Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010
7:00 PM
By Tracey Myers
CSNChicago.com
Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville had a brief--but pointed--laundry list of things that went wrong for his team defensively on Monday night.
It might have been giveaways, it might have been coverage, it might have been mental mistakes, he said.
It might have been all of that. No, as defensive games go, this was one of the Blackhawks worst. They couldnt get the puck out of their own zone early. They gave the Colorado Avalanche one delectable scoring opportunity after another, chances so prime and open that defenseman Brian Campbell said afterward that every one of us owes (Marty Turco) an apology. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook were each minus-4 for the game.
Now heres whats really troubling: this is the Blackhawks healthy group. The forward side has been decimated by injuriesDave Bolland was out with an upper-body injury on Monday, joining Marian Hossa, Fernando Pisani and Patrick Kane on the sidelines. Between Rockford call-ups and defensemen playing the part of forwards, Quenneville has been able to cobble lines together.
The defensemen havent had to go through that much shuffling. They have been in their usual pairs for some time now. Theyve all been in the active lineup for some time now. If you want to really go back in time, this is the bunch that was least altered with all the offseason moves.
NHL
On Monday, the forwards were not the problem. The Blackhawks scored five goals; when you score five goals, you should win. And despite all the problems on Monday night, the Blackhawks were on the cusp of doing just that. Until that final two minutes, 24 seconds.
Even in recent victories, the Blackhawks have been flirting with disaster. They had big leads against St. Louis and Dallas at home, 5-1 and 4-1, respectively. But both advantages went from sizeable to slim, forcing the Blackhawks to score late to pad their leads again.
The Blackhawks have a big opportunity to rack up some points now, with all but one of their remaining December games here at the United Center. They are about to get some of their forwards back. They also need to get their defensive tenacity back.
Tracey Myers is CSNChicago.com's Blackhawks Insider. Follow Tracey on Twitter @TramyersCSN for up-to-the-minute Hawks information.