In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the Chicago Blackhawks might want to stuff Wednesday’s 7-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets and forget about it.

There will be plenty of “leftovers” to reckon with.

• A fifth straight loss, extending the season’s longest losing streak by a game.
• A four-goal loss, tied for their second-worst this year.
• The second time a goalie was pulled, only this time it was Arvid Söderblom relieving Petr Mrázek.

Entering the game, the Blue Jackets’ circumstances looked just as bad if not worse than the Hawks’. They were riding a nine-game losing streak and ranked fifth in shots on goal-against per game (32.7), right behind the Hawks.

In fact, Blue Jackets opponents were just firing at will against them — the most shot attempts (1,007), including misses and blocked shots, in the league. And one-time star forward Patrik Laine was just a healthy scratch, which he called the “most embarrassing” moment of his career.

But none of those roadblocks paved the way to a juicy matchup for the Hawks.

Instead, it was the Blue Jackets who took advantage of a sluggish defense and gaping holes backdoor by both Hawks goalies.

In the first period, Boone Jenner opened the scoring with the game’s only power-play goal, sandwiched around Erik Gudbranson’s marker.

Connor Bedard scored his 10th goal of the season with 4 1/2 left, salvaging the period for the Hawks.

Coach Luke Richardson said of Bedard’s twisting snap shot, “That’s how he scores goals. I’d like to see him maybe shoot that puck like that on the power play a little bit more.”

In the second, Columbus piled on with four unanswered goals, capped by Laine, who was assisted by (future Bedard rival?) Adam Fantilli.

It wasn’t only a get-right game for Laine. Cole Sillinger notched his first goal of the season to lead off the frame. Mrázek grabbed some bench after giving up the first five goals, and Söderblom allowed another two.

“It’s not a not a fun one, that’s for sure,” Richardson said. “For whatever reason, I think we just didn’t move our feet well early in the game and they were motivated to do that. A couple of weird bounces on the goals that didn’t help either in the first period.

“But the second period is really no excuse for that. We collapsed and started chasing around and (being) on the wrong side of the puck, and pretty much everything that we were not supposed to do, we fell into the trap of doing.”

The Hawks stiffened a bit in the third period, and Jason Dickinson and Ryan Donato posted goals.

“I did like a little bit of their fight in the third period,” Richardson said. “It’s the first step of what we said that we have to get back to how we’re going to play.

“We’re never happy with that, but we were happy to see that they didn’t just lie down in the third period, that they wanted to push back and try and get back to where we know we can play better hockey.”

Here are four takeaways from the loss.

The Hawks rolled out their first experiment with the all-youngin’ first-unit power play (working title: “The A-Teens”?).

With Corey Perry a surprise healthy scratch, the group consisted of Bedard (18), Kevin Korchinski (19), Lukas Reichel (21), Philipp Kurashev (24) and Taylor Raddysh (25).

But the big news was Korchinski’s ascension to quarterback the first unit.

The Hawks hope his skating can help smooth out their troubles entering the zone, thus increasing their below-average offensive zone time. And similar to his predecessor Seth Jones, Korchinski brings offensive skills as well.

The new unit had four cracks at it against the Jackets’ fourth-ranked penalty kill (87.3%) but came up empty.

• The first was an abbreviated look coming off a 4-on-4. Reichel missed wide with a defender on his pack. Korchinski let a clear slip by him and the final seconds ticked off.
• On the second power play, Kurashev took a shot off Reichel’s faceoff win, then Kurashev and Bedard had shots blocked. Later, Bedard blazed past defenders on one zone entry.
• On the third, Kurashev drew a hooking call and took the first shot. Kurashev fanned on a cross-ice pass to Bedard and had the look of a shorthanded breakout, but Korchinski kept it in. Kurashev took the only other shot.
• Bedard drew the final power play on a hooking call. Kurashev was blocked, Bedard turned the puck over and the Jackets cleared. Kurashev made a slick pass as Bedard split two defenders on his entry, but the Jackets ultimately cleared and the second unit came on midway through the man advantage.

Richardson said, “I thought we had a little bit of something going on the power play.”

However, “shooting the puck a little bit more would have been my preference. Kurashev did a little bit, we saw a little bit from the point and that helps.

“The breakouts other than one at the end in the third period (a bad back pass by Korchinski as the second unit was coming on) were pretty smooth. So that’s a good sign for the first night with the new units.”

Still, after going 0 for 4, the Hawks dropped to 30th in power-play percentage (10.5%).

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Overall, the Hawks broke even on draws, which, compared to how they performed early in the season, constitutes a win.

But what’s funny is — as much as Bedard and Fantilli were compared prior to this summer’s NHL draft — it was Bedard, at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, who outdueled Fantilli (6-2, 194) at the dot.

Bedard won all three faceoffs against Fantilli and went 4 of 7 overall.

But the strongest night belonged to Reichel, who’s been putting in drills with Yanic Perreault. Reichel won 7 of 10 faceoffs.

It seemed like the favorite storyline in the months leading up to the draft involved comparing Bedard and Fantilli, as if we’d need a time capsule 10 years from now when we decided on who had the better career.

They’ve never bought in.

Asked if they’ll forever be linked, Bedard said Tuesday. “I’m not sure. Media kind of will place us (that way).

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“But we’re all friends and rooting for each other. When we’re playing against (each other) we want to win, but in the end everyone wants to do well and I don’t think we’re really going into tomorrow like it’s a me versus him at all. It’s Chicago versus Columbus.”

If there’s a “victory” between the two, well, Bedard got the goal — the fifth player 18 or younger to reach his 10th goal within games, a list that includes the Blue Jackets’ Laine.

Fantilli got a helper, but the ultimate benchmark goes to him as well: the win.

Just Tuesday, the veteran was practically surrounded by young kids during practice at Fifth Third Arena shouting his name and asking him to autograph their hockey stick or water bottle or whatever they could get their hands on.

Come Wednesday in Columbus, he was a mystery scratch, and Richardson was cryptic about the reason.

“Just an organization decision, a healthy scratch tonight,” he said.

He then sidestepped to grading the team’s performance: “We just didn’t get the job done. Really plain and simple.”