Coach Luke Richardson was blunt about a poor effort in Chicago's seventh straight loss.
Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson didn't hold back after the league-leading Vancouver Canucks dominated for long stretches and beat Chicago 4-2 on Tuesday night.
The score could have been a lot worse, if not for Blackhawks goalie Petr Mrazek. NHL-worst Chicago dropped its seventh straight (0-6-1) and fell to 14-36-6, 31 points.
Granted, they're still injury-depleted. But the Blackhawks were disjointed and disoriented at times by the talented Canucks' speed and hunger. Vancouver, behind two goals from Conor Garland and a goal and two assists from Dakota Joshua, improved to 36-12-6 and 78 points.
The Canucks haven't been on top of the standings this late in a season since 2012, when they went on to win the second of consecutive Presidents' Trophies.
Nothing To Be Proud Of...
"I think we've been proud of how our guys have worked over the last month, but not tonight," Richardson said. "That wasn't the same effort, you know, kind of the same result.
"I thought they turned our speed up, I guess their determination level, and we didn't," Richardson added. "We definitely didn't match up, nor even close. They really showed where they are in the standings and showed us where we are. So that's nothing to be proud of tonight." See following video.
The Canucks outshot Chicago 38-23 for the game and 12-1 in the first period when they controlled the puck for most of the final 10 minutes in the frame.
The Blackhawks didn't even get their first shot on goal of the game until Seth Jones fired on Thatcher Demko with 30 seconds left in the first. The United Center crowd of 16,425 responded with a derisive cheer.
Chicago's Tyler Johnson scored a power-play goal late in the second period. It was the veteran's first since returning from a right foot injury a week ago and since Dec. 29 at Dallas.
Rookie defenseman Kevin Korchinksi darted to the net and connected late in the third off a cross-ice feed by Ryan Donato.
But for the most part, the Canucks simply were charge as they finished a road trip 3-1-1 and swept their season series with Chicago, 3-0.
"They're just fast and aggressive and they wanted the puck," Richardson said. "They just won the puck battles. Nothing really intimidating physically like that, other than they just outskated and they outworked us."