Hawks look to right the ship

Perhaps it's still too early to say the Blackhawks are at a crossroads in their season, but they have come to a point after 11 games where things either need to get corrected in a hurry or the hole they are digging for themselves could become significantly larger.

The Hawks have lost three straight to drop to 5-6 and are faced with tough road tests this week at Dallas and St. Louis.

With the Western Conference playoff race looking to be more competitive than ever from top to bottom, teams that stumble early are in danger of never recovering.

"Nobody is happy but still believe we have a good team here," center Patrick Sharp said. "We need to figure out what happened last week and realize that's not good enough."

Sharp believes this is the best Hawks team he has played on in three years. The last two clubs let losing streaks build to the point that any hope of making the playoffs was dashed by about the middle of the season.

"It feels a lot different than in the past," Sharp said. "This is my third season with these guys and we've just lost three in a row, but everyone is trying to stay positive and everyone still believes in what we have in this room.

"I hate to talk about the past, but maybe before we would have just thrown our arms up and said, 'Well, here we go again.' "

Tough practices Sunday and Monday were coach Denis Savard's way of reminding his players that continued poor play by some of them won't be accepted.

Already Savard has benched veterans Sergei Samsonov, Yanic Perreault, Rene Bourque and Jim Vandermeer for one reason or another, and he said the team won't hesitate to recall more players from Rockford if necessary.

"It's a process, and it's just not about our young players here," Savard said. "I wish after 11 games I could tell you we were 8-3 or 7-4, but that's not the case. It's a process here and it's going to take us some time.

"There are a lot of things we need to get better at, and for us we have to come to work every day hard, not just when we feel like it."

Hawks fans have been told for years that there is a process going on, but that's what happens when the roster is turned over every season.

"This is a new group," Savard said. "There are a lot of new players here and it takes time to get the chemistry together, to get guys to work the way you want them to work. It takes time, but I'll get them there."

Teenage rookies Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have been the Hawks' most consistent players through 11 games. While Savard warned reporters Monday not to refer to the Hawks as a two-man team, he did admit that Kane and Toews are outworking and outperforming most veterans.

"When you watch every department that is important (like) battles, they'll win eight out of 10 for you," Savard said of Kane and Toews. "Scoring chances, they'll get two to one vs. whoever they're playing. Their work ethic … they'll work on eight shifts out of 10 or nine out of 10, and that's what we need everyone to get to.

"They're doing the things that they're told to do, and that's why they're successful."