Hawks needing to elevate their game

When the Blackhawks woke up Friday morning, they were out of fourth place in the Western Conference for the first time since Dec. 11.

Vancouver's win over St. Louis late Thursday night - its 11th straight at home - had moved the streaking Canucks into fourth place.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville yet again called for his team to find another level to its game down the stretch with home ice for the first round of the playoffs at stake.

"We've got to get back being a little bit hungrier," Quenneville said. "I just think there's another level we've got to find at this time of the year with the importance of the games. This is a playoff game for a lot of teams, and we have to have that same approach. We're a desperate hockey team ourselves here."

Newcomer Sammy Pahlsson, sharing the perspective as someone who just joined the team, sees the Hawks needing a boost in confidence.

"We've been struggling a little bit and you can see the confidence has been down," Pahlsson said. "We've got to get our confidence back and feel better about ourselves."

While the Hawks opened a five-game homestand Friday against Edmonton, the Canucks start a six-game road trip today in Phoenix with stops to follow in Dallas, St. Louis, Colorado, Chicago and Minnesota.

The Hawks and Canucks play March 29 at the United Center in their final meeting of the season.

Take two: Sammy Pahlsson felt his Hawks debut was a struggle on Wednesday in Columbus and was eager to find his game again after missing six weeks with mononucleosis.

"It's a new system for me and I have to get used to it," said Pahlsson, who played 15 minutes in the loss at Columbus.

"I thought he got better as he went along there in the game," Joel Quenneville said. "It's been a long time since he played. Once of his strengths is that tenacity in the puck area and it his strength is going to get better each and every game and shift as we go along here."

For now, Quenneville still plans to use Dave Bolland's line against the opposition's No. 1 group.

Soup's on: Joel Quenneville sees improvement in Brian Campbell's play. The struggling Campbell was minus-11 in his last five games before Friday.

"I think the last couple games he's been skating better," Quenneville said. "When he has the threat to come up with speed on the attack and support the rush, he gives us more of an attack type of game."