Have Hawks learned their lesson from last season’s slow start?
DALLAS — Simply being in the race for a playoff spot in the Western Conference won’t do for the Blackhawks.
The Hawks are after a top-four finish, with their ultimate goal being to win the Central Division.
A fast start for the Hawks is mandatory if they want one of the top four spots in the West, which figures to be as competitive as ever. That means collecting as many points as possible between now and Christmas.
Many believe those teams hoping to collect 100 points or more must grab as many as they can up to the holidays, before the dog days of January and February set in.
“If you’re not in there by Thanksgiving, you may never get in there,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.
While Babcock’s might be an extreme view about how tight the West will be, what he says is not far off the mark.
“It’s a situation on our side where it seems like everybody keeps themselves in the mix, but we want to elevate where we’re not in that pack,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “You don’t want to go to game 82 to get yourself in. Hopefully we can put ourselves in a good spot.”
It did take the Hawks until the final day of last season to make the playoffs, when they even needed Dallas to lose to Minnesota at night after they had lost to Detroit in the afternoon.
Patrick Sharp believes the Hawks learned their lesson from last season, when a poor start put them in chase mode the rest of the way.
The Hawks got off to a so-so 9-9-2 start, but it was their play at the United Center that was so troubling. They were 4-4 on home ice in October, then went 1-3 to start November.
“We saw that last year where we let a lot of points go early on, and 2 points in October is just as valuable as it is in April,” Sharp said. “It seemed like from Christmas on we were in a dogfight with 13 teams in our conference trying to make the playoffs. It would be nice to get off to a great start and have some breathing room down the stretch.
“It’s tough on the body and tough on the team to play every game like a playoff game the last 40 games of the season. We know the importance of a great start and it’s not just (Friday) — it’s 10, 20, 30 games.”
The Hawks play seven of their first 11 games at home. After a tough stretch on the road in November (10 of 13), they have a good schedule through the end of December with 10 of 14 at the UC starting Nov. 29.
“You never want to play catchup,” Patrick Kane said. “We put ourselves in a tough position last year when we catching up the whole season. We want to get off to a good start and get ahead of the pack a little bit.”