Hawks' playoff hopes end

After doing their own heavy lifting for weeks to stay alive in the Western Conference playoff race, the Blackhawks' sat at home helpless Thursday night, their fate resting with the outcome of the game between the Predators and Blues in Nashville.

"It's do or die for us and we're not even involved in it," Patrick Sharp said earlier in the day.

The Hawks needed a Nashville loss, but they didn't get it. When the Predators beat the Blues 3-2 it officially eliminated the Hawks from playoff contention.

Nashville rallied from a 2-1 second-period deficit and got the winning goal early in the third period from Greg De Vries.

The Hawks (39-33-8) still have two games to play and will attempt to finish on a high and cap what has already been a successful season.

"We've made some huge strides," Hawks coach Denis Savard said. "For me, the reward that I get is they grasped in a short period of time we've been together the stuff that we want. How they've grown up and how quickly they leaned things since training camp, it's a credit to them as players."

There have been a number of times in recent weeks when the Hawks could have packed it in and began looking to next season only to bounce back with key wins when it looked as if all was lost.

The Hawks have won five of their last seven games.

"The last six weeks our guys have really bared down and come to play," Savard said. "The biggest thing is they have showed what they're all about. In these intense games they've come to play and compete."

The Hawks believe having so many of their young players in meaningful games down the stretch only bodes well for the future.

"You never want to miss the playoffs, but you certainly take positives out of it knowing this last month we've been playing pretty close to playoff hockey," Sharp said. "Every game has meant something and I thought we responded well.

"A lot of these guys will be back next year, I'm assuming, and we're going to try to keep this group together as long as we can."

The Hawks can look back on two key stretches that helped keep them out of the playoffs. They lost eight games in a row from Dec. 30 through Jan. 11, a streak that coincided with rookie center Jonathan Toews going down with a sprained knee.

A four-game losing streak in early March also came at a bad time with three of those losses on home ice.

But the Hawks still kept battling through to Thursday's end.

"Patty Lalime kept us in, part of it," Savard said. "And our kids, what can you say? Their will is huge, and they want to be successful. They were impact players from the get-go."

Sharp has savored every minute of the season after living through the nightmares of the past.

"I can remember coming to the rink last year and the year before in January, February and March and it (was) just painful to get through a practice knowing the season was over and there wasn't a whole lot to play for," Sharp said. "It's been a fun ride this year."