This first round all just part of Blackhawks' long trip

Beyond the violence and the havoc - the controlled insanity, as it were - often overlooked is the canonic postseason emotion.

The game is just too hard and too painful to win without it, but emotion run amok causes the exact opposite outcome.

Just ask the Blues.

A team that takes bad penalties, chases, fails to protect the puck and can't provide puck support also can't win.

It's a fine line to walk, and it takes a thoughtful coach to provide the balance players need, retaining the desire to skate when their legs resemble rubber, yet playing within a system.

It is managed mayhem, and it's one of the skills that makes Joel Quenneville so very good, and he's one of the chief reasons I picked the Hawks to beat Calgary. He doesn't panic, or jump up and down like a fool, and he doesn't get caught up in screaming at his skaters, the refs or opposing coaches.

On some occasions, like Monday night, you can see the steam exiting his ears and the blood boiling behind his eyes, but on the bench he continues to teach and implore.

Stick with the plan, he insists.

Above all else, no matter the score, stick with the plan.

It's why the Hawks didn't go to pieces down a goal on two separate occasions Thursday, didn't fall apart trailing 2-0 Saturday, and stayed in the game until the third period Monday night, even while taking a brutal physical beating.

Just a month ago this was a team that would have self-destructed down a goal or 2, turning defensive zone coverage into a fire drill and offensive possessions into 1-on-5s.

Quenneville can't help that he's got an undersized playoff roster or that the kids have never been through this, but the Hawks were delusional if they didn't know they'd get pounded like this in the postseason.

The coach also has free agents playing for contracts, making them a threat to stray at any moment. He's got small skill players, plus a big defenseman still attempting to learn wing and a small defenseman who ought to be a wing.

And yet Quenneville cajoles and connives, prods and pokes, and breaks down and builds back up.

He never quits on a period or a game, and never stops coaching.

When the Hawks went through a brutal stretch in March, Quenneville used every one of those terrible shifts and horrible games to insist his team grow. He exploited those defeats, teaching an accelerated course in developing at the NHL level, and now his players know what he says to be true.

We suspected during that rough time - when so many feared the sky was falling - that the club would ultimately benefit from the pressure and adversity, and you've seen in the last two weeks the results.

Some of the younger Hawks may not appreciate his old-school style that is so appealing to those who played for coaches just like him, but the Hawks are learning that what makes you a great team is not what you do when you have the puck.

Even the best skaters play only a small fraction of the game with it, but what makes a player great, and a team a team, is how you play without it - at both ends of the ice.

Jonathan Toews is among the best in the league without the puck.

Martin Havlat, under Quenneville, has learned to work hard offensively and defensively without it, which makes him three times more valuable than he was six months ago.

Several Hawks, who looked like they might be on their way out of the league a year ago, have become genuine contributors, though some again became passengers during an intimidating road game Monday, and that's when they let Game 3 get away.

Nevertheless, they're still in a terrific position in this series, whether they come home 3-1 or 2-2, and for those who have waited a generation to see the franchise do it right, it's a breath of fresh air.

It's like that first warm day of spring after a long and cruel winter, when you can smell - and even taste - a hint of summer.

This season doesn't have to be measured only by when it ends but rather by where the seeds have been dropped, and by the solid foundation in which the growth will occur.

However long this playoff run lasts, be it the next round or the one after that, it has been thoroughly enjoyable to watch the maturation process.

After all, before there is a finish line, there is always a journey.

brozner@dailyherald.com