ESPN

The last time the Chicago Blackhawks took on a team they eliminated from last years playoffs, they needed the greatest comeback in franchise history to win the game.

They are certainly hoping tonight goes a bit different against the Vancouver Canucks. The Hawks eliminated Vancouver in six games last year with a memorable series finale that ended 7-5.

"It's a new season, it's a new year," winger Kris Versteeg said after the morning practice. "Everyone is fighting for a new goal, but I expect they will come at us like Calgary did."

Former Vancouver center Andrew Ebbett makes his Hawk debut playing left wing on the fourth line.

"I'm looking to make a good first impression," Ebbett said. "I've been looking forward to this since I first heard I was coming here, so I'm definitely excited."

Ebbett knows there will be an adjustment to wing.

"Honestly, it's staying out of the middle with those center instincts I've had," said Ebbett. "I just need to keep it simple, and any pucks that come along that defensive wall I have to get my body in front and get them out."

Quenneville announced after practice that Jordan Hendry will make his season debut tonight as well. Hendry has been a healthy scratch for all eight games so far but will take the place of Brent Sopel on the blue line tonight.

"We wanted to get Jordan in there earlier but we didn't want to change a winning lineup," Quenneville explained. "He looked good in camp. I like the way he skates so we're happy to get him in there."

Sopel missed practice on Tuesday for personal reasons, but Quenneville says he's fine and is just sitting to get Hendry a game.

Ebbett, Hendry and company will skate in front of Antti Niemi while the Hawks will face Roberto Louongo, who is having his own problems to start the year. He's 3-5 with an .879 save percentage and a goals against average of 3.25. Those below average numbers seem eerily familiar.

[+] Enlarge

Getty Images

Former Chicago Blackhawks star Chris Chelios' signing with the Wolves makes sense.

CHICAGO -- So it's official. Chris Chelios has signed with the Wolves.

For a guy that wants to keep playing, it makes all the sense in the world. He'll be able to show the hockey world what he can do on the ice instead of just telling them he's ready and available. Plus, he gets to play in his hometown again.

Make no mistake, he wants to play in the NHL and this is the only way he's going to get back there. More than likely, it will take an injury or two on the blue line for him to get a look from a team. Maybe a team that is short on depth in that position. In that regard the Hawks would probably qualify, though there's no word on whether they would be interested if the opportunity arose.

The question for Chelios is what happens if a team that is not in the race for the playoffs comes calling to fill a spot or to draw some fan interest. Would he go to a non-contender? I think the answer is yes. There's no reason to waste all that hard work and then turn down a chance to return to the best league in the world.

[+] Enlarge

Rob Grabowski/US Presswire

Chicago goalie Antti Niemi gets the start on Wednesday versus the Vancouver Canucks, but coach Joel Quenneville wouldn't make a commitment for future games.

Antti Niemi will get the start in goal on Wednesday night against the Vancouver Canucks.

Coach Joel Quenneville announced the decision after practice on Tuesday.

"He earned the opportunity," Quenneville said. "He's played well. I think at one point in the year, the competition from behind was something we were looking for and you have stretches where you are playing well and you earn the chance to play be it for health or the way you're going and that's why he is paying."

Up until now, the goalie rotation made sense despite Cristobal Huet's struggles. Niemi had played in back to back situations and in relief but with two days off between games, this decision is further confirmation that the Hawks obviously realize Huet has some issues. Normally, this would be a spot for the No. 1 goaltender. Quenneville wouldn't commit to anything past Wednesday.

"We'll see. I don't want too go far," he said. "We had a nice little roll there and we want to recapture that and we'll visit with Saturday's game later."

Quenneville then added that "nothing has changed" as far as a No. 1 goalie is concerned. He's only talking about the here and now.

"Right now the other guy deserves it," he said.

NOTES:

Brent Sopel missed practice for personal reasons. Quenneville said he "could" play tomorrow.

CHICAGO -- At least Jack Skille will save on gas money.

His situation seems to have changed again with the addition of Andrew Ebbett off waivers Sunday. Coach Joel Quenneville confirmed after practice Monday that Skille will not return to the team Wednesday as he has on previous game days. Ebbett will take his place on the wing and couldn't be happier to join his new team.

"I'm excited," Ebbett said after his first skate with his new team. "You go from a low of being on waivers and then you get picked up by a team like this. I'm thrilled and couldn't be more excited."

