Unless they make a major leap up in the standings they absolutely should keep building for the future by the time the trading deadline arrives. Two wins are much less meaningful than 40% of a disappointing season. They are only 2 points ahead of 2 teams with 4 games in hand each. The playoffs remain very much in doubt. Yes but based on the fact that we won the Stanley Cup last year with a majority of the "key" players returning, it's more likely we play much better the rest of the year than how we have. Last year from January 9th to March 30th, the Hawks posted a 15-12-4 record, and a goal differential of -7. And yet somehow they put it together and started their playoff run to the Stanley Cup 2 weeks after that stretch ended. This year the Hawks are 18-14-3 and have a goal differential of +8, which is 5th best in the conference (albeit in 3-4 more games). No doubt we've played [expletive], but its a long season. Do I think the Hawks are going to go 37-10-4 the rest of the year, which is what the Hawks did around that mediocre stretch last year? Probably not, but I think they will play better at some point this year and will position themselves to be somewhere in the 4-7 range when the season is over. As we know the playoffs are a semi-crapshoot, so just getting in and being considered dangerous is fine by me. As it stands, the only team that I'd be less than certain we could beat is Detroit. As I've made clear, if they straighten things out and play great between now and the deadline, keep it status quo. But there is no reason why trading some of the key pieces can't be on the table if they continue on this uninspiring path. You can't keep expanding the untradable core. With Toews, Kane, Hossa, Campbell, Keith, Hjarmalsson and Bolland locked up longterm and unlikely to be going anywhere, names like Seabrook and Sharp can and should be up for debate. To address the two bolded parts... 1. Yeah, 2 games is a pretty small sample size to pick out of the 35 games played so far. How about the last 11 games? Or, over 30% of the games on the season, and I'd say even more significant than that because they are the most recent games played. 7-3-1 in that stretch, with one of those games being lost largely because of a BS penalty call (the double minor in the second Colorado game). With at least half of those being played without 2 of our top 3 forwards, as well as Bolland and Stalberg each missing a couple. So look at the first 24 games of this year, or look at all the games from last year and the last 11 of this year. I repeat, we are not playing badly. 2. This whole trading thing you really haven't made clear. Do we trade people now, or do we wait till the deadline? We trade away Sharp, we're left with Toews, an injury prone Hossa, an always one hit away from being injured Kane, and a bunch of pretty much unproved forwards, outside of maybe Bolland and Brouwer. Try and put lines together without Sharp and accounting for an injured Hossa without crying. Trading Seabrook away gets rid of our only physical defenseman. Yeah we'd get players back, that could probably help a lot down the line, but if we're trying to shed salary, we're not going to get a lot of immediate help. We're up to 9th in points per game in our conference, and 5th in goal differential. Dallas is going to fall off eventually, and no matter how we've played this year I'd like to think we're better than Nashville. Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of playing in the easier conference, or even an easy division, but we're going to find a way into the top 8, even if Toews has to drag us there. When we get there, I want Sharp and Seabs there. i agree. sharp is the type of player that teams like us will be trying to acquire near the deadline.