Dec. 02--The circus is gone from the United Center, but it seems as if the Blackhawks are still trying to jump through hoops to get some production out of any line outside their second line of Artemi Panarin, Artem Anisimov and Patrick Kane.
Kane scored the lone goal in the Hawks' 2-1 loss to the Wild on Tuesday in a prime chance for the Hawks to stomp on a struggling division opponent. Here are some notes from the loss.
Third line leads in Corsi
All that being said about the Hawks' lack of productivity, if you look at the advanced statistics from war-on-ice.com, you'd notice that the Hawks' third line of Marian Hossa, Marko Dano and Marcus Kruger led the Hawks in Corsi plus-minus. But as has been the story for most of the season, the Hawks, outside of the second line, have had trouble finishing. Dano seemed especially active Tuesday, but couldn't quite find the back of the net.
"We're looking for more progression, more consistency offensively with the puck, influencing without it," Quenneville said of Dano before the game. "Basically be around it more and with more offensive zone time."
Dano and his linemates seemed to be on the right track Tuesday.
Suter eats up minutes
Normally you look at the stat sheet following a Hawks game and usually Duncan Keith is the minutes leader. However, the Hawks faced the league leader in time on ice Tuesday in Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. Suter logged 29:36 while Keith logged only 26:26. Suter looked no worse for the wear, however, racing to the net in the third period to score the deciding goal by stuffing in a rebound of a Mikael Granlund breakaway attempt.
Mashinter'd ice time cut
Could Brandon Mashinter be on the bench, or on his way back to Rockford, before the Hawks face the Senators on Thursday? Judging by his ice time, one of those seems likely. Mashinter played just 5:26 and had just two shifts in the third period.
