Blackhawks believe they can catch Red Wings
We’ve heard it said before: The NHL season is a marathon and not a sprint, which is why the Blackhawks believe there is plenty of schedule remaining for them to catch the Red Wings and win the Central Division.
The Hawks take on the Red Wings on Saturday afternoon at Joe Louis Arena 10 points behind a Detroit team that has been in the division lead since October.
“I don’t see why not,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “We obviously control that. It’s not going to take a miracle to catch them; we just have to play well.
“We’ve gotten some big points in the last couple weeks and now things are looking a bit more in our favor. We want to keep climbing the chart. We’re certainly not satisfied with where we’re at.”
It’s the Red Wings who are banged up with key players such as Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom, Dan Cleary and Chris Osgood sidelined by injuries.
“I still feel we can catch them,” defenseman Brian Campbell said. “I know we play them the last two games of the season. They’re battling injuries, so hopefully we can take advantage of that with us being healthier now.”
The Hawks aren’t satisfied being one of the pack teams fighting for the last few playoff spots in the Western Conference.
With the Hawks off since last Sunday it has allowed the rest of the conference to finally catch them in games played.
“It’s kind of nice to see the standings now when everyone has caught up to you in games,” goalie Corey Crawford said. “It’s good to see finally where we’re at.”
As for catching Detroit, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville wants his team to focus first on the task at hand instead of concerning themselves with the big picture that includes winning the Central.
“Right now let’s take care of first things first,” Quenneville said. “Our original goal at the start of the year was we’d love to win our division, and that’s still in place. But I think moving ahead from where we’re at right now is what we’re really looking forward to doing and getting out of that where every day you’re in or you’re out or you’re on that bubble.”
The Hawks could have come out of this five-day break even worse off in the standings than eighth place.
“I still think we have to take care of our own business over this stretch of games here and position ourselves as we go along here,” Quenneville said. “There’s a chance if you get on a great roll, you have a chance to have home ice in the first round.
“That’s the advantage of maybe not being satisfied where we were at in the first part of the year, but at least we kept ourselves in play. Now we have to do something about it.”
The Hawks play only three games until getting six more days off for the all-star break — and they’re all toughies against Detroit, Philadelphia and improving Minnesota.
“I know there is some distance between us (and Detroit), but if we play like we have been lately we have a chance,” Marian Hossa said. “It’s not going to be easy, but there is still a good chance and that’s definitely the goal.”