Blackhawks excited for yearly 'circus trip'

The circus trip has arrived for the Chicago Blackhawks.

A six-game trek that begins with three games in Canada and three more in California.

And as usual, the players are pumped up about it.

"We're all excited," said goalie Scott Darling. "It's gonna be a lot of fun to hang out with the team for two weeks and bond away from the rink."

This trip has certainly been good to the Hawks over the last five seasons as they've gone a combined 22-8-1, including a 5-1 run last season that ignited a 15-3-1 explosion. The Hawks went from third place in the Central Division at 10-7-1 (which happens to be the same record they own this year) to first place with a 25-10-2 mark.

"We know every year we can't really base it off what we did the year before, but we know it's an opportunity to kind of get some momentum," captain Jonathan Toews said Tuesday after the Hawks practiced at Johnny's IceHouse West.

Said Patrick Kane on Sunday: "It seems like we take off on trips like this. Hopefully it's the same this year."

On one hand, it looks like the Hawks should roll through these six games, considering the opponents all reside in the weak Pacific Division. Only the Los Angeles Kings are significantly above .500.

On the other hand, these Hawks haven't exactly shown that they are road warriors. Coach Joel Quenneville's team is 2-5 away from the United Center with 2 of those losses coming against Philadelphia (6-8-3) and Winnipeg (8-9-2).

There are five players 24 and younger who will be making this trip for the first time: Marko Dano, Trevor van Riemsdyk, Tanner Kero, Artemi Panarin and Teuvo Teravainen. Another - Brandon Mashinter, who is 27 - has just 26 games of NHL experience. As a matter of fact, of those six, only Teravainen has played in more than 45 NHL games.

"The road games are always a little bit tougher," Kero said. "Some of the atmospheres like Winnipeg, Minnesota, they're pretty crazy.

"But you kind of learn that throughout (your career). Even in college, we played at some pretty intense road games, so you kind of learn to tune 'em out."

Having Duncan Keith and Michal Rozsival around the entire time will certainly help. Their presence is a big reason why the Hawks managed to get a 4-2 victory in St. Louis on Saturday. They followed that up with a relatively easy victory over Calgary the next night.

"We've seen some better play, some more solid play all around in our last two games," Toews said. "So that's something I think we need to focus on going into this road trip. It's something that we want to continue."

Said coach Joel Quenneville: "This past weekend I like the way we played for 60 minutes each night. Did a lot of good things."

After the Hawks play Vancouver on Saturday, they are scheduled to fly to Las Vegas to spend a night there before going to San Jose. When it's all said and done, the Hawks hope they come home with a better record than when they left because five of their next six games will be against division foes Minnesota, Winnipeg and Nashville.

Quenneville expects the trip to be good for his team - on and off the ice.

"It's always fun," he said. "Business, then we get a time to have some fun and then back to business. The opportunity to be together, a little camaraderie, little togetherness. It's all part of being a team and teammates.

"There's always some good moments that you can remember over the course of a year, and hopefully winning's going to be part of it on this trip."

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Scouting report

Blackhawks (10-7-1) vs. Oilers (6-12-0) at Rexall Place, 8:30 p.m.

TV: Comcast SportsNet

Radio: WGN 720-AM

The skinny: Artemi Panarin scored a pair of goals when these teams met just over a week ago as the Hawks prevailed 4-2 at the United Center. ... Edmonton rookie Leon Draisaitl is on a roll since being called up from the AHL. He has 5 goals and 8 assists in eight games. ... The Oilers just finished a four-game road trip that included an OT loss in Anaheim and a tight, 4-3 loss in Los Angeles. ... Corey Crawford starts in net for the Blackhawks.

Next: Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome, 8 p.m. Friday

- John Dietz