Quenneville helping Hawks keep everything in focus

TORONTO - Joel Quenneville is a hockey coach, which means it's his job to keep things in perspective and stay on an even keel during good times and bad.

These are good times for the Hawks, who are off to a 10-4-5 start, putting them on a 100-point pace, and 3-0 halfway through their six-game circus road trip.

But Quenneville, like the coach that he is, doesn't like everything he is seeing. While Saturday's 5-4 win over the Maple Leafs in overtime might have been great for its comeback dramatics and again demonstrated how dangerous the Hawks can be offensively, Quenneville didn't care for his team falling behind 3-0 or the fact the Maple Leafs launched 38 shots at goalie Nikolai Khabibulin.

There also was that sluggish start on Thursday in Dallas before the Hawks got it together and beat the Stars 6-3.

"The last couple games, how we came back and got ourselves in games, we see that we're capable of doing things," Quenneville said. "I just think if we approach it more from the defensive side of things it's going to complement our game.

"You don't expect to dig holes like that and have that much success. We want to make sure we're better and more consistent in our game start to finish."

But, oh, those finishes. The Hawks dominated the third period in the wins over the Stars and Maple Leafs, with Saturday's close at Air Canada Centre the best yet.

"That was one of our better periods of the year," Quenneville said. "That was a special period for us. We can do a lot of things when we play like that.

"We've had a couple of stretches in our last two games where we haven't been at our best, but weathering those two storms shows we're capable of a lot of things, and scoring goals is one of them."

The Hawks' offense is proving to be one of the best in the NHL, and that's with No. 1 center Jonathan Toews still scuffling with the puck.

Toews has only 2 goals in 19 games with 12 assists.

"I think we're getting some bounces around the net now, but overall we have to start better," Toews said. "Great teams don't get satisfied from wins like this. You've got to build on it and get better. That should be our focus right now."

The Hawks are 9-2-4 since Quenneville took over as coach on Oct. 16, capturing 22 out of a possible 30 points.

"Joel has a pretty good balance on the team," Patrick Sharp said. "He knows how to keep everybody in check. We're not getting too high after wins or too low after losses. Even when we got down 3-0 (to the Maple Leafs), we stuck with Joel's plan and came out on top."

After a couple days at home, the Hawks will head back out to San Jose for their next game on Wednesday and continue what already has been a good road trip.

"We're having a great time," Sharp said. "It's nice to get away on the road sometimes and be together. Winning is contagious and winning is fun so right now; we're all having a good time."