The Hawks are the 6 seed and are 5 points ahead of Phoenix at 7 but 5 points behind Nashville for the 5 seed. This actually isnt too bad because the Hawks would be matched up with the Pacific winner in the first round (right now Dallas is the most likely, 4 points up on Phoenix, 5 points up on San Jose, 6 up on LA). Dallas currently has just 83 points, 4 less than the Hawks, so they are clearly a beatable team. The 4 seed and home ice would be really tough (7 points behind Detroit with 11 to play and Det has 2 games in hand), so its looking like the best thing for the Hawks is to stay in that 6 seed. If we went to 5, we'd be playing Detroit or Nashville. If we dropped to 7, we'd be playing Vancouver. We'll have a tough time beating those teams but would probably be favored against Dallas even without home ice.