Rozner: Blackhawks' heart not the question

When a team has been as successful as the Chicago Blackhawks over the last seven years, perspective can too frequently be difficult to locate.

It gets lost in the irrational assumption that there is gold at the end of every postseason rainbow. Actually, it's a sign of how spoiled the city is that it presupposes the very existence of the rainbow.

So it's probably worth repeating that not since the 1998 Red Wings has a team won back-to-back Stanley Cups, and in the decade of the salary-cap era only the 2009 Red Wings have returned to the Final after winning the Cup.

The cap itself is the biggest reason.

The best teams lose players, good teams are stretched thin, and the race to the playoffs takes a mental and physical toll that has been impossible to overcome in a short summer.

Which brings us back to the current state of the Hawks.

This is a very tired team.

They have played more hockey than any other club the last seven years and their best players have accumulated the most minutes, adding international play and all-star events to the catalog.

They lack the mental energy it takes to prepare emotionally for games in March, which is why they look so stale at times. These guys are cooked, and you'll forgive them if they can't approach every shift like it's Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.

They know what that looks like and they know what that feels like - and this isn't that.

It explains, in part, why they've had bad March stretches in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015 and again this season.

In three of those seasons - some seem to forget - they flipped the switch come playoff time and danced with Lord Stanley's silver bowl on the ice after the last game of the season.

But you can't pretend to need that switch when you know what flipping it really means, and when it really matters.

The Hawks tried over the weekend to find some energy. There wasn't much against a bad Calgary team, and there was only slightly more against a bad Vancouver team.

They got the 4 points they needed, but it was less than poetic.

What they did get was some energy from the likes of Andrew Ladd and Tomas Fleischmann, two guys hungry to win a Cup.

It's been a hallmark of the Stan Bowman formula that he adds youngsters at the start of the season who are hungry to join the parade and veterans at the trade deadline who are anxious to win for the first time, or desperate to win for the last time.

The Hawks badly need a spark and a confidence boost come playoff time, so maybe it will come from one of the new players.

Maybe it will come from Teuvo Teravainen, who looked really good playing on the second line Sunday.

Maybe it will come from someone like Bryan Bickell - crazy as it sounds - who will be desperate to show he's still an NHL player and can remember how good he was in the 2013 postseason when he secured himself a big contract.

Or maybe it will come from the return of Corey Crawford, who was having the best year of his career before leaving with an injury two weeks ago.

But it will have to come from somewhere.

It's not a matter of heart, though that question will certainly be asked by those with a short memory and a fundamental ignorance of how difficult this game really is once you reach April.

This group of players doesn't have to answer that question. They've answered it too many times over the last seven years to even be asked, let alone dignify with a response.

But there will be many who forget that the Hawks overcame major deficits against Detroit and Boston in 2013, and had to climb out of holes against Anaheim and Tampa a year ago before winning the big prize.

Heart is certainly not the issue.

Right now the issue is mental and physical exhaustion.

They search for a spark and need something good to happen, a surprise and an unexpected boost, revitalization and an unstoppable thirst for victory.

History tells us that it hasn't happened in the NHL in quite some time, and that the best medicine is a long summer vacation, the unwanted result of getting knocked out before the Stanley Cup Final.

It's obviously not what the Hawks want, but the climb in front of them requires precise footing through treacherous terrain.

They've been down the path enough to remember it. Somehow, they've got to find it again.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.