Let’s get right to the important part:
“I love dogs,” Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said.
So that’s settled.
Wait, what?
Colliton — always in get-down-to-business mode, this guy — wasn’t wasting precious time Thursday morning describing a warm-and-cuddly attachment to man’s best friend. After the Hawks’ game-day skate at the United Center, with the Canucks in town for an important matchup of wild-card hopefuls, Colliton described the message he was sending to his players when he gathered them at center ice and stressed to stay focused and “work like dogs.”
“The kind of dogs I like, they love to work and they want to be relentless,” he said. “And we want our guys to pursue the puck, pressure and never give up. If we do that, then I think we have the players [to] get some results.”
Last time the Hawks played the Canucks, it was Halloween night and the beginning of the end, so to speak, of the Joel Quenneville era. The Hawks lost 4-2 to begin an 0-3 trip that culminated in Quenneville’s dismissal and the hiring of a complete unknown to steer the team out of the wilderness.
It was gnarly for many weeks for Colliton and his team of sled dogs, but an 11-5-3 stretch entering Thursday night has injected renewed vigor into all involved. The Hawks — on a season-high five-game winning streak — still have a considerable pack of teams in front of them in the wild-card hunt, but they’re gaining important ground.
The Canucks (24-24-6) enter with 54 points. The Hawks (21-24-9) are at 51.
“I mean, now’s the time, right?” Patrick Kane said. “It’s fun knowing we won five in a row. I think everyone’s feeling confident. But, at the same time, we can’t just think because [we’re] playing better that it’s just going to happen for us. Just keep doing the same things. I think we know the recipe for success now.”
Not to oversimplify, but the recipe goes something like this: Step 1, pour mounds of opportunity all over the ice. Step 2, let the hungriest dogs eat.
“I think [Colliton’s] message is things are going well right now, but you can’t just sit back and expect to win,” Alex DeBrincat said. “We’ve got to go out and battle every night — that’s definitely a big identity of this team — and we’ve got to be winning 50-50 battles to win the game. Keep battling every night, and keep winning as much as possible.”
Is that all?
“Battle like dogs and go to work,” he added.
Switch: flipped
Perhaps the biggest factor in the Hawks’ success has been their power play — can we talk enough about it? — which is zinging along at a best-in-the-NHL 40.4 percent conversion rate (21 for 52) since Dec. 23. The team has scored a league-high 21 power-play goals in that 16-game span.
Before that? The Hawks’ special teams put the “bomb” in “abominable.”
“For a long time, it seemed like it was so hard to go out there and make plays and find that confidence not only to score goals, but to keep the puck in the zone,” Jonathan Toews said. “Teams could feel that, and they would pressure us and we would make mistakes.
“But now we’re just relaxed more, we’re playing hard, and I think when offense comes from your power play it translates to five-on-five.”
Kampf out
Forward David Kampf will be out three to four weeks with a right foot injury, the Hawks announced. Against the Canucks, Brendan Perlini was expected to replace Kampf on a line with Marcus Kruger and Brandon Saad, with Kruger in the middle.
Colliton said there were no plans to bring anyone up from the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in Rockford to replace Kampf on the roster.
