With a little luck, Hawks could be dancing

It's a long way away and a lot has to go their way before there's any dancing with the Stanley Cup in Chicago, but there's no shame in believing that halfway through the season, the Blackhawks have the best team in hockey.

But not surprisingly, the two things the Hawks needed most when the season started - health and goaltending - remain the chief concerns if the Hawks are to win it all.

Cristobal Huet is still a roll of the dice, and at any time can have a game when he can't stop a beach ball. And while Antti Niemi has been outstanding, neither goalie has ever won an NHL playoff series.

That's enough to make a coach nervous.

The good news is Joel Quenneville knows it and has tightened it up defensively to the point where he's not leaving it to the goalies to save them, and that's a serious recipe for winning in the postseason.

As for health, the two players the Hawks simply can't lose are Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith.

The team's two best players have both missed time in the last two years with concussions, and both times the Hawks have had trouble winning.

Between the compact schedule and the Olympics, the Hawks just need to get lucky and have them at 100 percent when the playoffs finally arrive four months from now.

Meanwhile, Patrick Kane seems to have grown up a bit after his off-season arrest, is playing more responsibly overall, and offensively his game is sensational and getting better all the time.

The wild card is Marian Hossa, who's at about 70 percent and still rounding into shape.

There's no telling how good an already great offense will be when Hossa gets dialed in, and it's comical now to remember the unhappiness across Blackhawk Nation when Dale Tallon wisely chose Hossa over Martin Havlat.

And of course there's Brian Campbell, who's had a good month, which doesn't erase last year's awful season and an even worse postseason, when he was the Hawks' worst player against Detroit.

Campbell is effective when he's comfortable, when there's no pressure and when he's not getting hit.

The Sharks saw that when they had him for a few months two years ago, and it's why they let him go and traded for Dan Boyle.

Can Quenneville trust him enough defensively to have Campbell on the ice in the playoffs when the game's on the line?

He's been playing better, so let's hope the Campbell you see today doesn't disappear come playoff time, because this Campbell makes the Hawks difficult to game plan, with he and Keith, two puck-carrying defensemen on the ice at different times, bolstering a dynamite offense.

While Andrew Ladd's been quiet - is he waiting to have a great playoff again? - you have to love the what the Hawks have gotten from the ever-improving Niklas Hjalmarsson and a rejuvenated John Madden.

Considering that the previous coach and GM had zero use for him, Troy Brouwer's been a workhorse, doing a lot of the dirty work in front of the net and responsible for at least a dozen goals through screens.

Granted, the Hawks still lack toughness and an edge, and that will be on GM Stan Bowman if he doesn't get something done before the trade deadline to change that aspect of the club.

Cap problems or not, the Hawks have a real chance to win it all, and Bowman needs a more physical roster and some protection for his stars.

There's no one who is both willing and able to take care of it, and the Hawks need a deterrent, a legit heavyweight who doesn't run away from the other team's toughest.

The good news for Bowman is he'll get two late-season pickups without having to give up a thing when Dave Bolland and Adam Burish are back from injury, and if Bolland is truly healthy, the Hawks are going to be a very scary team.

But Bowman also has to keep an eye on next year.

The Hawks are at serious risk of having only one shot at the Cup if Bowman doesn't find a way to shrink his payroll and keep the best parts of this team together.

The problem is, everyone in the NHL believes he's going to have to move a couple players from the group of Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Cam Barker, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel, Bolland, and Ladd.

If it's the wrong guys and it guts the Hawks' depth, no one's going to be happy a year from now, so Bowman's going to have to work some magic.

If he doesn't, what was the point of firing Tallon?

In the meantime, enjoy the ride and don't panic when the Hawks hit a rough patch, which is inevitable.

Try to avoid thinking about facing Detroit in the first round, knowing the Wings could be this year's version of last year's Anaheim club, a top seed disguised in a low-seeded jersey, getting just healthy enough at the right time and wanting to take out their season's pain on someone else.

In the meantime, the Hawks are a riot to watch and with a little luck, health and goaltending, there's no limit to where they might go.

No limit at all.

brozner@dailyherald.com