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CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks televised a home game last night for the first time this season.

Which means there probably are some fans in this city who saw the Hawks for the first time in a while.

Which means those fans probably are wondering when tickets for the Stanley Cup final will go on sale.

There was, after all, very little about Chicago's 4-1 victory at the United Center to suggest that the Blackhawks had lost their previous eight home games. Or that they'll lose another game -- anywhere, to any opponent -- this season, for that matter.

Of course, a lot of clubs look that way when they get a crack at a team that, in another sport, would be everyone's opponent of choice for Homecoming.

The Penguins have lost five games in a row and, after being spanked in consecutive games by Columbus and Chicago -- two of their fellow bottom-feeders -- are entering a stretch of games against opponents competing for division titles, not slots in the draft lottery.

Having to deal with the likes of Nashville, Vancouver, the New York Rangers and Philadelphia (twice) during the next week or so might be enough to make the Penguins look back on a defeat like the one they absorbed last night as the good old days.

The loss dropped the Penguins' record to 11-24-9 and left them tied with Washington for last place in the Eastern Conference, pending the outcome of the Capitals' game at Anaheim last night.

The Hawks, meanwhile, improved to 15-25-4. They, like the Penguins, long since fell out of playoff contention after generating genuine hope of a turnaround by being aggressive in free agency last summer.

"When our record is what it is, there's disappointment," Chicago winger Matthew Barnaby said. "We thought we'd be a lot higher. We think we're a lot better team [than the record indicates].

"We've had injuries. We haven't played as well as we should. If you aren't disappointed, you're in the wrong business."

The Penguins built a 6-1 advantage in shots early in the first period, but Chicago -- whose only other home game on TV here will be a national broadcast in March -- opened the scoring with a goal by Andy Hilbert at 6:15.

Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury gave up an unusually long rebound on Hilbert's initial shot from the left side, and Hilbert was able to get to the loose puck and backhand it in for his fourth of the season.

The Blackhawks appeared to pad their lead when Martin Lapointe threw in a power-play rebound at 7:45, but play was blown dead before he scored because a shot by Mark Bell from above the right circle had ripped Fleury's mask off his head.

The respite was brief, however, and Hilbert made it 2-0 at 11:35.

Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney, who was being pressured behind his net, threw the puck around the boards -- to no one in particular, it seemed -- and Hilbert picked it off before throwing a backhander by Fleury from the inner edge of the left circle.

The goal came three seconds after the Penguins' second woefully inept power play of the period. Indeed, the most impressive sequence during that man-advantage came courtesy of penalty-killers Patrick Sharp and Kyle Calder, both of whom who played keep-away with multiple members of the power play.

Radim Vrbata ran Chicago's advantage to 3-0 with a man-advantage goal at 13:38 as he whipped a shot into the open left side of the net from inside the left circle.

Colby Armstrong finally got the Penguins on the board during a power play at 15:58, when he knocked in a loose puck during a scramble around Chicago goalie Adam Munro.

The goal, Armstrong's second, produced assists for Ziggy Palffy and Sidney Crosby, and Crosby's point was his first in the past three games.