A true center, Ebbett played the left wing on the line with Colin Fraser and Tomas Kopecky at practice.

"Watching him at practice today, he can help us in a lot of ways," Quenneville said. "He can play center, and he can play wing. I really like how he fit in at practice today."

Ebbett had 32 points in 48 games last season with Anaheim. He says he became expendable when the Ducks picked up Saku Koivu and thinks he'll fit right in with who the Hawks are right now.

"It fits me well," Ebbett said. "They are fast and skilled, and that fits my style really well."

Quenneville isn't sure whether Ebbett will play on special teams yet but did say he's a candidate for the power-play and penalty-killing units.

NOTES:

CHICAGO -- Cristobal Huet is under siege by both the fans and the media. That means one thing: The Hawks will rally around their goaltender because in hockey, there truly is no "I" in team. And to Huet's credit, he's not making any excuses.

"I feel like I let the team down," Huet said Saturday night after the Hawks lost 4-3 to Dallas. "I know I can play better than that. It's just a bump in the road. I really looked bad tonight, and I didn't have it."

[+] Enlarge

Bill Smith/Getty Images

Hawks goaltender Cristobal Huet isn't making any excuses for his performance Saturday night, but captain Jonathan Toews says there's more pressure on Huet than there should be.

Two really bad goals were the difference in the game, and Huet knows it.

"I can blame only myself for two," Huet said. "That third goal is bad and can't happen."

Stars center Toby Petersen took a bad angle shot that happens in every game, every night in the NHL, but rarely does such a shot go in so easily. Glove side, no traffic. And there was no reason it couldn't be stopped. To make matters worse, a bad bounce off the boards and hop off the ice resulted in the fourth goal, which exacerbated the booing. Like I said, this is hockey, and ranks close when one of their own is under attack.

"It's pretty unfair," Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said. "There is way more pressure on him than there should be. He's a key player on this team. We win as a team, we lose as a team. No one in here points fingers. It's not only frustrating for him but for us sometimes when we hear the jeers during the game, but as a team we are going to pull [together in] moments like that, and we're going to help him out. It's up to us to give a better effort in front of him."

That may be true, but when the Hawks are playing as well as they are for most games and then have an expected lull here or there, that's when the goaltender has to come up big. Coach Joel Quenneville admitted as much after the game.

"Everybody [the opponent] gets their turn when they have some shifts and we have to defend; we need to do a better job of that as well as keeping it out of our net," Quenneville said.

"Everybody gets their turn" are the key words there. It's even more pronounced, as I said, when the opponents this season are getting very few of "their turns." Huet had the first period off because the Hawks were in the offensive zone for nearly the entire time.

In my opinion, there is no doubt the long week started to catch up to the Hawks after that first period. Without a goal on the board, it felt like a wasted opportunity, and then some chances appeared for the Stars. Leave it to the captain to put it in perspective.

"You learn more by losing these games than if you squeak it out and you win it," Toews explained, "because you don't necessarily look back at the mistakes as much than if you do lose it."

As for Huet, no word on whether he will play against Vancouver on Wednesday, but Quenneville is keeping a positive attitude.

"Goalies have stretches where they're on highs and other stretches that are tough," the coach said. "He's a battler and a competitive guy. I think everyone has pride and looks to redeem themselves next game or whenever."

Unfortunately, in the Hawks' 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars, the storyline remained a familiar one.

Cristobal Huet let his team down once again, and there is no debating it.

The Stars' third goal, during an awful second period for the Hawks, was scored by Toby Petersen from a bad angle, with no traffic, and to Huet's glove side. Then for good measure, Huet couldn't handle a bad-hop shot from center ice by Stephane Robidas in the third period, which turned out to be the game winner.

It was an awful bounce, but with no goodwill built up with the home crowd, the boos rained down and a chant of "Huet [stinks]" could be heard.

Huet will have plenty of time to think about those mistakes as the Hawks are off until Wednesday.

You'll excuse the Blackhawks if they don't play one of their smoother games tonight against the Dallas Stars.

Finishing off a busy week with their fifth contest in seven nights won't be easy, yet they do have a chance to sweep the week. Part of the reason the Hawks have not looked sluggish, according to Kris Versteeg, is the way the coaching staff has handled things.

