Daley trying to pick up Blackhawks system ‘as quick as possible'

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Trevor Daley figured it was going to take some time to adapt to the Blackhawks’ system. He’s looking for that to happen sooner rather than later.

Daley was one of a few defensemen that coach Joel Quenneville deemed “just OK” in the Blackhawks’ 3-2 season-opening loss to the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.

“I think it’s coming. I’m trying to get it as quick as possible. Obviously the quicker the better,” Daley said following Thursday’s practice. “There’s a lot of stuff in here that’s different than what I’m used to. It’s going to come. Half of the battle is wanting to do it; so as long as you want to do something, you’ll get it done.”

The Blackhawks always put defense first, and lapses by a few players led to three first-period Rangers goals. Quenneville said all three were preventable.

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“I think they’re all kind of goals that traditionally we don’t give up – easy goals,” he said. “We want to make sure that they earn them. I thought doing the right things earlier that led to them could have been prevented.”

Daley said while he has to make changes, they aren’t major ones.

“It’s not big things, maybe little things every day in your game that mean so much,” he said. “It’s just grasping some of that stuff and making it a habit.”

Cubs fans

Quenneville once again gave a “Go Cubs” following Thursday’s practice. The Cubs will face the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series beginning on Friday night. Quenneville said these Cubs remind him of the Blackhawks’ resurgence around 2009-10.

“They’re a young team, a lot of enthusiasm and kind of reminds me of our team there when we started down in the first year before we went to the finals, or conference finals and then maybe they can do it all,” he said.

[NBC SHOP: Gear up, Blackhawks fans!]

He's learning

Artemi Panarin has relied mainly on friend and teammate Viktor Tikhonov to translate for him during media interviews. But the Blackhawks forward is making great strides in his English, Quenneville said on Thursday.

“I asked him if he’s married. He goes, ‘No. Single,’ and smiled, so that was progress,” Quenneville said with a laugh. “I think he’s starting to understand things.”

Hossa's fine

Marian Hossa did not practice on Thursday. The forward was just taking a maintenance day and is expected to play this weekend against the Islanders.

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