However it's defined, the hard truth is elemental to his coaching philosophy. It's like a pitcher of ice water in the face of a guy who has settled into his easy chair after a hard day's work and is ready to a drift away on a pleasant journey into dreamland, a situation that might have described his team posting a 3-2 win over the Detroit on Friday and following it with a 5-1 win in Carolina on Saturday.

The team is looking and feeling pretty good, eh? Better get a towel.

"We're looking for greater attention to detail," Hitchcock said after the Carolina game. "We're playing well and we're playing hard, but there are some areas of our game we need to shore up."

Maybe we missed the champagne toasts and long string of 'atta boys, but probably not. The old Hitch, the one who used to spend a fair amount of time talking up the team after victories early in the season, seems to have changed his message as the late season air has gotten thinner.

"Big time," defenseman Marc Methot said. "He's trying to prepare us for the playoffs. He's been making that pretty clear. Obviously, he sees a lot of us getting too comfortable after wins, because every game at this point is pretty much playoff mode for us."

The game against Dallas last night was a case in point. Both teams started the day with 61 points, two of six Western Conference teams in fifth to 11th place from 62 points to 59. The Jackets' schedule is relentless -- six games in nine days -- so if Saturday's good news makes it out of the weekend, it could become Monday's disaster.

It didn't. The Jackets' 3-2 shootout loss to the Stars last night wasn't the result they wanted, but they still played well enough to get a point.

The hard truth?

"We need to address our group up front," Hitchcock said. "We want to be a playoff-ready team. We want to do damage in the playoffs. We really need to get more from them."

See how this goes? After going 4-0-1 in the past five games, Hitchcock wants the players to walk away ticked they squandered a chance to make it 5-0. And even if they hadn't, the win wouldn't have been the point.

"Sometimes it's that defining moment where you've won, now let's deal with the hard truth," Hitchcock said. "It's 'Hey, we played well and we won and here's what we did,' or 'We didn't play well, but our goalie was good and here's what we did.' It's the attitude of 'We won, but we want to get better,' rather than 'We won, but aren't we good?' What I want to do is help the players win and have them back the next day saying, 'OK, what do we need to get better at? That's what great teams do."

Hitchcock says he has always tried to deliver the hard truth, but the team is more receptive to it now.

With a game against St. Louis, last in the Central Division but 2-0 against Columbus, bearing down on them in two days, this would be a good time for the accept the hard truth. That means paying more attention to the details of the Jackets' game than who they are playing.

"There's very few teams in the league that are internally motivated, where the motivation inside the locker room is greater than whatever the opponent brings to the table," Hitchcock said. "That's where the chemistry and the accountability create the feeling in there that you don't want to let each other down. We've kept throwing it back to the players since day one and I really believe they're starting to grab that now."

The game against the Blues should be a good test case.

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.

bhunter@dispatch.com