Blackhawks fighting for their playoff lives

Not only are the Blackhawks out of the playoffs if the postseason started today, they are 11th in the Western Conference.

That could change as soon as tonight with a win over 10th-place Calgary at the Saddledome, but the fact remains the Hawks are treading in some serious water with 30 games left in the season.

“You look at the standings and it’s really close,” Patrick Kane told blackhawks.com after practice Sunday. “It’s not the place you want to be in, but we’ve got 30 games left and every game is like a 4-point game.

“If we put it all together we should be fine. We’ve been very inconsistent and we’ve got to figure it out. If we can put it together we think we can be a real good team.”

The way coach Joel Quenneville sees it, the Hawks wouldn’t be in such a fight for their playoff lives if they had just taken care of business at home earlier in the season. The Hawks are a disappointing 16-13 at the United Center.

“You look back early in the season and we left a lot of points on the table at home,” Quenneville told reporters. “Our home record is probably the reason why we’re in this predicament we’re in today.”

The Hawks are 1 point behind the Flames, who have been one of the NHL’s hottest teams since Christmas. The Flames had won six in a row before losing to Los Angeles in a shootout Saturday night in one of those 3-point games Quenneville hates.

Calgary has picked things up considerably since Darryl Sutter was fired as general manager and replaced by Jay Feaster.

“It seems like there’s a lot more energy,” Quenneville said.

Quenneville returns to No. 1 goalie Corey Crawford tonight after starting Marty Turco in the first two games coming out of the all-star break.

Crawford wasn’t sharp in his last start, a loss to Minnesota on Jan. 25.

“He had one game where he wasn’t great, but he has been really good over a long stretch,” Quenneville said.