Hawks still have job to do, on and off ice

If you're not drinking Blackhawks Kool-Aid, spending a game night at the UC is like going out of your way to tell an Iowan you think ethanol's overrated.

But when a team has made the playoffs once in 11 years, and not once this side of the lockout, some reasonable analysis is, perhaps, healthy.

On the gratifying side, the franchise is treating fans like human beings again for the first time in decades, has righted many wrongs, and it's generally a happy time for the Chicago hockey community.

But once the lingerie show gets old, selling tickets off Hall of Famers, including one behind the bench, will get a little tougher if the team doesn't progress and compete for a playoff spot.

And in the real hockey world, competing for a playoff spot isn't being 5 or 6 points out, here or there, for a few days at a time.

That's not pressure.

Competing for a playoff spot is being in a playoff spot, or ninth or 10th in the conference, for the final month of the season, with the result each night determining whether you're in or out.

That's real pressure.

The Hawks haven't taken that first step yet and it's a sure sign of a team lacking leadership, character or coaching when the club nose dives every time the players sniff a bit of heat.

After Carolina pounded them 3-0 at the UC on Wednesday, the Hawks are winless in four games since getting to within 5 points of the eighth position a week ago.

Before that, when they had nothing for which to play and looked very relaxed, the Hawks went 10-3-1.

Young and restless

Dale Tallon has made some solid picks and Denis Savard shows signs of learning on the job, but let's not pretend they just arrived because they've been a big part of the last 11 years.

The reality is this GM and coach already have been given more time and talent than many of their predecessors, and were taught everything they know by the very same folks who've been kicked out of the building.

It's also worth remembering that when you're this bad for this long, you draft high every year, so you have to get younger and better, but they are not the only team getting younger and better in the West.

Mixed messages

Behind the bench, the Hawks have to send better messages to the players, and you have to wonder if the awkward attempt at making bad games sound better is on orders from above.

Making excuses for players after defeats, whether it's injuries, poor officiating, hot goaltending, bad breaks or a tiring schedule, just gives the players a reason to pack it in.

Teams like Colorado and Carolina have been able to fight through terrible injuries this season because the coach wouldn't offer them the excuse.

That gives ownership of the team to the players, who then control their destiny and their effort.

It's the same reason the Hawks always play better for a stretch after Jonathan Toews gets disgusted and lights up his teammates, though it's a burden a rookie shouldn't have to carry.

Time warped

Nearly every Hawks broadcast seems to be concentrated on Savard, but he's the coach, not the star of the team anymore.

Look, he was my favorite player, too, but it's 2008, not 1988, and he shouldn't be the focus, not of ticket-selling campaigns and not of the cameras and announcers.

It insults the fans' intelligence and they're already tiring of the highlights, stories and poll questions centered around the coach.

The focus ought to be on the guys doing the heavy lifting.

Ivan Boldirev-ing

No one leads cheers for him on TV and Mike Haviland doesn't pat himself on the back, so the Rockford coach is virtually unknown in Chicago.

But he obviously has done a nice job of developing and preparing young players for the parent club -- at least when the Chicago version plays the kids at the positions they've spent years learning.

And then there's Rockford GM Al MacIsaac, who has an amazing reputation for finding guys like Jordan Hendry -- in Alaska.

Hendry has developed into a solid, stabilizing, Steve Konroyd-type and has been a huge find for the Hawks, though with everyone in Chicago running over each other to grab credit, you'd think MacIsaac and Haviland had nothing to do with it.

And finally …

There is hope for the future, but as the Bulls have shown us, merely collecting talent and being young guarantees nothing, and it's not the same as building a team.

It won't get easier from here as the toughest job of all is determining which kids to keep and which to deal before the league figures them out.

As for attendance, let's not kid ourselves. Rocky Wirtz knows the main reason fans have returned is because Bill Wirtz and Bob Pulford are gone, and ultimately fans will ignore them again if the Hawks don't contend.

There were plenty of empty seats, boos and excuses Wednesday night, none of which would have raised an eyebrow last year but might have opened some eyes after Carolina dominated in the UC.

Adding insult to misery, recent Hawks castoffs Tuomo Ruutu and Sergei Samsonov both had assists for the Canes, and an uninspired Hawks performance inspired bad memories.

Look, there's no denying that it has been an incredible honeymoon after a very happy and stunning turn of events off the ice, and the fans deserve what they've been treated to this year.

But they are owed much, much more.

And a restless crowd offered a hint Wednesday night that it won't be long before they start asking for it.