Feb. 12--Joel Quenneville's postgame press conference Thursday lasted a few minutes longer than his previous one on Tuesday, when Quenneville walked out in frustration with the officiating after just one question.
But that doesn't mean he was any happier after the Hawks' 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. Quenneville said the first period, in which the Hawks gave up four goals was a "terrible, brutal, brutal period." By the end of it, the Hawks were down 4-0 and Stars winger Patrick Eaves had a hat trick.
Kane and Toews back together
With Artemi Panarin out and with the Hawks struggling to generate any kind of chances, Quenneville put Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane together on a line for the third period.
"When nothing seems to be working and we're just fighting the puck and nothing seems to land on our sticks ... I think that's kind of the moment you expect 'Q' is going to try something different to try to wake us up a little bit," Toews said.
It did. The result may make Quenneville think about putting them together in the future against the Stars. The line was on the ice for the Hawks' two goals in the third (Kane scored his 33rd) and generated several more chances. It breathed life into the Hawks sagging offenses. The Hawks had 21 shots on goal in the third compared to the Stars' two.
Off night for the penalty kill
It has been a rough night for the Hawks' penalty kill. The two units have given up a combined three goals in the last two games. Eaves scored a pair of power-play in the first period. One came off a one-timer in which he found a hole in the Hawks' coverage in front of the net and the other off a baseball-like swing of a rebound that was in the air above the ice.
But despite the recent struggles, Quenneville didn't sound as if he was about to radically alter personnel, though he was upset.
"Basically, the way we played in the first period continued on the PK," Quenneville said. "Whether the purpose wasn't there today or our sticks, they were never in the lane."
Corsi look
For the first time this season, the Hawks defeated the Stars in overall Corsi (62-51) and 5-on-5 Corsi (48-43). But in the score adjusted numbers, which accounts for score differential, the Stars won 54.8 to 52.5 across all situations and 46.2 to 40.2 at 5-on-5, per war-on-ice.com. The third period altered the raw numbers, when the Stars were in defensive mode for the entire 20 minutes and just had two shot attempts overall the entire period to the Hawks' 27.
When the game was close, which was mostly in the first period, the Stars controlled possession and had 27 shot attempts to 16 for the Hawks in the first.
