Blackhawks facing long odds as they aim to rally from 3-1 deficit

To hear Ken Hitchcock tell it, the Blackhawks and Blues are on equal footing heading into Game 5 of their first-round playoff series. And given how every game has been decided by one goal, and how replays and balancing pucks and ill-timed penalties have decided each game, it’s easy to see why.

“There’s no gap between the two teams,” Hitchcock said. “Both teams are just going at it with whatever they’ve got right now. You feel like the four games could be anything.”

But a closer look makes the gap between the two teams every bit as wide as the 3-1 series deficit the Hawks face. While the Blues are showing a Hawks-like resolve, the Hawks are devolving into Blues-like extracurriculars between and after the whistles, playing right into St. Louis’ hands.

Composure, discipline and veteran savvy have been the Hawks’ hallmarks for years, as their playoff experience — “The Knowledge,” as Hitchcock coined it — gave them an inherent advantage over nearly every opponent.

Yet they badly lost their composure at the end of Game 4, with Andrew Shaw’s foolish interference penalty with 2:04 left all but ending their chance at tying the game, and his meltdown earning him a suspension for Game 5.

Discipline went out the window when Corey Crawford initiated a brief brawl with Blues rookie Robby Fabbri in the second period, and later when the Hawks were handed six game misconducts for a postgame melee.

And it’s been the perennial playoff failure Blues who have shown remarkable resilience all series, continually bouncing back from adversity and unfavorable calls while the Hawks have blown leads in consecutive games.

Facing early elimination for the first time in four years, the Hawks are distracted and disjointed.

“We want to win the game [Thursday] night,” Jonathan Toews said. “And the way we do that is not losing our cool, and focusing on the task at hand, and playing the way we know how to play the game, and focusing on the details of the game. You can’t do that if you’re losing your temper, your emotions. Obviously, at the end of the game last night it was at an all-time high I think for all of us, even on the bench and on the ice. But going forward we need to focus on what we need to do and keep ourselves in check in more ways than one.”

Their lack of composure is just one reason the Hawks are on the brink. While Vladimir Tarasenko has dominated the series, the Hawks’ big guns — Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Andrew Ladd — have combined for zero goals. The Hawks’ vaunted penalty-killing unit, so good since Marcus Kruger’s return last month, has been burned for four power-play goals in the last two games. And their lack of depth on the blue line has been exposed, the failure to acquire a true No. 4 defenseman at the trade deadline glaring in the face of the Blues’ attack.

Of course, anyone who already has written off the Hawks hasn’t been paying attention the last seven years. But anyone who is certain that they’ll pull off the comeback and make another Stanley Cup run hasn’t been paying attention the last seven days.

The series is tight. The margin of victory has been razor thin. The Hawks are a bounce here or a bounce there from being tied 2-2, or having a 3-1 lead of their own.

But the results don’t lie. The Blues have been the better team since the first drop of the puck. And if the Hawks are going to win three straight and get out of the first round, a lot has to change. And not just their tempers.

“I don’t know if there’s extra pressure,” Joel Quenneville said. “When you’re down 3-1, I think it shifts, and everybody wants to win in the worst way. We’ve got to come with that attitude and appetite [Thursday] night. But I don’t think it’s any different than it’s been in other years.”

It only feels that way.

Email: mlazerus@suntimes.com

Twitter: @marklazerus