What day off? Hawks talk out a few issues
It turns out Friday wasn't a day off for the Blackhawks after all.
The morning after Thursday's humiliating 8-3 loss at Columbus, Hawks coach Joel Quenneville called a meeting at the United Center to get some things out in the open.
"'Q' addressed some things and a few guys said something," Adam Burish said Saturday. "We pulled the elephant out of the bag. Let's not hide it. We talked about a lot of things: The way we played, the way we defend. We just addressed a lot of things. It wasn't one guy.
"We said we've got (nine) games left to play the way we want to play."
The Hawks have lost six of their last nine games, blowing leads in four of those losses.
Perhaps what happened Thursday at Nationwide Arena can be the wake-up call the Hawks need to find their game again before the playoffs start in a little more than two weeks.
It was a loss so complete Quenneville felt the need to bring the players together to talk about what happened and where the team goes from here.
"We can't be too happy with what took place the night before so that probably needed to be addressed," Quenneville said.
"The other games, I certainly felt we could have won and should have won four of five games we lost there, but we don't have to be fooled about what happened last game. It was no contest and I certainly think that it got my attention and it should have got everyone's attention as well."
Quenneville surprised no one by naming Antti Niemi his starting goalie for Sunday's rematch with the Blue Jackets at the UC.
But that's as far as Quenneville would commit with regard to the goaltending situation. There's still a chance Cristobal Huet will get another start or two down the stretch to try to mend his shattered confidence.
"We'll play it by ear," Quenneville said. "But certainly (Niemi) deserves to get the net and we'll see how he handles it."
While Huet admitted he was struggling with his confidence after allowing 7 goals at Columbus, Quenneville said there has been no talk about possibly letting the veteran work on his game at Rockford.
"I don't even think you can do that, but that's not under consideration at all," Quenneville said.
The Hawks have back-to-back games ahead on Tuesday and Wednesday in St. Louis and Minnesota, which could provide an opportunity to play Huet again.
"We know the importance of the goaltending position," Quenneville said. "Antti's coming off several sharp games in a row so I think we want to make sure they're both comfortable and confident and that's what we're working on."
Quenneville still isn't ready to publicly name Niemi his playoff starter.
"We'll get some ideas what we want to do," Quenneville said. "We'll just let it work itself out."
Quenneville still wants to win the Western Conference, which should mean Niemi getting at least eight of the final nine starts.
"You still want to achieve the goal of trying to finish first," Quenneville said. "That's a real achievable goal. Peaking going into the playoffs is part of it as well and you can't say that's the case right now.
"We want to make sure we have more things going in our direction and that's the focus now, to get our game hiked up a bit."
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Blackhawks game day</b></p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">Columbus Blue Jackets at the United Center, 6 p.m. Sunday</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>TV:</b> Channel 9</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Radio:</b> WGN 720-AM</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>What to watch:</b> Antti Niemi starts in goal as the Hawks try to bounce back from Thursday's embarrassing 8-3 loss at Columbus. The Hawks are 4-for-34 on the power play in the last nine games, of which they've lost six.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Season series:</b> Hawks lead 4-1.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Next:</b> St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center, Tuesday 7 p.m.</p>
<p class="factboxtext12col">-<i>Tim Sassone</i></p>