Hawks can feel it: Something special's brewing

While the Blackhawks' future looks exceptionally bright, their right now isn't so bad either.

The youngest team in the NHL is on pace to finish the season with 100-plus points, which would certainly get them into the playoffs in the Western Conference for the first time since 2002.

There's a momentum building on and off the ice that has the players starting to believe something special is happening.

"We've got guys that can turn it on any night," center Dave Bolland said. "We've got guys that can do anything and help out in any number of different ways.

"I've been on teams before where we've had this feeling. I can feel the same thing here with this team. We've got a lot of young guys that are hungry and want to win. When you see Jonathan Toews out there working his (butt) off, how hungry guys are to win, they just want to keep going and going and going."

The Hawks have played 19 games with only 4 losses in regulation. They are 10-2-5 since opening the season with back-to-back losses on the road to the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals.

Players drafted by the Hawks in either the first or second round such as Toews, Bolland, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith and Cam Barker are developing into difference makers.

And those players picked up by general manager Dale Tallon either in trades or as free agents such as Patrick Sharp, Nikolai Khabibulin, Brian Campbell, Martin Havlat, Andrew Ladd, Kris Versteeg and Ben Eager are making equally big contributions on a regular basis.

"I think we're showing a lot of character and how badly we want to win," Toews said.

The Hawks might be young, but nobody ever said young teams can't win.

"We are young, but it's a fun group," coach Joel Quenneville said. "They're really good kids who get along well together off the ice and on the ice. They care for one another and we've got some speed and we've got some skill."

The Hawks are 3-0 on the first portion of their six-game road trip that continues Wednesday night in San Jose.

"We basically want to measure ourselves trying to get better on a day-to-day basis, be it at practice or games," Quenneville said. "I think there's a lot of room to improve from where we're at today, but there's a lot of good signs."

Part of what is potentially special about the Hawks is their captain. Toews is the kind of natural leader all the special teams have, whether it's the old Islanders (Bryan Trottier) or the recent versions of the Red Wings (Steve Yzerman) and Avalanche (Joe Sakic).

"He's a cool kid," Quenneville said. "He's got everything in perspective and has a lot of leadership qualities."

• Goalie Nikolai Khabibulin on Monday was named the third star of last week by the NHL for going 3-0 with a 2.90 goals-against average in wins over Phoenix, Dallas and Toronto.

Khabibulin is 7-0-4 since losing for the only time in regulation at Washington on Oct. 11 in the second game of the season.