"As the losses piled up and the Blackhawks' top players struggled, the question of whether the Olympics negatively impacted the team became a serious one to explore.

Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky all had their ups and downs as the Hawks stumbled through a 6-7-2 March.

Were they simply worn out? Were they emotionally drained from the high-stakes competition? Most important, would they recover for the playoffs?

''It's been a pretty long season,'' Kane said. ''Especially after the Olympics, you got 20 games left and it doesn't seem like a lot. But it's been going pretty slow for me personally. You just want to get to the playoffs and play in those games.''"