The Pittsburgh Penguins are giving away free concessions at its first four games. The Dallas Stars are allowing kids under the age of 12 in for free through February. The Buffalo Sabres are cutting team store prices in half. The Florida Panthers are offering some seats for $7.

So what are the Blackhawks doing to win back fans after the four-month lockout wiped out nearly half the season? Well, we'll see.

"We try to do that 365 days a year," team president John McDonough said of winning over fans. "There are some fan initiatives that will be introduced later in the week. There are some things we're tying up."

McDonough said the Hawks "certainly weren't overwhelmed by" fan anger during the lockout, but he reiterated the points he and chairman Rocky Wirtz said in an open letter to fans -- thanking fans for their "patience" and "looking forward" to the 48-game season that begins Saturday in Los Angeles.

"To our fans, we don't take any of this or granted," he said. "It was a difficult period to all of us. But we certainly respect and understand it was particularly difficult for you."

McDonough didn't offer an apology for the lockout, but said the Hawks were committed to winning back fans. And the easiest way to do that is to win games.

"The message to our fans is very simple," he said. "We are going to have to earn our way back. We do not take any of this for granted. Our expectations here as always are very high. And we are totally committed to winning."

Blackhawks players are no longer locked out by the NHL. But they're pretty much locked out of the United Center for a while.

The NHL and NHLPA once again went deep into the night to hammer out the details of the Memorandum of Understanding that made the new collective bargaining agreement -- ratified by the NHL Board of Governors on Wednesday and by the players Saturday morning -- official and ended the lockout a little after 9 p.m. That allowed teams to release their 48-game schedules, open training camp (the Hawks, as expected, begin Sunday and cancelled their camp festival) and make transactions as of 11 p.m. central time.

And thanks to the Bulls, Disney on Ice, and Lady Gaga, the Hawks will play 10 of their first 12 games on the road, starting on Jan. 19 in Los Angeles with a matinee against the defending Stanley Cup champion Kings.

After playing the next night in Phoenix, the Hawks have their home opener on Jan. 22 against St. Louis before embarking on a stretch that includes eight road games out of nine -- the only home date on Jan. 27 against Detroit.

The risk, of course, there won't be much time to climb out of an early hole should the Hawks struggle early on. The Hawks were 27-8-6 at the United Center last season, and just 18-18-5 on the road. But the Hawks knew the United Center was pretty well booked this time of year, and were bracing for a schedule like this.

"I think it's an advantage," Bryan Bickell said on Friday. "Do some team bonding on the road. All the guys enjoy to be together, goof around and that kind of stuff. Just to get some chemistry and to get to know everybody. I haven't seen these guys in four months."

After the brutal road stretch, the Hawks will have seven straight home games, meaning they won't have to leave Chicago from Feb. 11 to Feb. 27. They close with three out of four on the road; the season finale is slated for April 27 at St. Louis.

"It could work both ways, I guess," goaltender Corey Crawford said. "Whatever you're thinking. If you're thinking negatively, it'll probably work negatively. If you're thinking positively, well, we'll have a lot of home games down the stretch."

Because of the compressed nature of the schedule, the Hawks have 10 instances of back-to-back games, and nine stretches of three games in four days. At only three points in the season will they have more than two days off in a row, including a four-day stretch between a March 20 game at Anaheim and a March 25 home game against the Kings.

"Every game's going to be important," Bickell said. "It's going to be good to have the home games late, because it might come down to that.

The last time the league faced a schedule like this was in 1995, following that season's lockout. Hawks winger Patrick Kane was just 6 years old then, but he's heard stories about that 48-game season -- which began on Jan. 20 and ended May 3, with the Stanley Cup being won by New Jersey on June 24 -- and how wild it was.

"I hear the 94-95 season was very intense," Kane said. "I think you can expect the same thing out here. To start, maybe it'll be a little more wide open because guys aren't familiar with systems and different things, and have been away from the game for so long. As time goes on, it's definitely going to get very intense because of the short season. It's going to be interesting.

Midseason form? No, Corey Crawford is not in midseason form yet. As the Blackhawks goaltender astutely pointed out after an informal skate at Johnny's IceHouse West on Friday, "We haven't played a game yet."

But with an abbreviated 48-game season starting a week from Saturday in Los Angeles, those players who didn't spend the past few months playing in Europe -- that includes Crawford -- will have precious little time to get up to speed.

