Their leading goal scorers from the last two seasons are banged up. Their best shot-blocking defenseman is feeling the effects of his primary skill. Their defensive miscues are turning into costly goals. Their All-Star goalie is fighting the puck for the first time this season. Their grip on a playoff spot suddenly looks tenuous.
Welcome to the All-Star break, Blackhawks, and not a game too soon.
Mired in a six-game winless streak and winners of just three games in their last 14, the Hawks are experiencing what veteran defenseman Lyle Odelein termed a “reality check.”
The Hawks have one more assignment Thursday in Boston before they get three days off to recover from what has been an interesting opening month of 2003.
Only goaltender Jocelyn Thibault–perhaps the most deserving of time away from the ice–will be working as the Hawks’ lone All-Star representative.
“The last three games, we could have won them as easily as we lost them,” Hawks coach Brian Sutter said. “Ten days ago we would have won every game, hands down. Little mistakes cost us.”
Every team experiences what the Hawks are experiencing over the course of an 82-game season. In fact, the Hawks are experiencing it a second time. In November they lost six of seven games on a West Coast trip.
“We’ve been through this once already,” Hawks alternate captain Steve Thomas said. “Now we’re in another bump in the road and we’re going to look at this like we did that first time and hopefully come out of it like we did before.”
They responded to the first “bump” with a stretch of 14 straight games with at least a point. After inching close to Detroit and St. Louis in the Central Division standings, the Hawks now have to look at what’s racing up behind them.
Currently seventh in the Western Conference, the Hawks have a one-point lead over Colorado and a three-point cushion over Anaheim. A loss in Boston, two Anaheim wins and a Colorado win in the next two days could knock the Hawks down to ninth.
Things don’t get easier after the break. The Hawks open with a four-game trip, including three stops in their own personal den of futility–Canada.
“At this stage, every loss is magnified much more,” Thomas said. “Maybe because of where we are in the standings, we consider losses to be missed points.”
The Hawks are likely to face the Bruins without Sergei Berezin and his team-leading 15 goals, fellow winger Eric Daze and defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev. Berezin has a shoulder injury, Daze a groin injury and Karpovtsev has sore ankles. All might be able to play, but the question for Sutter, with one game in a span of eight days, is whether he wants to risk making the injuries worse.
“Your heart tells you you want them to play, but common sense has to be a deciding factor,” Sutter said.
After Sunday’s loss in Montreal, Theo Fleury said the Hawks might have to win a game 1-0 in order to get out of their funk. Considering the way they’ve been playing defense recently, that seems like a tall task.
“[Mistakes] happen in every game,” Sutter said. “When you’re winning, the goaltender stops them. If I’m a forward and I make a mistake, the defenseman backs me up and vice versa. We made a handful of errors in those two games.”
During their tough trip in November and during this current slide, the Hawks have stayed on an even keel. They are angry about the lost points, but they have comported themselves in a manner that would make an anger-management counselor proud. No tantrums, no public backbiting or finger pointing.
“That’s what life is about, adversity,” Sutter said. “It’s how you react to adversity that determines how strong you are.”
