Hawks seek fresh start

CHICAGO – The Blackhawks have pushed the reset button on a nine-game road trip.

A three-day break between games allowed the Hawks to return home and spend the weekend sleeping in their own beds. The Hawks practiced Monday at Johnny’s Ice House on the West Side before heading to Denver for today’s game against the Colorado Avalanche.

After today’s game, the Hawks will visit the San Jose Sharks on Friday and the Phoenix Coyotes on Saturday before returning home for another break between road games.

Hawks forward Viktor Stalberg said he and his teammates were eager to improve upon the first leg of the marathon road trip, which included a 0-2-1 record against the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames.

“I think you’ve got to take it as a fresh start,” Stalberg said. “We have had our goal to play above .500 in each of the legs of the road trip, so I think we’ve got to get back to that.

“There’s no point going into the road trip and feeling like we have to win three games out of three. We’ve got to start somewhere and start picking up some points.”

Staying positive: Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said this weekend’s Super Bowl allowed the team to focus on something other than a five-game losing streak.

“Most of the guys got together [Sunday] to watch the Super Bowl and enjoy that,” Toews said. “It just reminds us that we’re a team, we’re a bunch of buddies, that as bad as things can get, we can still have fun and we’ll find a way to get through it.

“We’re not going to worry too much about it. We’ll keep playing, and things will be all right.”

Play smarter: The Hawks committed 12 minor penalties in the past two games against Edmonton and Calgary, both of which resulted in losses.

Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said too many penalties stressed the team’s penalty-killing units. Quenneville led the Hawks through power-play and penalty-killing drills Monday.

“Our ‘PK’ was decent in Edmonton,” Quenneville said. “[But our penalties] might have been the turning point in the game against Calgary.”