Championship pace: Hawks matching 2010 club

It could be, it might be … nah, it's probably too early to start comparing this year's Blackhawks team with the Stanley Cup edition of two years ago, right?

Maybe not.

This year's Hawks are off to an eerily similar start compared to their Cup-winning brethren. With their victory Monday night over Columbus, the Hawks picked up their league-leading 50th point in just their 36th game.

That's exactly the same number of games it took the Cup winners to reach the 50-point mark. Is the comparison fair?

“I think so,” Dave Bolland said. ”I think we have that same team here. We have that depth; we have all four lines rolling and all six D-men going.

“We're like the team we had two years ago. We have that kind of persona in the room to do it again.”

A year after the Hawks struggled just to eke into the playoffs on the final day of the season, the Cup hangover officially has cleared and they're starting to get that same winning feeling.

“Absolutely,” Jonathan Toews said. “Every single game we go in there — even if we don't play our best game — we know we can find a way to win.”

Teammate Bryan Bickell agrees.

“Two years ago we had team depth, and it wasn't just the top two lines scoring,” he said. “When the top two lines aren't scoring, our bottom two are. It's good to have depth that way. And our goalies — Ray (Emery) and Corey (Crawford) — they've been outstanding.”

As have the seasoned veterans brought in by general manager Stan Bowman over the summer, veterans who added a level of leadership and maturity to an already strong locker room.

“I think you look around the room and everyone's having fun, supporting each other on and off the ice,” Bickell said. “It's good chemistry, definitely.”

But as well as things are going this season, Patrick Sharp isn't about to get drawn in to the comparison game.

“I don't like to do that,” Sharp said. “I don't like to compare past teams — whether it was good or bad.

“We're hearing a lot the past few days that there's room for improvement and there's no room to be complacent or comfortable with where we are. I agree with that.”

He's not alone in that sentiment.

“There are so many good teams in our league that I think there's growth in our game that we'll have to do better in order to be effective,” coach Joel Quenneville said.

Added Toews: “We have a lot of room for improvement as a team and we'll look at it that way.”

But, still, players can dream big, right?

“What we have is great,” Bolland said. “I think we have as good a team we had two years ago.”