Sharks also quiet on deadline day
Not only were the Blackhawks quiet at Wednesday's trade deadline, so were the San Jose Sharks.
The two top teams in the Western Conference with 89 points apiece were content to live with earlier transactions to improve their depth.
The Hawks traded for defenseman Kim Johnsson on Feb. 12 and Monday picked up defenseman Nick Boynton.
San Jose's big move came a few weeks ago when general manager Doug Wilson picked up defenseman Niclas Wallin from Carolina.
"If you look around the league there were a lot of trades, but a lot of the top teams didn't do anything," Hawks GM Stan Bowman said. "A lot of teams that were doing well are comfortable with the group they started with."
That's partially true.
The Washington Capitals, who the Hawks are chasing for the President's Trophy, picked up defensemen Joe Corvo and Milan Jurcina, center Eric Belanger and winger Scott Walker on Wednesday while Pittsburgh in the last few days added forward Alex Ponikarovsky and defenseman Jordan Leopold.
In the West, contenders Phoenix, Colorado and Los Angeles were busy Wednesday.
The Coyotes added forwards Wojtek Wolski and Lee Stempniak and defensemen Mathieu Schneider and Derek Morris, while the Kings acquired winger Fredrik Modin and center Jeff Halpern.
The Avalanche got centers Peter Mueller and Kevin Porter from Phoenix in the Wolski trade along with center Stephane Yelle from Carolina.
Vancouver made three depth acquisitions in center Yan Stastny and defensemen Nathan Paetsch and Andrew Alberts.
Middle periods: When the Islanders outscored the Hawks 4-0 in the second period Tuesday it continued the trend of second-period collapses.
In their last four games including Wednesday, the Hawks have been outscored 10-5 in the second period. They have just 5 goals in last eight middle periods.
"Whether we think were going to go out there and control the play or the puck for 60 minutes, it's not happening," coach Joel Quenneville said. "You've got to play defense. We're going to have shifts in our own end and we're going to give up scoring chances, but keeping the puck out of our net recently has been a problem, especially in the second period."