The Blackhawks are in a tough spot and they know it.
Trailing the Detroit Red Wings 2-0 in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals, the Hawks face the prospect of having to win four out of the next five games against the defending Stanley Cup champions to continue their impressive postseason run.
It’s a difficult position but not an impossible one, and the Hawks will cling to that notion until the last Zamboni chases them off the ice. That could come as early as Sunday afternoon if the Wings manage to win the next two games at the United Center, beginning with Game 3 on Friday night.
But neither team is thinking sweep quite yet. Not with the Hawks having put together a solid effort in their 3-2 overtime loss in Game 2 on Tuesday night and with a return to their home ice, where they are 5-1 this postseason.
“Each and every guy still should feel pretty good about where we’re at,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said Wednesday. “We know we’re playing the best. We’ve got to be better, that’s all.
“We still should be excited about playing our next game, knowing that we’re close to getting where we want to go. If we get that result, we’ll feel good about where we’re at in the series.”
If the situation were reversed, the Wings could turn to just about anyone in the dressing room to ask advice on what to do next. On Detroit’s current roster, 21 players have won a total of 40 Stanley Cup rings. Among the Hawks, only three players have sipped from the Cup: Andrew Ladd, Nikolai Khabibulin and Sammy Pahlsson.
It’s Ladd who can give his teammates a unique perspective. The winger was on the 2006 Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes, a team that lost the first two games of its Eastern Conference quarterfinals series against the Montreal Canadiens — at home. Carolina roared back to win the next four en route to capturing its first NHL championship.
“I just think you don’t want to panic,” Ladd said. “Every team that goes through runs, they have a little adversity they have to face. All you can do is focus on Game 3. That’s the message we’re going to try to get across … the importance of that game. It’s still a seven-game series and you have to win four games. There’s still a long way to go.”
It won’t be that long if the Hawks don’t turn around their fortunes against a Wings team that has now defeated them in six of eight contests this season. Falling Tuesday night in a game during which the Hawks outplayed the Wings for long stretches — and were one shot away from coming home with the series tied 1-1 — was a big blow but not a crushing one.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good pulse of our team,” Quenneville said. “The beat of our team has been pretty consistent throughout the playoffs. We’ve had some highs and some lows. I think we can build on the positives of how we played [Tuesday], knowing that we did improve, and we’re looking for that type of game from ourselves.
“I think if we can look to just improve off of those levels, knowing we’re at home [and] taking advantage of the enthusiasm in the building, we can get ourselves back into it.”
Pahlsson, who won a Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007, said the Hawks have their backs to the wall, but they’re maintaining a positive attitude.
“We have a good feeling on the team,” the veteran center said. “We know we still have a chance even though we’re down 2-0. We have a little bit of a hill to climb, but it’s not over yet. I think we all know that.”
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ckuc@tribune.com