"I think they made sure of it the other night against Nashville," said Versteeg after the Saturday morning practice. "All four lines got into the game, and I think they know when to play guys and when not to. They've been good at it so far, and that's part of the reason we've been pretty healthy."

A day off the ice Tuesday and then another one Friday helped matters as well. If you're wondering whether young, finely tuned athletes feel the effect of such a week, they do.

"Oh, yeah, you feel it," Versteeg said. "Especially at the NHL level, where every night you're fighting for every point. It'll be good to have a few days off after this game."

Maybe the best news of the week is how the Hawks played the past two games. There was no need for come-from-behind theatrics or long shootouts against both Edmonton and Nashville.

"Those are the games we need to play. We need to be accountable on both ends of the ice and hold onto the puck and know where to put pucks," Versteeg said. "We've been doing that well the last two games. The first couple [games of the week] we got off to some ugly starts but we're getting back to our system, our bread and butter, and it's working."

Jonathan Toews knows it may not be the type of win the fans love to see, but it is the kind that builds confidence for the long haul.

"Against Edmonton and Nashville, they were both chippy games and not necessarily faster-paced, but we limited our mistakes," Toews said. "They were more textbook type of wins. Maybe not as exciting, but we got out to leads and slowly chipped away and tried our best to wear the other team down, and it's worked out to our advantage. We have to keep that up."

As for Saturday, the Stars played and lost Friday, so maybe that will even up the fatigue factor. Duncan Keith will start the game on the point for the power play -- that's how he finished in Nashville. It means Patrick Sharp will move up to play forward with the man advantage.

For a moment, it looked like Antti Niemi would get the start, as he took shots from the defenseman in the morning practice. That's usually reserved for the starting goaltender; but Joel Quenneville has elected to go with Cristobal Huet for the first time back at home since the Calgary debacle Monday night.

NOTE

The Blackhawks have claimed center Andrew Ebbett off waivers from the Anaheim Ducks.

According to the Hawks' press release, Ebbett, 26, has been held scoreless in two regular-season games with Anaheim, after recording one assist and two penalty minutes in five preseason contests with the Ducks. The Vernon, British Columbia, native split the 2008-09 campaign between Anaheim and the AHL's Iowa Chops, tallying a career-best 32 points (8G, 24A) in 48 regular-season NHL games and adding a goal and two assists in 13 Stanley Cup playoff contests. He also netted 10 goals and 19 assists in 28 regular-season games with Iowa.

The jury may still be out on Cristobal Huet but it's not on the Hawks' style of play these days.

They seem to be rounding into form after yet another game in which the shot differential told the story. The Hawks outshot Nashville 30-13 on Thursday night.

The team that is trailing going into the third period usually outshoots their opponent because they are playing a more desperate and aggressive offense. The leading team is commonly happy with just letting the clock run down. The Predators trailed 2-1 and then 3-1 in the third period. They managed just two shots in 20 minutes of play. The Hawks had 11.

When your high shot total for a period is six, you know you're having trouble lighting the lamp. The Predators have been outscored 15-2 in their past three games.

Back to Huet, who despite facing just 13 shots, made some nice saves. On the television broadcast, Pat Foley discussed Huet's change in style of play. According to Foley, Huet is trying to play more "straight up" instead of going down in the butterfly and staying there.

Eddie Olzcyk was right when he chimed in that there is no in between. If you make the change, then do it. Unfortunately, he hasn't looked comfortable, but Thursday night certainly should have helped his confidence.

Anyone that plays Nashville right now can only feel better about themselves. Their offense, including the power play, is last in the NHL. Then again, the way the Hawks are playing the Preds shouldn't feel any worse than the Oilers and Flames before them. Why do I get the feeling they are just getting started?

It's a statistic that is getting scary. And I mean that in a good way.

[+] Enlarge

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Cam Barker had a hard shot last season, but it's even more potent this year.

The Blackhawks, through six games, have outshot their opponents 225-127. You might believe stats are misleading. This one is not.

Patrick Sharp had a team-high five Wednesday night and ranks 12th in the league in that category. He says it's not an accident.

"It's been our thought process all year long, just getting pucks to the net with bodies in front," Sharp said after his two-point night. "It doesn't always have to be a quality shot, but it's going to cause chaos in front and result in some goals."

One key is the shots coming from the point. If they don't go in, they usually cause that chaos Sharp was talking about. No one, especially the defense, knows where that rebound is going and it becomes an advantage to the offense.

