Oct. 30--Eventually, somebody will score a 5-on-5 goal for the Blackhawks. And even more, that somebody will be somebody other than Patrick Kane, Artem Anisimov and Artemi Panarin, who have accounted for all 5-on-5 goals for the Hawks since their opener against the Rangers.
Even though the Hawks have won four of their last five, it hasn't been an especially good time for their offense. Stellar defense and goaltending helped to conceal the lack of quality chances the last two games, but not Thursday in their 3-1 loss to the Jets. The Hawks did generate 46 shots, but they were less than satisfied with the quality of those chances.
"I wish we had more disruption at the net. I thought he made a lot of saves without traffic and I think that a lot of goalies will shine on a night like that."
Here are other notes from the Hawks loss:
1. Lineup changes
Quenneville made a few changes to his lineup on Thursday inserting Tanner Kero as the third-line center to make his NHL debut, as expected. However, he pulled a surprise in benching Teuvo Teravainen for Bryan Bickell.
"I don't want to send any messages (to Teravainen)," Quenneville said. "It's opportunity. Everybody wants to play. Everybody wants to play more and everybody is fighting to get in the lineup. That's where it is. ... There's no message sending."
But the Hawks hope Teravainen uses the opportunity as motivation to step up his play. Tervainen has been at every forward position so far this season, but his production has lagged after a decent start.
As for Bickell, Quenneville said: "He was OK," which wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of Bickell's play in 8 minutes, 15 seconds of ice time, while Quenneville said of Kero, "I liked him."
2. Garbutt continues his strong play
Ryan Garbutt hasn't scored a goal as a Blackhawks, but Garbutt has one of the most effective skaters of later. Garbutt had another strong outing Thursday, recording five shots and leading all Hawks forward in Corsi plus-minus at plus-10. During one sequence, Garbutt had fallen on the ice in the Hawks zone, but got up, got the puck, carried it out of the zone and created a 2-on-1 the other direction.
3. Central could be a quagmire
Thursday's loss was the Hawks' first game against a Central division opponent, a division that is shaping up to be trouble. So far, six of the seven (the Avalanche being the exception) teams in the division have legitimate hopes of making the playoffs. Only as many as five can make the playoffs, meaning at least one team will be left on the outside.
It should add a little flavor to divisional games throughout the season, as it did Thursday, according to captain Jonathan Toews.
"I don't think any team is going to give up anything easy," Toews said. "It's something we can expect down the road from this team and from the other teams that we'll be battling for points down the stretch, throughout the season. We're just getting started."
chine@tribpub.com
