Crashing Blackhawks seek some trade deadline Febreze

The Blackhawks- having lead the division for most of the year, the conference for much of it, and the league for quite a bit of it- have sort of crashed and burned of late. In fact, they've lost seven in a row, and tumbled to fourth in the division. It's not too late to get back on track, but Corey Crawford- who is running out of time to have his poor play explained away by that groin injury earlier in the year- has pretty much stunk up the goal crease. And after a brief hot streak, backup Ray Emery hasn't been much better.

Terrible defense is one reason, and I doubt that the Hawks will be able to do much about that this season. But with the trade deadline coming up on February 27, there are several top notch goalies who could possibly be had for a price the Hawks (who have no particular salary cap problem at the moment) could probably manage.

Cam Ward of the Hurricanes, Ryan Miller (yes, that Ryan Miller!)of the Sabres, Miikka Kiprusoff of the Flames, Evgeni Nabokov of the Isles, and Nikolai Khabibulin of the Oilers could all be available for the right price. I would shy away from the Bulin Wall, though. Nabokov might be the best bet, having a relatively low salary and being a free agent at the end of the year. And who knows? Maybe the right price might even bring Antti Niemi home. He should never have been allowed to leave, of course. But hindsight is 20-20.

Most of these guys would make the defense look a lot better. Of course, a trade for a decent defenseman couldn't hurt, either. And as good as the Hawks are at scoring, they've even been hurting there of late.

Let's see what Stan Bowman can pull off. Especially as well as the Good Guys did for most of the first half, it's too early to give up on them. Maybe we can still raise that second Cup in three years.