With 21 games left, Hawks anxious to take control

The Blackhawks' goals for the restart of the regular season are as simple as 1-2-3.

• Win the Central Division.

• Win the Western Conference.

• Win the President's Trophy.

"That's kind of where we're at all year and what we'll try to do between now and the end," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said Friday.

Winning the West and ending up first overall would mean more playoff games at the United Center, where the Hawks are 23-6-2.

"We all should be excited to get going again because this is our season, this is what we play for now, the last 20 games and playoffs," defenseman Brian Campbell said. "I know we're comfortable in our division and in a playoff spot, but we have a challenge in trying to catch San Jose. You've got to find motivation in other areas."

The Hawks lead the Central Division by 16 points over Nashville, but trail the Sharks by 2 points in the West standings. They are just 3 points behind Washington in the race for the President's Trophy, which goes to the team finishing first overall.

"We want to be on top of everything," Campbell said. "It's definitely something we need to strive for, and that could be huge motivation for us."

The Hawks took a four-game winning streak into the Olympic break, but they were clearly a tired-looking team.

"I think that break cleared everyone's mind mentally and gets you refreshed," winger Patrick Sharp said. "We were on a good little stretch of winning games, but I don't think we were playing our best hockey. I thought it was a great time for a break."

In their final eight games before the break the Hawks allowed 24 goals, which was uncharacteristic for the league's best defensive team.

"We're all in agreement probably that we haven't played our greatest hockey the last three weeks prior to that, but we found a way to win those games, which is a credit," Campbell said.

Now with just 21 games to play, the Hawks know they need to crank it up because for many teams in the scramble just to reach the postseason, the playoffs start on Tuesday.

"We need to get into our playoff mode now," Campbell said. "There's a difference of playing regular season hockey to playoff hockey and in the last 21 games every team is playing a playoff game because there's so many teams battling for position or trying to get in.

"The level of hockey will go up. The fans will see it and we see it on the ice."

It's inevitable that some teams will struggle coming out of the lengthy break, but the Hawks don't plan on being one of them.

"We've got a group here that I like the way they've worked in the last two days, and the guys that are returning (from the Olympics), they should be excited from the momentum of playing some really big games," Quenneville said.

"We've got to look at each and every game and be excited about playing that team and that game and trying to find a way to win. We have a young group with a lot of energy and enthusiasm and motivation, so I think that should prevent us from being either complacent or going bad."

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