Obviously the Presidents Trophy is in play for the Hawks as the season winds down, and regardless of how ya feel about that albatross, it's historic when you consider it would only be the second time in team history it's happened.
The other obtainable piece of regular season hardware is the Jennings Trophy. The enigma of this award is that it's for the team allowing the fewest goals in the regular season, but awarded to the goaltender/s that have played at least 25 games. Now this in itself will be problematic in a 48 game season, but lets not worry about that now.
The Hawks have won the Jennings 3 times in team history, all awarded to Ed Belfour in '91, '93, & '95. Now not withstanding Belfour's Hall Of Fame career, the Hawks had some deep lock-down defensive squads in the early '90s which directly attributed to the awards. In '91 they went: Chelios, Wilson, Manson, Yawney, Konroyd, Brown, McGill, & Russell. In '93 they went: Chelios, Smith, Kucera, Marchment, Kravchuk, Brown, Russell, & Muni. In '95 the went: Chelios, Suter, Smith, Weinrich, Carney, Russell, Diduck, & Smyth.
Having the opportunity for the Jennings confirms that this years defensive squad is not only playing at an outstanding level of preformance by NHL standards, but has the depth and experience to rival those great blue line corps in the '90s. I'm not sure how the squad of Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson, Oduya, Leddy, Rosival, & Brookbank will be perceived years from now if they win the award, but this is how it plays out for Hawks in regard to pulling in both pieces of hardware this season.
Jennings TrophyBoston - 81 ga - 10 games to play
Hawks - 83 ga - 9 games to play
Ottawa - 88 ga - 9 games to play
Presidents TrophyHawks - 64 pts - 9 games to play
Pittsburgh - 60 pts - 8 games to play
Anaheim - 59 pts - 8 games to play
I don't know if any team has ever won the Presidents Trophy and Jennings Trophy in the same year, but if the Hawks pull off the feat, adding the Stanley Cup could put them in the annals of one of the most successful NHL seasons of all time.
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