with it,’’ coach Luke Richardson said. ‘‘It was not [being] willing to skate [and] compete and losing puck battles all over the ice.’’
The Kraken scored five of those goals in a span of 3:41, the third-fastest stretch by a visiting team in NHL history. Hawks starting goalie Petr Mrazek saved one of five shots, becoming only the 11th goalie since 1970 to finish with a save percentage at or below .200 (but above .000), and replacement Alex Stalock promptly allowed goals on the first two shots he faced.
At that point, the intoxicated crowd began giving standing ovations and cheering wildly for every save, establishing an embarrassing yet comical new low point in this Hawks season.
The Hawks scored a number of meaningless late goals but still dropped back into last place in the NHL at the halfway point of the season, thanks to the Blue Jackets’ victory against the Red Wings.
‘‘It was so bad that it was like, ‘OK, let’s throw that first period in the trash,’ ’’ captain Jonathan Toews said. ‘‘We responded, but when you go down 6-1 in the first period, there’s only so much you can really do.’’
Discussions soon
General manager Kyle Davidson said he hasn’t met yet with Patrick Kane — who scored a late goal in his return from a lower-body injury — and Toews to discuss the trade deadline March 3, but he expects to do so within a ‘‘couple of weeks.’’
As far as other trade conversations, Davidson said he’s making ‘‘general calls on what we’re looking to do’’ — and other teams are, too — but specifics aren’t being hashed out.
