CHICAGO -- Marian Hossa was back on top of his game and the Chicago Blackhawks got back in control of theirs.Hossa had two goals, Scott Darling made 22 saves and the tight-checking Blackhawks beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-0 on Tuesday night to snap a two-game slide.Artem Anisimov and Dennis Rasmussen also scored to help Chicago maintain a three-point lead over St. Louis in the Central Division.The 37-year-old Hossa scored his team-leading 13th and 14th goals in his 27th game -- surpassing his total of 13 last season in 64 contests.I feel more recharged, and with the puck going in, you feel more confident, Hossa said. But I try not to be just a goal scorer. I try to play both ways and even if I dont score in a bunch of games, I try to make some plays for the team.And the Blackhawks turned in one of their better defensive and puck management efforts this season, according to coach Joel Quenneville.I like what we gave up tonight -- not much, Quenneville said. When we check well and dont play much in our own end, we generally play well and we have the puck a lot more. Tonight was a good step.Darling made a handful of tough stops but wasnt heavily tested in his first shutout this season and third of his career. He started his third straight game in place of No. 1 goalie Corey Crawford, who had an appendectomy in Philadelphia on Saturday.I cant remember one extremely good Grade-A chance that we gave up, Darling said. The guys were great, the D were great, the forwards were great on defense.It feels good, especially that one. It was a team shutout.Mike Smith blocked 23 shots as the Coyotes lost their fifth straight and completed a quick road trip, playing their second game in two nights. Arizona lost 4-1 on Monday night at Columbus with Louis Domingue in goal in the second contest of a home-and-home set with the Blue Jackets.Playing in back-to-back games, we did not have the energy we needed to get back into the game, coach Dave Tippett said. We do not make enough plays to get anything done, whether it is defensively or offensively.Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews sat out his seventh straight game with an upper-body injury. Quenneville said earlier on Tuesday he hopes Toews will rejoin the Blackhawks when they travel to New York next week to face the Rangers and Islanders.Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook left with an upper-body injury with 6:38 left in the second period following a hit from Jordan Martinook that threw him awkwardly against the boards.Well see how is he is tomorrow, Quenneville said.Anisimovs power-play tip-in from the edge of the crease with 4:23 left in the first period opened the scoring. He was set up by Patrick Kanes pinpoint feed from the lower right corner and deflected the puck just under Smiths pads.Barely a minute after Darling made a point-blank save on Tobias Rieder, Hossa and Rasmussen struck for goals 19 seconds apart early in the second to boost Chicagos lead to 3-0.It was the turning point of the game for sure, Tippett said. As the game went on, our energy wasnt there.Hossa flashed his skill to complete a 2-on-1 with Ryan Hartman at 6:26 that made it 2-0. Hossa controlled Hartmans cross-ice pass with his right skate, kicked it to his stick and then stuffed a shot under Smiths glove from the edge of the crease.Smith stopped Richard Panik from the doorstep moments later, but Panik jumped on the rebound behind the net and shoveled it in front to Rasmussen.Hossa completed the scoring by converting a breakaway with 3:16 left. He beat Smith with a wrist shot on the stick side after being sent in by Niklas Hjalmarssons pass.Game notes Referee Gord Dwyer left after the first period with an illness. ... Crawford, expected to miss two to three weeks, has begun off-ice exercises. ... Arizona entered having allowed a league-high 850 shots. ... Chicago D Trevor van Riemsdyk played in his second contest since being activated from IR (upper body) last Friday and missing 20 games. He skated at Philadelphia on Saturday, but sat out Sunday against Winnipeg. ... Chicago Ds Michal Kempny and Michal Rozsival were healthy scratches, as were Arizona C Tyler Gaudet and D Kevin Connauton.UP NEXTCoyotes: Host Calgary on Thursday night.Blackhawks: Host the New York Rangers on Friday night. Joe Montana Youth Jersey . How great will be revealed in the next couple of days at the board of governors meeting in Pebble Beach, Calif. 