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The Blackhawks have hit a rough patch.

After a nice start to the post-ASG stretch of the schedule, the Hawks came home to go 0-2-1 in three games against likely Western Conference playoff teams.

Adding injury to insult, it appears they've lost Marian Hossa for some stretch of games after he went into the boards awkwardly on a clean, and well-executed, Hampus Lindholm hip check.

I heard a few days ago that Stan Bowman would be content going into the playoffs with the roster he has. But the last couple of games at least, not to mention the at-this-point unspecified injury to one of the team's best forwards, might affect that calculus.

There were some post game rumblings that one of the team's two utility forwards (the other being the already "utilized" Andrew Shaw) Teuvo Teravainen might replace Hossa on Jonathan Toews' right flank.

The issue with the above is that Shaw is already filling in on Toews' left flank, because the Hawks have had a hole at LW since trading Brandon Saad and discovering that Bryan Bickell had lost a step and a half. If there's good news in this, it's that Teravainen's best position is right wing.

Maybe he can spark the Toews line—or vice versa. That would be good because Teravainen has not exactly been ripping it up the last several games.

Last year at about this point in the season, Patrick Kane broke a collarbone and went on LTIR. The Hawks then took the newly freed cap space and traded for rental Antoine Vermette, Kane came back for the playoffs—and the rest is NHL history.

Could history repeat itself here?

Possibly. All depends on how long Hossa really should be out.

But after watching Joel Quenneville's Line Juggler 5000 set to 11 the last couple of games, the evidence is strongly pointing to the Hawks needing to make a trade—and perhaps something big and bold and possibly, dare I say it, a rental.

Rhetorically, I have to say this.

I have heard the refrain on my message board and elsewhere that the Blackhawks should not "mortgage the future" for a rental player.

The same was suggested at this time last year, and for several weeks as Vermette settled in for what turned out to be a very positive, productive, albeit brief career in Chicago. The price for Vermette was a now fully exposed defense prospect named Klas Dahlbeck—who will really be in all likelihood a fringe NHL'er at best, and a draft pick at the end of the first round.

Was that worth a Stanley Cup? I would argue it was. We can argue 'til the cows come home that Vermette didn't mean that much. But I remember some huge game-winning goals late in the playoffs, a third line that made a difference, not to mention sheer dominance in the face-off circle in the latter stages of playoff games.

Meanwhile, for all the praise and expectation heaped on Teravainen, he has zero points and is -5 in his last ten games, and appears to be falling back into some bad habits exhibited earlier in the season of not going hard after pucks in traffic.

Another jewel in the prospect pipeline, Marko Dano, is apparently not good enough to play in the NHL this year.

Same can be said for 2014 first round pick, Ryan Hartman.

Am I being too hard on the prospects? Maybe, but if this is the future, truly, how great is the future. Maybe, meh, ok. My point is, we are not, NOT, talking about a future Patrick Kane in Teravainen's case, a future Hossa in Dano's case, perhaps not even a future Shaw in Hartman's case.

We're not.

But Kane, Hossa and Shaw—as well as Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews and Brent Seabrook—play for the Hawks now. The window is now. There's no telling how effective that core will be when or if Teravainen, Dano, and Hartman reach their respective ceilings.

I responded to a reader on the thread last week (great guy, great contributor) who asserted that winning another Cup is not worth mortgaging the future. I disagree, and I think Hawk fans are a little spoiled and short-sighted if they're saying that. Winning a Stanley Cup is huge. Chicago went 49 years without one. So they've won 3 in the last six years, but that should not diminish the importance of winning a 4th in 7.

Even last June, after the Hawks had won the 2015 Cup, some NHL fans were saying maybe it's not a legitimate dynasty. Well, winning 4 Cups in 7 years, and the first repeat Cup in the salary cap era, removes . . . all . . . doubt.

If you're Stan Bowman, John McDonough, Scotty Bowman, Rockwell Wirtz, you have to be all in—right now—this month especially. This is when they do their jobs to help the 23 guys on the ice do theirs and bring the Chalice back to Chicago one more time.

I not only believe the Hawks should step up and get the best asset(s) on the market to help them—prized prospects and youths be damned—I believe they will.

To that end, I heard this morning from a typically solid source in the Wirtz organization, there were many scouts in attendance at the UC last night, including Montreal GM Marc Bergevin and to expect "something soon."

Hold on to your hats. This is when the ride gets bumpy. But also when the fun starts.


More as I hear it,


JJ

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