"The beginning of the season's going to come quick, so you've got to be ready for it," Crawford said. "For guys that have been around here and haven't gone to Europe, we're trying to use practice to get into game shape. Game speed's a little different than practice. We're just trying to mimic it and to get ready."

Crawford's been champing at the bit to get back on the ice since the Hawks lost a six-game first-round playoff series to Phoenix, including three overtime losses, two of which (Games 3 and 4) ended on soft goals allowed by Crawford.

Crawford, entering his third full season with the Hawks, took a slight step back last season. His goals-against average climbed from 2.30 in his full rookie season to 2.72, and his save percentage dropped from .917 to .903. He also failed to record a shutout last season. The Hawks' defense shoulders some of that blame, but Crawford knows the pressure's on him this season, saying "this year is huge for me."

So focus and motivation won't be a problem for Crawford in the every-game-counts shortened season. Not that it ever should be.

"A game's a game," he said. "You approach it the same way. It doesn't matter if it's a 10-game schedule or an 80-game schedule, Just because you play more games doesn't mean you're going to blow off games. It doesn't work that way."

The lockout isn't even officially over yet, and already the Blackhawks are answering questions about the power play. Chicago scored on just 15.2 percent of its chances with the man-advantage, 26th in the league. In 2010-11, the Hawks were fourth in the league at 23.1 percent

Winger Patrick Kane, who returned from Switzerland on Sunday and rejoined his teammates for Thursday morning's informal skate, said the power play will be a big focus during an abbreviated training camp, expected to start this Sunday, less than a week before the Jan. 19 opener in Los Angeles.

Kane said he can do more to boost the power play percentage.

"Even just looking at a couple years ago on the Stanley Cup [run], my point production was pretty much the same 5-on-5 as it was last year, but the power play was about 20 more points," he said. "It's a huge part of our offense, and obviously last year it wasn't very good. It's probably one of the reasons we didn't do as well throughout our season. It's something we'll have to fix a little bit."

Another key, Kane said, will be changing the mentality on special teams, to find that aggression the Hawks had in recent seasons.

"One of the biggest things is, we didn't have a guy who would really stand in front of the net last year, where a couple of years ago you had the [Troy] Brouwers and the [Dustin] Byfugliens, guys like that," Kane said. "But then you also have to take responsibility for yourself. Just watching film from a couple of years ago, you can really see how much we moved, not only the puck but also our feet. All five of our players were always moving. That's one of the biggest things. As long as every player can stay dangerous, you're going to have success on the power play. That's the biggest thing for this year. Just keep moving, and we have enough talent where plays will be made."

Many things indicated that "Champs for Charity" wasn't a real hockey game. There were no power plays, there was a goalie taking a penalty shot and there was a coach fighting an opposing player.

But the atmosphere at the Allstate Arena Friday night felt like a real game. In fact, it was better than the previous two NHL All-Star games.

"I think we were all a little surprised with the turnout," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said afterward. "We never expected it to be that good. The amount of fans that showed up, the energy in the building was great all night."

Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane's contract with EHC Biel of the Swiss National League won't exactly supplement his income.

Essentially, it covers the costs of the insurance he needs for his lucrative contract with the Hawks and provides a little extra.

"It's not a crazy amount of money," Kane said Wednesday after skating at Johnny's IceHouse West. "It's about getting in shape and playing games and getting back out there and playing hockey. I'm excited about it."

Patrick Kane is headed to Europe.

Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews was one of the 18 players to sit in on the NHL Players' Association's collective bargaining meeting with the NHL on Thursday in Toronto.

Two days after the NHL offered a proposal touting a 50/50 split and no rollback, the NHLPA, as expected, countered, but with three different proposals. The NHL, represented by commissioner Gary Bettman, rejected all four of their offers.

It's clear that each side wants to use their proposals as a basis for negotiations. And it's clear that each side is working from completely different philosophies.

In other words, there is no end in sight for the NHL's second lockout in eight years. More game cancellations are expected soon.

Here's what Toews said via text message from Toronto:

The Blackhawks will be playing in Chicago -- or at least close to it. It just won't be at the United Center as the NHL's lockout of players persists.

Current and former Hawks will be getting together for a good cause next week. A charity game, called "Champs for Charity," is scheduled for Oct. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday at 5 p.m. on Ticketmaster.com with funds raised benefiting the Ronald McDonald House near Lurie Children's hospital in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood.

Blackhawks defenseman Steve Montador couldn't find any good words to describe the current situation the league, the players, fans and those who depend on hockey in some way to make a living are in right now.