Don't tell me who won the U.S.-Canada game. I'm Tivoing it.

That's it. Next year the mothers are coming. The men just couldn't get it done.

I wrote a pretty crummy game story tonight. I think I was thrown for a loop when Guillaume Latendrese said the Wild should "proud of ourselves" because the Wild showed it could play with the Blackhawks.

True, when it was 1-0, Latendresse nearly scored after splitting the D. But he didn't and John Madden tied it after poor defensive-zone coverage. True, when it was 1-1, Huet denied Latendresse on a breakaway and Kyle Brodziak was stopped on a 3-on-1 and Brodziak couldn't pull a trigger on a Nick Schultz rebound. And then Hossa made it 2-1.

And yes, it was a 2-1 game going into that third until the Wild got into penalty trouble and Greg Zanon capped a trying night with a 200-foot delay of game penalty, which led to Patrick Kane's goal.

But, "proud?"

The Wild lost a fourth in a row tonight. Now, it is true the Wild was facing the best team it's faced all year in my opinion. The Blackhawks are rolling bigtime right now, have a ton of weapons, don't give up goals, score a bunch.

And the 21,381 fans here tonight -- like most teams, the Blackhawks fudge the numbers; I think there were 25,000 here easy -- are starting to realize they could be in for something special this year. If the goaltending holds up and they stay healthy, the Blackhawks are as good as it gets in the NHL.

Just look at the weapons tonight compared to the Wild's weapons. The Hawks stars capitalized on their chances; the Wild flubbed it and shanked it and shot it into legs and misfired and put it into Cristobal Huet.

The Wild worked hard and got chances, and it ended up with 20 shots. There's just not enough finishers on the team.

And now, a team that was three points out of a playoff spot has put itself into a terrible position yet again. It's going to be 10 points out of a playoff spot by the end of the night. Every single thing it accomplished from the Nov. 20-Dec. 28 hot streak has evaporated.

And now, they're in the middle of a hellacious stretch that continue vs. Calgary on Wednesday, Chicago again, Pittsburgh and Vancouver.

Yikes!

"All teams with winning records," coach Todd Richards said Tuesday morning. "But when it gets down to the end of the year, if you want to make the playoffs, you've got to win these games. These are the games you've got to perform in." We'll see vs. the Flames if they get back on the winning track. OK, I don't know if I'll make the morning skates Wednesday morning. If I don't, I'll talk to you before the game

By the way, Owen Nolan did miss tonight's game with a leg injury. He's day to day.