CHICAGO — The Blackhawks had their fun in the sun Wednesday at Wrigley Field.

During practice for the 2009 Winter Classic, they took in the sights and sounds of the hockey rink stretching across the infield of the venerable ballpark, they tried to reach the bleachers with pucks using their sticks and they munched on the old baseball standby — sunflower seeds — in the dressing room.

Come 8 a.m. today Hawai'i time (KHNL), however, the youngest team in the NHL knows the fun ends and it needs to be all business to defeat the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.

The Hawks have lost the season's first three meetings against the Wings, including 4-0 Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena. The defeat pushed the Hawks six points back of their rivals in the battle for the Central Division lead.

"They played (Tuesday night) like it was Game 7 of a playoff series," forward Adam Burish said. "They beat us up and played harder than we did. They wanted to send a message. That kind of ups the ante (for Thursday) a little bit.

"It's not just a fun skate out here. You want to create some great memories, but you also want people to ask you 10 years from now, 'How was the game?' and they're going to ask who won the game and you want to be able to say, 'Yeah, I won that game.' "

The Hawks had a December to remember with a 10-1-1 record, including a franchise-record nine-game winning streak. But both losses came at the hands of the Wings, and Tuesday night Detroit manhandled the Hawks.

The Wings ratcheted up the intensity to send the Hawks tumbling down to earth, including Dan Cleary knocking star winger Patrick Kane temporarily out of the game with a tough first-period hit.

"He's the big spoke in the wheel for that club, that's for sure," Cleary said of Kane. "Everything pretty much goes through him offensively. ... If you let him wheel and deal, he'll burn you. You have to put the body on him. It's the only way to stop him.

"I don't think we were intimidating them. Certainly we were trying to take them out of their nine-game-winning-streak routine."

Kane and the Hawks said the hit was clean, but it clearly sent a message that the Wings mean all business when it comes to the Hawks these days.

"Both teams are kind of chasing each other, and we're in the rearview mirror for Detroit," Kane said. "We have a statement to make."

That could come in the form of hard hits, either on Cleary or the Wings' skilled forwards such as Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk.

"Obviously, we want to protect our best and skilled players," defenseman James Wisniewski said. "There's hitting in this game; it's going to happen. Just because one time (Kane) gets hit doesn't mean we want to kill those guys.

"Trust me: (Cleary's) going to get his, though. But we just have to worry about winning the game, and that stuff will take care of itself. I'm sure when he has the puck and he's not looking, somebody's going to be able to hit him back. Or if Datsyuk or Zetterberg have their heads down, of course you want to hit them."

The Hawks believe playing in the glare of the Winter Classic gives them an opportunity to showcase how far they have come in their quest to join the Wings and San Jose Sharks among the elite in the Western Conference.

"We're looking forward for the whole nation and whole hockey world to see the Chicago Blackhawks," Wisniewski said. "I'm sure everybody heard about the nine-game winning streak. Now we get to show the reason why and how good our players really are, from the first guy to the 23rd guy."