Chicago Blackhawks can't solve Lightning's Vasilevskiy

The video starts out as a blur.

Two seconds later, you see it's none other than a cap-wearing Corey Crawford, casually walking toward the Chicago Blackhawks' dressing room before his team's 2-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Monday night at the United Center.

Is this a sign that Crawford - out since Dec. 27 with an upper-body injury - might return soon to try to save the Hawks' season? Where has he been all this time? And what caused the injury in the first place?

Not surprisingly, the answers to all of those questions remain fuzzy. Before the game, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville told us that Crawford is "getting better" and afterward said it was "positive" and "good to see him."

Other than that, the timetable remains the same - indefinite.

Jeff Glass and Anton Forsberg have gone a combined 5-6-1 while filling in for Crawford. It was Glass who was in net Monday and he turned in a fine effort, making 29 saves.

His teammates, though, failed on many glorious chances and were shut out for the second time in three games.

The Hawks (22-19-6) probably should have scored two or three times in the first 40 minutes, but none of their 30 shots found the mark. They also failed on a 45-second, two-man advantage in the first period and four minutes of power-play time when Mikhail Sergachev was whistled for high sticking and unsportsmanlike conduct.

Making matters worse, Tampa Bay (32-13-3) took a 1-0 lead with Sergachev in the box when Chris Kunitz scored short-handed at 17:14 of the second period. After the puck ended up behind the net, Kunitz managed to bank a shot off Glass' backside and into the net.

"You'll take them any time you can, especially in a tight game like this," Kunitz said.

The Hawks went 0-for-6 on the power play and are 0-for-16 in their last five games.

"Well, I mean you could sit here and debate and argue the whole power play; what's the problem with it," said Duncan Keith, who has yet to score a goal on 111 shots this season. "At the end of the day it hasn't been good enough. We've got to find a way."

The Hawks had better find a way to start winning games, too, because they are 9 points third-place St. Louis, 8 behind Dallas and 7 behind Colorado, which holds the last wild-card spot.

"We know what we're up against," Jonathan Toews said. "The more you think of that, the more you tend to put pressure on yourself. We can't look at the big picture. We've just got to go out there and win one game.

"If we can have that playoff-type mentality every shift, every period … that's all we're going to worry about."

How deep has this hole become? Well, even if the Avs, Wild (57 points) Kings (55) and Ducks (53) all get 20 points in their next 20 games, the Hawks would have to go 14-6-0 to pass them.

And the odds of all of them playing .500 hockey are slim to none.

So Crawford had better return soon or the Hawks have no hope of making a serious playoff push.

That much is crystal clear.