Time has come for Blackhawks braintrust to get a brainstorm about Huet

I hope the front office is working on concocting a story with more sustainable logic than that subtracting Khabibulin will add up to a plus for Huet. Composing solid, believable fairytales isn't really a Hawks' strength.

The Daily Herald's Tim Sassone has raised the prospect that the Hawks might have to face a sudden moment of truth and demote Huet to Rockford while wrestling with the possibility of relying on an unknown and unproven tag team of Andy Niemi and Crawford.

The Fifth Feather has battled back against Sassone and pointed out that he also warned the club might have to trade Martin Havlat just a year ago at this time and they'd never bring him back as a free agent under any circumstances.

You live in the moment, you can die forever. The media what-might-be's are proof of that; your wins forgotten and your losses a personal scourge forevermore.

Digging up what people have said in the past is a dirty trick. That's why I will try with all my might to keep that nosy Fifth Feather off my ass and picking through my laundry of Joseph Abboud suits, Bugatchi shirts, Tommy Bahama pants and Diesel skivvies. Don't dirty any of my illusions.

With no due respect to all of us on the outside, we really have no idea if Huet is up to that task of hitting the curve. Just try not lying to us about what you insiders think in the Hawks' think tank.

Quenneville, Bowman and the rest of the braintrust get paid good money to make a judgment call after years of watching the good, bad and the ugly at all levels of hockey.

If they have no idea what to do, that means the Blackhawks are in deep, deep trouble. So if they hesitate and make a poorly reasoned decision, their failures will eat away at the team structure in myriad ways that Huet hasn't even approached yet.

To have a team, you have to have respect for the decision-makers. Now is the time to show that they are worthy of such respect and actually make a decision that resounds.

I know the automatic response in newspapering is to tell us how much Huet's teammates still believe in him. That may be one reason why newspapers are at death's door--just an overload of bullshit that never stops and gets recycled depending on the situation.

What the hell do you think they are going to say publically? Unless somebody has a pertinent point why they support him, beyond seeing their season going down in flames, trotting out tired cliches we have read for years about poor saps falling shy of their expectations without ever losing their teammates' encouragements really has no purpose.

Goodness knows, Chicago sports is rife with poor saps and missed expectations. It's become just a routine with us.

And it won't take The Fifth Feather research team long to uncover that I spouted many of those same tired cliches far too often when I was a Chicago sportswriter. I confess. I confess.

I see no sense in the argument that the Hawks can't play Huet at the United Center for the near future in fear the crowd will blow him out of the net with their blasts of negativity and vocal napalming.

Personally, I'd challenge him right now harder than ever. Tell him I was going to keep sending him back out there until he quits hanging his head and starts playing like he should.

If Huet is personally affected by the booing, that's bad. Quite a few athletes I knew over the years never trusted the fans, anyway. Cheer you one day, boo you the next. There is no great love between pro athletes and fans. That's a myth.

Unless they're dumb enough to be Carlos Zambrano, they just don't publically mention the fact they think fans are idiots, fools and scum. Don't think many don't believe that.

All's lost if Huet is so mentally weak that some booing sways him. It's too early to throw him aside. It's not too early to hammer on him.

I hope Quenneville is doing that in the best way possible behind the scenes, and if the UC crowd wants to drum home their displeasure, Huet should be motivated by that, not repulsed and driven into a shell. To hell with the fans. Who cares what they say.

I would play Huet Wednesday night when Vancouver comes to Chicago. He should be forced to rise to the occasion of beating opposing goalie Roberto Luongo, a NHL star.

Entering Monday night's game in Edmonton, the Canucks had lost their three previous road games this year, been outscored 6-0 combined in the first periods of those games and been beaten down 13-6 in the total scores of those games.

No matter what happens against the Oilers, the Hawks can repeat that early pattern and get off to another strong start against Vancouver. Huet should get the start and he has to be just good enough to quit being the story.

So whether that means Quenneville has to stretch him out on trainer Mike Gapski's secret dungeon rack the next couple days or whether he has to speak sweet nothings into his ears just to get him to respond, the burden is squarely on the coach's shoulders to know what he should do.

As for Bowman, while a trade seems unlikely, he better be working the phones and not just assuming nothing can get done. He better be privately pulling out all stops to find if he has a legitimate alternative and be willing to ponder all suggestions.

I have no idea if Niemi can be a winning starting goalie this season. And, truthfully, neither do you. We haven't seen enough to make that call. But Quenneville and the rest of the team should have a good, informed take on that. Better make the right call.

It's time for the coaches and front office to find a solution that works. The best decision could be staying with Huet, as long as the knucklehead agrees to get his head out of his ass and into the games.

I haven't been a Huet supporter. But living with his idiosyncracies and getting him straight sounds better to me than a quickie divorce.

The Hawks play their next three at home before going to Nashville. Huet should play at least twice and halt the doubters. If he gets on a roll, let him play all three.

Either that or Bowman has to show he has the right stuff. The time has come for Quenneville and the front office to work their magic.

Entertain me. Amuse me. I live such a shallow life. I'm perfectly willing to watch others show me what it's like to swim in deep waters and come out without a face full of moss.