"Our [defensemen] are pretty agile and pretty mobile," Joel Quenneville said. "We get a lot of action off of shots from there."

No one exemplified that more than Cam Barker. I've written previously about his accurate shot, and it was on display Wednesday night as he scored the critical fourth goal. Quenneville's praise went one step further.

"He's got a bomb from the point," Quenneville explained. "He had a hard shot last year, [and] I think it's a harder shot this year. Not many guys can beat a goalie from that far out."

Barker credits the players in front of the net.

"If he can't see it, he can't stop it," Barker said.

The Hawks' shot differential is tops in the league. Only Buffalo is close and, coincidence or not, the Sabres are off to a good start as well. The Hawks average 37.5 per game, but even more impressive is the league-low 21.3 they give up.

A great, smothering defense comes to mind when you hear that statistic, but those who have watched the games know that's not really the case. Mistakes have been made, goals have been given up, and really, besides Niklas Hjarmalsson, you can't say any one defenseman is off to a great start.

In this case, a good offense has meant a good defense. It's exactly what the Red Wings would do to teams. Holding onto the puck, shooting and recovering it, and then cycling it down low simply eat up the time the other team could have in the Hawks zone. There used to be a statistic the league kept called "zone time." They kept track of how long, in terms of minutes and seconds per game, that each team had the puck in the other team's defensive zone. It was like a "time of possession" number they keep in football. One can only guess how big that number would be for the Hawks this season.

With these kind of shots for and against numbers, the Hawks make it easy on their goaltenders. Now, can their goaltender make it easy on them?

The goalie said he could play better but that it's early and there's plenty of time to get it together.

No, that wasn't Cristobal Huet, that was Nikolai Khabibulin talking about playing for the Oilers and who returned to face his old team for the first time.

While some fans might be wishing the Hawks would have kept him, Khabibulin says it never was really in the cards.

"There was some talk [about returning] but that was about it," said Khabibulin before taking on the Hawks. "As soon as free agency started, Edmonton called and they were very serious about it and we weighed all the positives and decided to go with them."

There is almost no way the Hawks could or would match the four years that the Oilers offered. Rumor has it that Huet was shopped at the trade deadline last year, just as Nikolai was earlier in the season, but there were no takers. If Huet had been moved, it would have opened the door for a return for Khabibulin.

Even though he had a decent season last year, even Khabibulin knows his four years in Chicago were a mixed bag.

"It was almost like two different times here," said Khabibulin. "The one was kind of pretty rough and we didn't play well and didn't have any fans. After John McDonough took over it was kind of like a second stage or whatever. The fans came back and it was a lot of fun to play here."

Like Huet now, Khabibulin had a rough beginning to his Hawks career. His first three seasons involved injuries and spotty play and he took his share of criticism.

"It's the nature of the business. Goalies are always the ones that are given the loss with the team with stats. Goalies are the last guy to erase the mistakes that happen so everybody looks at the goalie at the end of the game. You have to forget about those goals you give up and get ready for the next one and try to play better."

On a lighter note, Khabibulin said he'd like to come up big against either Dustin Byfuglien or Patrick Kane because he knows it will bother them the most.

It would bother Hawks fans as well.

So I guess a nine-player shootout in the home opener wasn't enough drama for the Chicago Blackhawks. They had to do one better, and boy did they.

[+] Enlarge

Bill Smith/NHLI/Getty Images

Dustin Byfuglien is one reason why no lead is safe against the Blackhawks.

The historic comeback on Monday has me thinking one thing: What the heck do you take away from that game? The good or the bad?

The answer, for the most part, is the good. Ironically, in getting down five goals, it brought out the beast that is the Hawks' offense. Led by Patrick Kane, wave after wave of Hawks came at the Flames, and as Duncan Keith put it after the game, "that wears a defense down."

It's the reason the Hawks never felt they were out of it and never will.

Patrick Sharp reiterated that point on the "Waddle & Silvy" show on ESPN 1000.

"You always think you have a chance, especially when you get down that much that early," said Sharp. "Its almost impossible not to take the foot off the gas. ... We knew the Flames might do that, and we have so many scorers, we knew to stick with it."

And that really was the key. Most teams don't have three to four lines that can score like the Hawks do, so when down that many, there's only so much time the stars of the team can be on the ice to provide the comeback. The Hawks can do it from line one to line four and with enough time, it means a comeback is not out of the question.

