Oct. 29--The Blackhawks have won their three games without defenseman Duncan Keith, but in those three games the Hawks have scored just one even strength goal. For some teams, this might ring some alarm bells and cause some concern in the dressing room.
But not for the Hawks, whose defense and goaltending has allowed the team to win each game, the last two coming in overtime.
"We certainly don't want to change too much of the way we're playing," coach Joel Quenneville said. "I think we still have to get more pucks to the net, more traffic at the net, have to hang around there to get greasy goals. Some guys that haven't been scoring obviously could use one to help them with the confidence in the puck areas around the net. ... But I don't mind the way we're playing."
Quenneville hasn't made any adjustments to his lines over that span except for inserting Tanner Kero, who will make his NHL debut tonight, as the third-line center for Vincent Hinostroza, who was re-assigned to Rockford.
"You see some offensive teams that come out of the gate scoring four, five goals a night seemingly at will and some teams just can't quite buy one," captain Jonathan Toews said. "So sometimes you go through those rough patches where goals aren't going in for you. If you can still win games through those moments that's a great thing."
It has been for the Hawks lately.
