Hawks are .500 and disappointed

MONTREAL -- The Blackhawks are sitting at .500 at the season's halfway point, which in years past might have been reason for celebration.

But not now.

You can hear the disappointment in coach Denis Savard's voice. He knows that in late November the Hawks were five games over .500 at 14-9-2 and looking to be on the verge of really good things.

Two weeks ago the Hawks were 19-15-3 before more injuries hit and a losing streak started.

"The way we started, I felt as healthy as we were we could be a playoff team and we still are, even though we have all those guys out," Savard said. "I know for a fact somewhere here in the next game or two or three games we're going to get something to get us up again and get us going."

Savard calculated after the loss to Detroit that he believed his team needed to play .600 hockey over the final 41 games to make the playoffs. That's a tough task for a club that hasn't shown much consistency in the first half.

The Hawks have had losing streaks of five, four and three games. Only twice have they won as many as three in a row with a high of four.

"We're a .500 team now, and I strongly feel we're a better hockey club than that," Savard said. "Even though we have lots of injuries, we've got to find ways to get back on the winning track here.

"Whatever it's going to take to get us back, we have to do it. We can't give up bad goals, we can't have breakdowns in coverage, we've got to get more power plays by moving our feet and getting to the net."

The offense has gone into hiding in the last five games with just 9 goals. Jonathan Toews has missed the last three games with a sprained knee, and the Hawks are feeling his absence in a major way.

"We need more traffic, we need more net drive, we need to be stronger on the pucks down low -- little things like that are going to get us out of this," Savard said.

Martin Havlat's return from a groin injury should help provide a spark in the upcoming games, but Toews and Jason Williams remain out indefinitely.

"It's tough when you lose guys from the top two lines," Havlat said. "It's always tough when you have so many hurt players. We have much more depth than last year, but last year we had maybe three hurt players, and now we have seven or eight. We just need guys to step up and show what they can do."

Kris Versteeg and Jack Skille have been the best of the forwards called up from Rockford in the last little while. Petri Kontiola and Mike Blunden showed they weren't ready to contribute, and Troy Brouwer had a tough night against the Red Wings in his debut.

"Guys that have come up have done a good job," said Brent Seabrook. "You do have to have patience with them, but at the same time you expect them to come up and do their job."

Savard is staying positive through the adversity, something he learned from last season's struggles when he felt he might have been too negative.

"We've got to stay positive with our players," he said. "But we've got to face reality. As a young group, no matter who is in the lineup, we have to believe we are capable of achieving what we want, and that is to get in the playoffs. Obviously, they are learning good experiences, but we're better than that."

What the Hawks can't afford to do starting the second half is slip any further back in the Western Conference standings because it's only going to get harder to gather points from here.

"We're still in the game," Havlat said. "You win two and you're back; you lose two and you're out of the playoffs. It's pretty tight, but we just have to get back to the way we played."