Blackhawks lose to Sharks as offensive futility reaches new level

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Blackhawks have spent much of autumn maligning their inability to create second chances on offensive possessions.

For much of Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Sharks, they appeared unable to create offensive possessions at all, much less translate them into scoring chances.

Despite an admirable late push, cutting the deficit briefly to one goal, the overall effort was again far from sufficient.

“When we come into a building ... and they’re desperate for a win just as we are, it’s like we just get timid again,” Jonathan Toews said. “They start playing with energy, and all of a sudden, as they say, it feels like we’re going uphill the whole time.”

The Hawks suffered through a stretch of 27 minutes, 42 seconds — lasting from early in the first period to midway through the second — with just one shot on goal.

Through two periods, they had been out-attempted 44-17. They did eat into that deficit some in the third, finishing with a 32-21 deficit in shots on goal and 58-38 gap in shot attempts, but still came nowhere near matching the Sharks’ efficiency.

“We had our stretches of offensive zone play, but we didn’t get any pucks to the net,” coach Jeremy Colliton said. “Whether we had opportunities and we didn’t shoot, or we tried to shoot and didn’t get it through, missed the net. ... It wasn’t a huge difference in play or zone time, but they did more with it.”

After seemingly trending in the right direction throughout the road trip, improving from a blowout loss in Nashville to an overtime loss in Los Angeles to an overtime win in Anaheim, the Hawks lost all semblance of momentum Tuesday.

Even the defensive end, while certainly better than the offensive end, wasn’t great.

Brent Seabrook lost a box-out on Patrick Marleau for the Sharks’ early second period icebreaking goal, Adam Boqvist looked paralyzed by a strange bounce that led to an Evander Kane shorthanded breakaway goal, and Robin Lehner was uncharacteristically leaky on Tomas Hertl’s third-period goal.

Brandon Saad and Duncan Keith scored the goals for the Hawks, providing some short-lived life, before an empty-netter sealed the result.

“I just feel like that’s kind of how it’s been going for us all year,” Patrick Kane. “It seems like we take one step forward, two steps back a lot of the time. Just not consistent enough.”