Rozner: Can Kane help sluggish Blackhawks flip switch?

NHL teams love nothing more than to be hot and playing great hockey heading into the postseason.

That is most assuredly not the Blackhawks.

They played their best hockey of the 2014-15 season from mid-November to mid-December, and though math has never been a strong suit that sounds like roughly four months ago.

The Hawks will begin the playoffs in Nashville on Wednesday knowing they need something to get them going.

Maybe it's a break. Maybe it's a bounce. Maybe it's both.

Maybe it's the return this week of Patrick Kane, which appears a real possibility.

Maybe it's just a reminder that if they don't get it going quickly, they will be home quickly and making tee times just as fast.

They already got help by not having to face St. Louis in the first round, not that Nashville will be an easy out. But at least the Preds are in the same boat as the Hawks, trying again to find their mojo and entering the playoffs on a six-game losing streak.

The best Nashville stretch was in February, when the Preds won 10 of 13 and appeared to be running away with the division, but they finished 6-12-3 and have just as many doubts as the Hawks at the moment.

They missed the playoffs the last two years, so they certainly don't have the Hawks' pedigree. Goaltender Pekka Rinne has a losing record in the postseason, probably remembering well the 2010 series against the Hawks that Nashville had a great chance to win before Martin Erat's unforgivable giveaway in Game 5 sent the Hawks soaring toward a Stanley Cup.

The Hawks have collected a pair of rings since last they faced Nashville in the tournament and that's the best thing they have going for them now, the knowledge of what it takes to win a playoff series and the belief that they can flip that switch and turn it on when it matters.

They'll have to forgive anyone among the faithful who no longer believes it.

The Hawks waited too long to get it going last spring and the extra games they played against St. Louis and Minnesota took a toll. They were slow to get started against Los Angeles and by going to a Game 7 and overtime they left it up to a bounce they didn't get.

So what can the Hawks be certain of now, as they expect the return of Kane in this series?

Corey Crawford. Yeah, that's about it at this point.

They know their goaltender will continue to play brilliantly and keep them in games, and they know they're going to have to win with defense because their offense has been missing since the calendar flipped to 2015.

It went missing long before Kane went to the hospital and it can be traced to a couple of simple notions: their defense and effort.

The Hawks' offense begins with their top four defensemen and the effort of the entire squad in general.

Just two weeks ago, the Hawks got what seemed to be the break they needed, a gift goal in Winnipeg that turned that game around and turned a sure loss into an absurd victory.

They came back the next night against the Kings and played their best game in months, a terrific effort from start to finish at both ends of the ice.

More than anything it featured the best of Duncan Keith, who can dominate a game like few others when he's of the mind to dominate a game.

Good luck figuring out when that's going to occur, but when that Keith shows up there's no better blueliner in the game. That's the one who's captured a couple of Norris trophies and has led the Hawks to a pair of Cups.

That's the one who smothers defenders in his own end with his quickness, and the one who jumps into the play when he's not leading the play the other way.

And when Keith is doing it, it spreads to Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya.

On that night a couple of weeks ago against the defending Stanley Cup champs, the defense was active and aggressive, and as good as they were in their own end, they were better in the neutral zone and offensive end.

The Hawks just don't have enough depth up front right now to get by unless the defense is heavily involved in the offense, and that starts and ends with Keith, who can play 30 minutes and control a game better than anyone who plays his position.

But Keith, like most of his teammates, has been inconsistent and seemingly less than interested for a solid portion of the season.

So it's there for the Hawks if they want it. They have the ability to make a deep run, to stay afloat whether Kane returns now or later, and that will almost entirely be determined by their effort.

It probably won't take long to see just what they intend to do.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.