CHICAGO — A loss is just a loss, right?

Not necessarily.

If there’s anything this Chicago Blackhawks season has taught us, there are degrees to losing — and not just margins of victory, points in the standings or other statistical measures.

We’re talking about emotional damage.

Such was the case with Monday’s soul-draining 5-2 loss to the Calgary Flames, the Hawks’ third straight defeat and ninth in 11 games dating to their last meeting with the Flames on Dec. 21 in Calgary.

“That was a tough loss,” interim coach Anders Sorensen said. “Didn’t come out with any urgency at all. … This one, we got behind the eight-ball quickly.”

It felt like the 6-2 bombardment by the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 27, with the Flames’ three first-period goals similar to the Sabres’ four.

It felt like the 5-3 humbling by the Red Wings on Friday in Detroit, a score that — thanks to a pair of late goals by Teuvo Teräväinen — was purely cosmetic.

It felt like the Winter Classic. No explanation needed.

“Yeah, it’s tough, man,” said Connor Bedard, who struck a far-away gaze, as if looking into the beyond for answers. “It’s really frustrating. We’re competitive athletes and we take a lot of pride in our games, our group, as a team and our fan base.

“It’s been a lot of games to lose, and it weighs on you. And we’re just trying to find a way out of it, just trying to get better every day. But, yeah, it’s hard.”

It’s the manner in which the Hawks — 14-28-2 and rock bottom in the standings — invent new ways to lose, much like the Bears.

At least the Bears provided a perverse form of entertainment with their creative forms of self-sabotage, whereas the Hawks’ various ways of stumbling are more subtle and mundane.

Not only did the Hawks struggle with the Flames forecheck Monday night, but they also were fighting against themselves, disconnected on passes and discombobulated on defense.

“(It) was a lot of kind of whacking up the boards or maybe guys not being where guys are expecting (them) to be when they’re making a pass,” Bedard said. “So that ends up making you not have options. And that makes it tough.”

How could they look so in sync against the Colorado Avalanche in Wednesday’s 3-1 victory and be that disjointed three games later?

“That’s the million-dollar question,” Nick Foligno said. “There’s such a want in here of doing the right thing but not understanding what that entails. Sometimes the disconnect can be from being on two different pages because you’re looking for a play that’s maybe not there and the simple one’s there. The guy’s expecting you to make that and you’re not.

“It’s the idea of being predictable. We’re just not (predictable) enough.”

Even Foligno’s availability to make these comments was unusual.

Typically, if a player speaks after morning skate, as Foligno did, others are made available postgame unless the player did something to stand out in the game. But Foligno was there to face the music on behalf of his team because that’s what this loss called for.

Whatever time of day, the Hawks captain said he’s done with fiery speeches about the team’s shortcomings.

“It’s obviously not been the season we want, but I’m done talking about that too,” Foligno said after morning skate.

After the game he said this: “I’m not going to go down the whole soliloquy of what we’ve been doing wrong here. It’s just you’ve got to look within. This is how you get out of it. You either want to be here and do it or you don’t. That’s kind of where we’re at right now.”

It’s an anchor on the team in every sense.

Seeing how despondent Bedard looked, you wonder how each loss like this chips away at a player, particularly young ones such as Bedard, Frank Nazar, Colton Dach, Nolan Allan, etc.

You feel sympathy for Bedard’s plight as “the franchise,” but he is both victim and culprit.

“Do I feel powerless? No, I’m a player on the team,” he said. “We’re all in this as one and we’ve got a lot of work to do, obviously. Our record shows that. No one’s powerless, whether you’re in the lineup, out of the lineup, coach, equipment manager — everyone is pulling at the same rope.”

Asked whether he’s concerned about how the season is affecting the young players, Foligno replied, “How can it not?”

“I can’t imagine being that age,” he said, referring to Bedard, 19. “I have a family, so I can get away from it. He just eats and sleeps and breathes it. This isn’t the start of the career I was hoping for him.

“There’s only one way to get out of this, and it’s by coming together as a group.”

Sorensen added about Bedard: “He’s a pretty mentally tough kid, so (he) should be fine.”

Fine, now please fix the funk Seth Jones has been in. He was on the ice for four of the Flames’ five goals (minus-4 rating) and not just as a bystander.

You could argue Jones was in prime position to defend Jakob Pelletier’s first of two goals and Mikael Backlund’s marker, but Jones’ most egregious mishap came during a five-minute Hawks power play in the second period.

After Bedard scored to help the Hawks draw within 4-2, the power play continued and Yegor Sharangovich cleared the puck.

Jones retrieved it but blindly backhanded a pass that Calgary’s Jonathan Huberdeau intercepted. Jones was caught between Huberdeau and Sharangovich, and Sharangovich tucked the puck behind Petr Mrázek after the Hawks goalie jumped out to poke-check but missed.

Since his return from a foot injury in the Dec. 21 game in Calgary, Jones is minus-8 with a goal and four assists in 11 games.

He gave Sorensen plenty of material to go on what could’ve been a postgame rant, but Sorensen resisted singling out Jones.

“We all have to do some looking inward,” Sorensen said. “It’s not just him. It’s all of us. Just to get this back on track, what do we all need to do individually?”

We talk about the young skaters, but several veterans have taken their turn being down in the dumps at various points this season: Tyler Bertuzzi, Teräväinen, Taylor Hall.

In fact, former coach Luke Richardson did the unthinkable and healthy-scratched Hall. Might Jones benefit from a similar, let’s call it, “reset”?

“We want him on the ice too. We want him with the group,” Sorensen said. “It’s something we haven’t really discussed yet.”

Jones has been Foligno’s behind-the-scenes partner in the hunt for a team identity.

“He’s a pride guy,” Foligno said. “He’s a guy who wants to make a difference. Sometimes guys who play a long time also need to realize there’s a way of simplifying. We’ve gone through it. He’s going to find his way out of it.

“But we obviously need everyone to play better. That’s the reality of the situation we’re in. The big guys have to be big guys in big moments.”

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