Imrem: Chicago Blackhawks no longer scary good

Sunday night was a great time to take the Chicago Blackhawks' pulse.

The Cubs Convention ended earlier in the day and spring training is a month from beginning.

The White Sox are a one-team trade rumor. The Bears have gone somewhere to hide. The Bulls are barely a curiosity anymore.

Hey, it's hockey season!

Still, months from the playoffs, some sort of boxing-style promotional slogan was required for this one.

You almost could hear Don King, roaring, "The Fight for First!"

The Hawks and Wild came into the United Center tied in points atop the Western Conference.

A game for the lead has to mean something, but more at stake for the Hawks was some indication of how close they are to being all that they want to be.

Are the Hawks the team that recently won four straight games to pass the standings test atop the West?

Or are the Hawks the team that followed with 2 losses over the weekend to fail the eye test?

Minnesota beat the Hawks 3-2 in a game that looked like it was set up for the home team to roll.

For one thing, the Wild played at Dallas on Saturday night while the Hawks were in Chicago resting up for them.

For another, the Hawks took a 2-0 lead on Patrick Kane's goals that he has to hope ignites a scoring binge that has been missing this season.

For another, the game evolved into a 1-goal rope pull that has been the Hawks' specialty.

"Tough not to get anything out of that game," Kane said.

Minnesota had the grit, skill and legs toward the end to demonstrate how they have climbed up the standings.

The most compelling impression of the Hawks right now is that they aren't scary anymore. Years of salary-cap casualties have stripped them of their "wow" factor.

That makes this different from other years in which the Hawks were contenders for a Stanley Cup championship.

You can't just say this time that everything will be all right, that trade-deadline acquisitions will make them whole, that those new players will blend in by April, that the Hawks' all-star core will carry them through, that the whole team will turn it on for the playoffs.

Maybe all that will happen, but it's not any more of a sure thing this year than it was when the Hawks were eliminated in the first round last year.

Las Vegas oddsmakers still rate the Hawks as one of the NHL's prime postseason favorites, but it just doesn't feel that way.

Instead of the Stanley Cup looking like it's the Hawks' to lose, as it did in other seasons, it's more like theirs to win along with a gaggle of other teams in both conferences.

At the beginning of the weekend, Hawks head coach Joel Quenneville viewed the games against the Capitals and Wild as a measure of where his team is at this point of the season.

The Hawks were nowhere in the 6-0 loss at Washington. They were better but not good enough on home ice against the Wild.

If that's who the Hawks are now, they'll need reinforcements at the trade deadline and some lucky bounces in the playoffs.

That's often how the Stanley Cup is won, though we have been spoiled by the Hawks' superiority while winning their three since 2010.

The Hawks' have a pulse, all right, but it isn't pounding as hard as we have become accustomed to.

mimrem@dailyherald.com