The aim of the Chicago Blackhawks to successfully defend their National Hockey League crown is facing a serious roadblock in the 2010 NHL season.

Despite being the defending Stanley Cup champion, the Blackhawks have lost their past three NHL games and currently stand at 8-9 win-loss record in the current NHL season.

The bad start of the Blackhawks put them at fourth place in the Central Division and in danger of failing to advance to the NHL playoffs and defend their professional hockey league crown.

NHL experts attributed the lackluster performance of the defending NHL champion due to the failure of the management to keep the core of the championship team this year.

It can be recalled that 10 of the best players of the Blackhawks last NHL season left the team after the management refused to sign them into a contract due to salary cap restrictions.

Among the key Blackhawks players who left the team this year were Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, John Madden, Kris Versteeg and starting goaltender Antti Niemi.

The Blackhawks management failed to sign the team's core players since they do not have enough salary cap to make them part of the team roster this year.

Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman explained although the loss of their 10 important players is one of the factor of their slide this year, it is not the main reason why the team is struggling this year.

Bowman said they have a good roster this year to defend their crown successfully; the problem is their lack of team-work.

The manager said despite their bad record he is still confident the Blackhawks can bounce back and defend their NHL crown successfully this year.

Bowman said the championship groove would always be there all they have to is to find it and apply it in the current NHL season.

He added all they have to do to achieve their goal is to play as a team and put into heart that they are the defending NHL champion.

Bowman said he hoped the veteran players of the team will take more leadership role and lead the team in defending their championship this year.

The defending Stanley Cup champion took the crown last year after defeating the Philadelphia Flyers.

Former NHL great Scott Niedermayern for his part said the struggled experienced by the Blackhawks is just normal since defending a crow is always not easy and would always be full of challenges.

Niedermayern, a four-time Stanley Cup champion said the Blackhawks would always be facing a huge challenge every game-time since each NHL team would play their best to defeat them.

He said the youth laden Blackhawks team this year can get back to the groove of winning if they will stay focus and increase further their determination this year.

Moreover, he said the NHL season is still a long way to go and the Blackhawks still have a big chance to pick up the pieces and defend their crown successfully.