The Hawks (5-2-2) face off against the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets (1-8-1) Saturday night at United Center. The Hawks playing a full weekend slate of 3 games in 4 days against bad teams failed against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night as they fell 3-0 against a hot Cam Ward. Ward stopped all 30 Hawks shots. This is a trap weekend for the Blackhawks who had a problem all last season showing up for games against teams in the bottom half of the standings. Not showing up for games against bad teams is why the Hawks were fighting for the 8th seed in the Western Conference on the last day of the 2010-11 season. The Hawks need to fix this problem in a hurry before it becomes a 2011-12 trend and what better time than now against the worst team in the National Hockey League. Columbus has been awful and accumulated only 3 points and 1 win. The lone win was against the Detroit Red Wings so the Hawks need to be careful not to fall in the trap. The Hawks went 4-2-0 against the Jackets last season but the 2 losses were on home ice. The Hawks come in with the league’s 3rd ranked penalty kill and have now killed 26 of 28 opposition power plays on the season. Columbus has the 28th ranked power play and have converted just 5 of 51 power play chances. The Hawks are not much better as they come in ranked 25th and have converted only 3 of 33 chances. The Blue Jackets could be the antibiotic for a sickly Hawks power play as Columbus is the league’s worst penalty killing team. The Jackets have allowed 12 power play goals against in just 34 times shorthanded. If the Hawks are going to get a top seed in the West this year the power play must get going and they must beat teams like the Blue Jackets. The Hawks will find out later today if and how long they will be without winger Dan Carcillo who faces a league disciplinary hearing for a hit on Hurricanes defenseman Joni Pitkanen in the first period of last night’s game. The play did not result in a penalty.
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