Blackhawks apologize after Winter Classic loss: 'Our fans deserve better'

The Chicago Blackhawks season hit a new low point on Tuesday with a blowout loss in the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field.

The 32nd-place Blackhawks fell behind early and never recovered in a 6-2 loss to the rival St. Louis Blues at the legendary home of the Chicago Cubs. It was Chicago's fifth straight loss and dropped them to 12-24-2 on the season. It was also the Blackhawks' fifth loss in a Winter Classic game.

"I'm shocked at how we played. It's really disappointing," forward Taylor Hall said, according to Ben Pope of The Chicago Sun-Times. "Our fans have been through so much this year and they really came and supported us today... For us to lay an egg like that, I'm really sad for the people that support us."

The Blues scored a power-play goal less than two minutes into the game then extended the lead to 2-0 before the first period was 10 minutes old. Hall responded with a goal of his own to cut the lead to 2-1 after 20 minutes but the Blues pulled away with three more goals in the second period. Tyler Bertuzzi's third-period goal for the Blackhawks made the score 5-2 but a final tally from Alexandre Texier iced the game shortly after.

“There’s one thing Chicago knows, it’s how to celebrate sports, and our fans did not disappoint today,” captain Nick Foligno said, according to Mark Lazerus of The Athletic. “That’s what makes it so damn difficult right now. It’s just embarrassing to lose 6-2 in an environment like that, at home. Our fans deserve better.”

The 40,933 fans at Wrigley braved rain and 3.3 C temperatures to cheer on their local team.

“Forty thousand people out there, probably 30-plus thousand of them our fans, and those tickets aren’t cheap,” Bedard said, according to Lazerus. “We’re obviously, in our room, disappointed with ourselves, but I feel bad for our fan base, coming out to this and we lay an egg.”