"The only one in the Blackhawks locker room who had anything bad to say about goalie Cristobal Huet after the team's first United Center loss was ... Cristobal Huet.

''I can blame only myself,'' Huet said Saturday night following a 4-3 defeat to the Dallas Stars. ''Right now, I feel like I let the team down. I have to see this as just a bump in the road. There were times I really looked bad tonight. I didn't have it.''

But none of the other Hawks had anything negative to say about Huet, who did hear some booing from the fans.

''You have to give credit to Dallas,'' Kris Versteeg said. ''They came in here and played a real good game. That was not how we want to play. We don't want to get behind like that. We have to try to get the first one in the next few games.

''I think Huey has been playing great. We can't dwell on this.''

The Hawks were more than a little unhappy that the game was scoreless after one period despite having outshot the Stars 14-5 in the first 20 minutes.

''Sometimes, that's the way it goes,'' Hawks center John Madden said. ''All those shots [in the first period], and the score is 0-0. That's the way it goes. I still think we were playing well, and [Huet], he's just not getting any breaks.''

''We had chances to get a couple of quick goals,'' Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith said. ''Right away, that would have changed the momentum. Instead, we were fighting back the rest of the game. I thought we still outskated that team.''

The Hawks never got even, though they had chances and three times cut a two-goal deficit to one.

''On their last goal [by Stephane Robidas with 9:33 to play], I had bad balance,'' Huet said. ''And it took a funny bounce before it came toward me. That's how things went tonight.''

As far as starting Wednesday night against Vancouver at the UC, ''I have no control,'' Huet said. ''We'll see.''"