Rozner: Eye on defense keeping Blackhawks afloat

And just like that, the narrative has changed from the Blackhawks being dead and buried without Patrick Kane to the Blackhawks playing great without Patrick Kane.

Of course, both extremes are absurd.

The Hawks' season did not end with Kane's injury but became a matter of whether they could survive into the third round of the postseason, at which point the presumption is Kane will return.

The truth is the Hawks weren't playing well and were having trouble scoring even before Kane was injured, having lost five of seven leading into the Feb. 24 contest when Kane was lost for the regular season.

But now the story is the Hawks are doing just great without Kane, going 6-1-1. Those 6 wins, however, have come against precisely zero playoff teams, while the 2 defeats were to a pair of playoff teams, a 4-0 loss in Tampa, and a 1-0 overtime loss at home to the Rangers.

So, yeah, the cute story that they've rallied to the cause in Kane's absence is at least several miles removed from reality.

What has occurred is that Corey Crawford has been spectacular in goal and head coach Joel Quenneville has insisted his team tighten things up. That combination is the reason the Hawks have managed to beat some bad teams lately.

"Across the board, we're not looking to outscore anybody," Quenneville said. "We're thinking checking. Defense is how you win in this game anyway. There are a lot of positives in these recent games."

It's reminiscent of Quenneville's last year in Colorado (2008) when the Aves lost Joe Sakic, Paul Stastny and Ryan Smyth all at the same time. He challenged his players to change, commit to playing smart in their own end and win a different way, which they did - and made the playoffs.

Quenneville should have been coach of the year. Instead, he was fired for his trouble.

Now, the Hawks are doing much the same, having given up just 7 goals in their last five games, and it's a style that will serve them well come playoff time.

"Throughout a season you have to try to find different ways to win games," said Brad Richards. "The good thing about this team is the defensive structure has always been there.

"It would be good if everybody could get it going offensively, but this team is good at not giving up too much, and that's something we can rely on."

Several guys returned to the score sheet during the short road trip to Arizona and San Jose, with Richards, Andrew Shaw, Patrick Sharp and Bryan Bickell getting involved offensively. That is absolutely a good sign.

Better is that the Hawks finally started skating again in San Jose after being dominated for the first 10 minutes and having Crawford to thank for not being down a pile early.

Nevertheless, the Hawks skated better that last 50 minutes than they have in a month, perhaps suggesting they have shed the doldrums and maybe found the accelerator.

They looked so horribly slow against Edmonton, New York and Arizona that it was fair to wonder when the Hawks might get it going again.

And even with that performance against the Sharks, there is still concern about the Hawks' defense, where the likes of Kimmo Timonen, Michal Rozsival and David Rundblad look seriously outclassed when they try to move their feet in transition, or when good skaters are bearing down on them.

For all of the criticism of Johnny Oduya this season, Oduya was a noticeable difference in the San Jose game, able to skate with the faster players on the ice. If he can find his game in these final four weeks, that would be huge for the Hawks.

In the meantime, the Hawks catch another break Tuesday when they get an Islanders team that has injury problems of its own and has lost three straight and six of eight.

It's been a while since the Hawks put together back-to-back efforts and much longer than that since they played 60 minutes.

An optimist would suggest that's good news, that they're collecting points even while playing less than their best.

But a realist would suggest that they are running out of time to find their best.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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