Another key was keeping the Flames off the board after the initial 5:29 burst. We all know one more goal, at any time, probably seals the deal.

"We played well after that," said John Madden. "We started to compete. That was the thing. We weren't competing. It's not just the goals we scored but we kept them off the board. That was part of it."

And keeping them off the board didn't seem possible in that first period. After the game, the normally reticent-to-be-critical Joel Quenneville finally said what some Hawk fans have been saying for a while about Cristobal Huet: "We know our goaltending has to be better, and we expect it to be."

And with that simple statement, some will view Huet as being on notice.

On the radio today, Sharp seemed aware of the criticism, and willing to take some blame.

"Time will tell, but I think we're just fine [in goal] ... You have to look at some of those goals ... We hung them [the goalies] out to dry last night. They can't be faulted too much. They are going to be good as the guys in front of them."

He's right, to a point. Cam Barker's turnover leading to the first goal wasn't Huet's fault. Neither was a breakaway tally from the great Jerome Iginla.

But the statistics, in this case, do not lie. A save percentage of .831 and a goals against average of 3.69 through four games played for Huet, is about as bad as it gets. Luckily, a four-game sample isn't enough to make a full assessment, no matter what some Hawk fans think. It just doesn't work that way. Another four or five like that, though, and we might have to start calling general managers.

For now, the rest of the league is on notice. No lead is safe against this Hawks team. And while it's not the way you draw up a win, it's sure nice when it happens that way. I wonder what kind of drama home game No. 3 will bring?

Stay tuned.

CHICAGO -- "Holy smokes, how are we going to come back from this?"

[+] Enlarge

Bill Smith/NHLI/Getty Images

Duncan Keith congratulates Brent Seabrook, who scored the game-winning goal in overtime Monday.

Those were Brent Seabrook's thoughts before the biggest comeback in team history and about two and a half hours before his overtime winner sent a crazed sellout crowd home happy in a most unlikely scenario.

So how did it happen?

With the Hawks down 5-0 early in the first period, coach Joel Quenneville used every gimmick in the book to spark his team. He changed his goalie, he called timeout, but nothing worked. Then came the goal no one will remember but the players. John Madden scored his first as a Hawk and they went to the locker room a little less dejected.

"Huge. Absolutely a huge goal to make it 5-1," said Patrick Kane. "You go in the intermission 5-0, I don't know if there is any hope to be honest with you, but 5-1, we knew we had a little life and had to keep chipping away. Incredible game. I still can't believe it."

No one in the locker room could, yet it happened. For Madden, who's seen just about everything in a nine-year career, it was a first.

"That's right up there," said Madden. "A comeback like that? C'mon. First thing I said when I got back to the locker room was, 'Boys, that's another first for me.' The old Jersey style, I'm used to sitting on one-goal leads, not coming back from five down."

If you're wondering what went down in the first intermission, Duncan Keith wasn't telling.

"What happens in the dressing room, stays in the dressing room," said Keith, "but it's not hard to figure out what happened after you spot a team five goals. Obviously, no one is going to be too happy."

Others said there were no tables turned over or anything like that. Just a good talking-to by their head coach and a little individual soul-searching.

Keith said there was no one moment when he knew they were back in it, but he always has hope with this team.

"We have such incredible forwards that can do so much with the puck, that's hard to play against. Once we got to 5-2, 5-3, the crowd started getting into it and we knew we had a chance," Keith said.

Kane summed up the feeling of most, not just on the ice, but in the stands as well.

"It was one of the funnest games I've ever been a part of," he said. "I'll never forget this one."

CHICAGO -- If the Hawks have many periods like the first on Monday night, it's going to be a rather long season.

They trailed 5-1 after the opening 20 minutes, giving up three of those goals in a 53-second span and all five over five and a half minutes. The last time they gave up that many in a period was on Jan. 5, 2007, against Nashville.

Cristobal Huet was in net for the first three and, at first, heard boos. Then came the cheers when Joel Quenneville replaced him with Antti Niemi. Niemi promptly gave up two goals of his own, including the softest of the bunch, a 54-foot wrist shot by Olli Jokinen which Niemi simply botched.

Huet's save percentage dropped to .831, which would currently rank him 50th in the league.

Jack Skille must feel like a yo-yo. First he's up, then he's down, now back up again. But for how long? Not even he is sure.

