Hawks know there's no place like home

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville has taken teams to the playoffs nine times in his 11-year career behind an NHL bench - and he knows the importance having home ice, particularly for a potential seventh game.

The Hawks also have a definite home-ice advantage playing before the boisterous crowd at the United Center.

"It's always good to have, especially being here in Chicago and using the building and the crowd to an advantage, it's huge," Quenneville said. "It gives you a big advantage if you need it. Certainly playing here at home would be a big edge for us."

The Hawks took a 21-8-7 record at the United Center into Sunday's showdown with Vancouver for fourth place in the Western Conference.

Odd man out: Center Colin Fraser was Joel Quenneville's choice to sit out on Sunday with the Hawks finally having a full roster at forward.

Quenneville indicated that he may rotate players such as Fraser, Adam Burish and Ben Eager down the stretch to keep everyone fresh.

"We want to keep everybody going here," Quenneville said. "I don't think we want to just say one guy is going to be out permanently here. Sometimes you don't have decisions, but when we do we'd like to keep everybody in the mix and share in this as we go along."

Fraser had appeared in all 73 games before Sunday and has been a good penalty killer and faceoff guy, but those are two things Sammy Pahlsson can do as well.

Burish moved to Fraser's spot at center on the fourth line between Eager and Dustin Byfuglien.

Doing it all: Not only has Martin Havlat been the Hawks' most dangerous offensive threat most of the season, his two-way play has opened Joel Quenneville's eyes.

Havlat was plus-25 before Sunday's game, which was the best among all forwards and second only to defenseman Duncan Keith's plus-32.

"One thing about Havvy is a lot of people didn't think he could be that responsible defensively," Quenneville said. "It's been nice to see him contribute in a strong way there. His usefulness on both sides of the puck has been really appreciated."

The week ahead: Vancouver plays at Minnesota on Tuesday then returns home to face Anaheim on Thursday. The weekend finds the Canucks playing at Edmonton on Saturday and hosting Colorado on Sunday.

The Hawks play at Montreal on Tuesday then host St. Louis on Wednesday and Nashville on Friday. They play at Columbus on Sunday afternoon.