Blackhawks quickly gaining elite status

CALGARY, Alberta - Do the Blackhawks qualify as one of the NHL's elite teams?

The evidence is mounting that maybe they should be included in that group.

The Hawks' 9-2 pasting of the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night ran their record to 16-6-7, gave them 107 goals (second most in the Western Conference) and left them only 5 points behind the Detroit Red Wings.

How does a New Year's Day Winter Classic showdown for first place in the Central Division sound?

In what is now a five-game winning streak, the Hawks have outscored the opposition 25-7 with their 9 goals at Edmonton the most they have scored in a game since Dec. 4, 1999, in a 9-4 blowout of the Bruins in Boston.

"It's fun to see that many goals going in lately," Patrick Kane said. "I don't really know what it is, if it's chemistry right now or everyone playing the system. It's something you can't really explain, but we'll take it.

"I think everyone is feeling good about themselves and everyone is putting up points."

The Hawks have a lot of things working in their favor as they continue on a pace to surpass 100 points.

Goalies Nikolai Khabibulin and Cristobal Huet are playing as well as any tandem in the league, Duncan Keith and Brian Campbell lead a mobile and versatile defense that now has James Wisniewski back, there are three forward lines scoring, and a fourth line that is turning in difference-making shifts.

The Hawks also rank in the top 10 in the league in both power play and penalty-killing.

"You never know what can happen, I guess," Kane said, trying not to look too far ahead. "The goal is still to get in the playoffs and be as high as we can as a seed. Obviously we want to keep chasing Detroit and teams like San Jose and keep this little streak going."

There's a winning confidence in the Hawks' dressing room that has been building for weeks.

"We're young, we have a lot of heart on this team, and we know we're good," Troy Brouwer said. "We go out there and we know we can win every night, and when we want to, we play to win."

Brouwer may have been just an excited rookie talking after getting 2 goals against the Oilers.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville has been around the block a few times and won't go where Brouwer did, knowing it's still early in a long season to get too carried away by success.

"It's been a fun little run we're on right now," Quenneville said. "It's a good foundation in reinforcing our team game, knowing that's a priority. If we get those habits of checking well, I think offensively there's not a concern because it's there.

"It's just learning to how to play the game and the score, and with a checking mentality, we can create."

The power play was 4-for-5 at Edmonton, with Kane, Campbell, Brouwer and Craig Adams scoring.

"The power play is something that really needs to be good for us to win games," Cam Barker said. "We feel that we can obviously compete every night.

"We feel confident, but at the same time we know we have to work every night to win games. On the nights we don't work hard for 60 minutes are the nights we don't win."

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