[+] Enlarge

James Lang/US Presswire

Jack Skille flirted with the idea of playing for the league minimum to avoid his back-and-forth status.

Skille looked like a sure thing to make the team out of training camp after Adam Burish went down, but things changed when the math was done. Even Joel Quenneville changed his tune from one day to the next implying that Skille's solid camp had earned him a spot, but then stating "financial concerns" would play a part in training camp cuts.

"It was a matter of salary cap space," said Skille. "My salary sent them over at the time."

When Dave Bolland and Ben Eager were declared out for last Thursday's game against Detroit, Bryan Bickell was recalled from Rockford.

"I knew that was a cap space issue as well. His salary is a bit lower than mine," Skille explained.

Finally, some space opened up when Aaron Johnson was traded, Radek Smolenak was claimed off waivers, and Eager was put on injured reserve. But it still wasn't enough for Skille to stay for good.

Every day he's on the Blackhawks, his salary counts against the cap, but every day he's in Rockford, it doesn't. So Sunday he was sent down and Monday brought back up. He could not practice with the Hawks on Sunday and he wasn't going to join the IceHogs for one day so he had to work out on his own. And that's the way it'll be until something changes.

"I can't say for sure how long that will last," Quenneville said after the morning practice. "That's his situation right now."

Skille even tried looking into re-working his contract.

"Its funny, I talked to my agent and said I would play for the league minimum," said Skille. "I was serious, but I pretty much knew that wasn't going to be allowed."

The league minimum is still more than what he would make in the minors, so he would be better off with a lower contract that would keep him in the NHL. Sound frustrating? It is.

"I was talking to my parents just today and said if I knew back in the day this was going happen, I would have signed for the league minimum then," Skille said. "It's frustrating, but like I said in training camp, you have to block it out. Right now I have an opportunity with Eager out to prove myself for the next couple weeks, at least."

And then who knows, if the calculator says so, it's back to the minors or maybe there's some wiggle room. Skille is sure of one thing:

"That salary cap is going to be haunting me the whole season."

NOTES:

" Quenneville confirmed that Ben Eager is still experiencing concussion-like symptoms, though not from any specific hit in camp. They are unsure of his long-term prognosis.

" The Hawks know they will face a Flames team gunning for them after last year's playoffs. The Flames are 7-15 on the power play so far and John Madden says they are "shooting from everywhere. We need to limit that."

" Quenneville called the Hawks' play against Colorado on Saturday just "ordinary" compared to the previous three games, "We need to get back to getting pucks deep and then retrieving them."

" Quenneville said, so far, the only difference between Mike Keenan and Brent Sutter coaching the Flames is Sutter distributes ice time a little more evenly.

" Antti Niemi will play in one of the two back to back games later this week.

Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville has decided to start Antti Niemi on Wednesday night over Cristobal Huet as the Hawks face their old goaltender, Nikolai Khabibulin, and the Edmonton Oilers.

Vesa Moilanen/AFP/Getty Images

Antti Niemi will start opposite former Blackhawks goalie Nikolia Khabibulin.

Quenneville says it had more to do with Niemi than his embattled No. 1 netminder, but he doesn't discount how last game went down.

"It gives him a home start," said Quenneville after the morning practice. "He hasn't had one, and we have back to back games. When we looked at the planning of who was going to play, we said we would evaluate after last game."

Translation: Niemi earned the start.

Quenneville still says Huet is his No. 1 and will "play the majority of games early on here," but clearly things have to change with Huet's play. His coach couldn't come up with a specific thing, though.

"I think he has to get comfortable in the net," Quenneville said. "He has to find the puck and have good practices... It's early in the year, if you look around the league, a lot of goaltenders have started just OK, and I think sometimes it takes longer to get to the level they like, and I think he's progressing."

As for Huet, he's disappointed he's not playing Wednesday but knows it's not his call. He also knows he has to be better.

"As far as last game, I need to make an early save to help the team and give them confidence," he said. "I think that's where I'm at now. In the first couple games, I think I needed to make one more save, and I was pretty close to my game. But it was definitely a step back last game."

He and Stephan Waite, the Hawks goalie coach, are working to correct the problems.

"Steph and I are working hard, we're trying to stay positive," Huet said. "It's not like I'm far away from my game. I looked definitely bad last game, but it's not a big deal. It's part mental, that's why I need to stay positive and work hard."