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The Canadian squad, skipped by Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, got on the board first with two in the second end, and followed that with two more apiece in the fourth and sixth ends. This story appears in ESPN The Magazines January 2 Anything is Possible Issue. Subscribe today!It might seem like theres as much separation as ever between good and bad NFL teams. As I write this, Dallas and New England have a chance to go 14-2, while Cleveland could finish 0-16.But as the NFL regular season draws to a close, a deeper look at the numbers reveals the opposite: Teams are bunched in talent much more closely than they appear. The league is at a crossroads, and the next few years will determine which contending franchises will rise to new dominance -- or whether thats even possible anymore.The technical way to express how the gap between teams has shrunk is by standard deviation of team point differentials. Thats down 16.3 percent this season (through Week 14) to its lowest point in at least five years -- which is to say that even the best teams arent great and even the worst arent historically awful. The Patriots, for instance, are on track to outscore opponents by 146 points, which would be the biggest margin in the NFL but the third smallest to lead the league in a 16-game schedule. Behind them, the Chiefs, Giants and Lions have won more than two-thirds of their games while beating their foes by fewer than 100 points combined. Meanwhile, the Browns, prorated, will be outscored by 207 points -- surely hideous, but not in the all-time bottom 40 since 1940 and nowhere close to the winless 2008 Lions (minus-249) or 1976 Buccaneers (minus-287).Its mostly chance that teams look less squished together than they actually are. For one thing, the leagues bottom-feeders have been pretty awful but also awfully unlucky. Through Week 14, Cleveland, San Francisco, Jacksonville and Chicago were a combined 3-19 in games decided by a touchdown or less. And at the other end of the standings, a handful of winning clubs have played severely over their heads. Dallas and Oakland might be popular favorites to meet in the Super Bowl, but both teams are on pace to outperform their underlying statistics by more than two wins this season. The Cowboys and Raiders are worthy contenders, but theyre more similar to 10- or 11-win teams of the past than to 14- or 15-win juggernauts.Its between these extremes that you can really see the NFLs compression: With two games remaining, 12 teams were on track to win eight to 10 ggames and were therefore at the lower end of playoff contention.dddddddddddd Thats a large group; only nine clubs posted eight to 10 wins in each of the past two seasons. And I think one reason for the big number is that many of these teams have lopsided rosters.Consider Atlanta, tied atop the NFC South and gaining more yards per play and scoring more points than any other team in the NFL. The Falcons offense is in fact 11.1 points per game above average after adjusting for opponents, according to Pro Football References simple rating system, and their defense is 3.5 points per game below average. That difference is the largest since the 2013 Broncos, and that kind of disparity has become more common. Think of Houston, Indianapolis, Seattle ... Overall, eight teams have a gap of more than a TD per game between their offensive and defensive units this season -- twice as many as in any of the past three seasons.So welcome to the season, and possibly the era, of the B-plus NFL team. As a handful of franchises bottom out and others, such as Carolina and Cincinnati, sag unexpectedly, there have been unanticipated wins to go around for the likes of Miami and Tampa Bay. But not one of the teams posting gains this season is great yet, and some are literally only half-good.Any member of the burgeoning pretty-decent club might keep drafting well and evolve into, say, the next Steelers. But theres another possibility. From 2010 to 2015, the number of games that NFL teams key players lost to injury jumped by 36 percent, according to Football Outsiders. Injuries might now be so rampant that its practically impossible to build complete, high-quality units that survive intact for 16 weeks. After all, Green Bay didnt plan an unbalanced roster this year any more than Minnesota; injuries blew apart the Packers defense and severely set back the Vikings offense. It only takes one or two big names -- such as Clay Matthews or Teddy Bridgewater and Adrian Peterson -- to go down. As star athletes spend more time on the sideline, the standings are more likely to churn.Lull or tipping point? We cant be sure yet what 2016 will prove to be. But we can already see the NFL is heading someplace different. ' ' '