Staying positive, but Hawks know the odds

The Blackhawks aren't fooling themselves.

It's a long way back into the playoff picture in the Western Conference, but at least they are in a better spot today than they were before Sunday's 3-2 victory at Nashville that snapped an eight-game losing streak.

The Hawks have 44 points with 37 games left on the schedule. Even if they go 25-12 and finish with 94 points, it took 96 to grab the eighth and final playoff spot in the West last season.

Facts are facts.

"It's important for us to realize where we are in the standings, but also to think positive," defenseman Duncan Keith said. "We do have a chance. We've been in a lot of these games and the more we go here we can make a push for the playoffs.

"It's not going to be easy, let's not kid ourselves, but we still believe in our team and everybody in the dressing room."

The problem is the way the NHL is set up with so many 3-point games, it's extremely difficult for teams to make up ground in the standings. While Sunday's win was a relief to the Hawks, it came in a shootout, so Nashville took home 1 point as well.

The Predators lost twice over the weekend but because both losses were in shootouts, they got 2 out of a possible 4 points.

"There's lot of points available, but there's lots of teams playing for those points," Anaheim Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said last week. "The 3-point hockey game that's available each game makes the race even tighter as you go forward.

"You can win a bunch of games and not make up any ground. But if you lose a bunch of games, it's going to be really hard to make up that ground."

When all is said and done come April, the Hawks might be looking back at this eight-game losing streak as the chief reason why they missed the playoffs should they fail to qualify.

"We don't want to go through anything like that again, but we know how easily it can happen," Patrick Sharp said.

The Hawks have five games remaining until the all-star break and will assess where they are at that time.

Hawks coach Denis Savard knows Sunday's victory was far from a masterpiece.

"There's stuff that we need to fix, and with a young group there's still things that we need to learn," Savard said. "We had a strong effort and great goaltending (from Patrick Lalime). Hopefully we can carry it over into the next game."

Savard praised the work of defensemen Keith and Brent Sopel against the Predators and also pointed to Martin Havlat's performance.

It was easily Havlat's best game since returning from his groin injury. He assisted on both goals in regulation, setting up Robert Lang's score in the third period that put the Hawks ahead 2-1 with a key steal in the Nashville zone.

Havlat also had an open net in the shootout after making a move on goalie Dan Ellis only to have the puck roll off his stick.

"He's come around nice and played well the last two games," Savard said. "With everything that has gone on in the last month with injuries, we need him to play that way. He won some battles and played great."