Hawks on playoff bubble, and only have themselves to blame
It’s the middle of February and the Blackhawks are in 11th place in the Western Conference with no better than a 50-50 chance of making the playoffs.
How did the Hawks wind up in this precarious position not even a year removed from winning the Stanley Cup?
Roster changes aside, the Hawks have nobody to blame but themselves for being one of teams on the dreaded playoff bubble.
ŸA total of 22 times the Hawks have either led or been tied in the third period and come away with only 6 points. The Hawks are easily in the playoffs if they were a better team in the third period.
ŸThey’re a mediocre at best 16-13 at the United Center after losing just eight times in regulation on home ice last season.
ŸThe penalty-killing ranks 26th in the NHL and is 29th on home ice.
ŸMarian Hossa has scored only 12 goals in 39 games, missing 17 games because of injury or illness.
There are other factors, of course, but those are the four big ones.
The Hawks realize there’s nothing they can do about all that now. It has happened and the focus from here has to be on the final 26 games and saving the season, starting Wednesday night against Minnesota at the UC.
“I like to think forward and ahead and not behind and how it has happened,” center Dave Bolland said. “Everybody in this room is always looking ahead. You never want to look behind and think why we got back here.
“There’s reasons we can think of, but the focus is on the next game and getting ahead of these teams that we’re behind right now.”
Minnesota is one of those teams the Hawks are chasing with time beginning to slowly run out.
“It’s going to be a must-win,” defenseman Brent Seabrook said of Wednesday night’s critical game.
The inability of the Hawks to hold leads has been especially maddening at home, but hardly exclusive to the UC.
The Hawks have been outscored in the third period 65-53 this season. They have outscored the opposition 59-43 in the first period and 60-44 in the second.
“Momentum is a funny thing,” Seabrook said. “When you have it, it feels like you can’t be beat, and when you don’t, you feel like you can’t win.”
Coach Joel Quenneville already is on record as saying how the Hawks play in their final 12 home games will “make or break” their playoff chances.
So many of the teams the Hawks are chasing are playing possibly their best hockey of the season, such as Minnesota, Calgary, Anaheim, San Jose and Los Angeles.
“A lot of teams have been having runs and put us in a spot where now we’ve got to do something about it,” Quenneville said. “We’re looking for our own run ourselves and we’re going to need it to put ourselves in the spot we want to be.
“We’ve a few home games coming up here and it’s up to us to take care of business here.”
Nobody would come out and say there’s a need to sweep the three games at home this week, but the Hawks pretty much understand that to be the case.
“We’ve dug ourselves a bit of a hole, but if we win some hockey games we can climb out,” Hossa said. “That’s the only way we’re going to climb out.”