Hawks happy to see Quenneville back at work
Things felt normal again for the Blackhawks at practice Wednesday with the return of head coach Joel Quenneville.
“He was back to his usual intense self, making sure guys were accountable out there, whether it was missing passes or missing assignments in the defensive zone,” winger Troy Brouwer said. “We wouldn’t expect anything else.”
Quenneville was back with his team after missing seven days and four games with a bleeding ulcer he says is under control.
“I feel great,” Quenneville said. “It’s all good to go. The only pain I was in the last week was sitting in the hospital watching games.”
The Hawks eased Quenneville’s pain by winning three of the four games he missed with assistant coach Mike Haviland running the bench.
“We were talking with the coaches a lot,” Quenneville said. “I think Havvy did a great job running the bench with (assistant Mike) Kitchen. I couldn’t wait to talk before or after games, but during games I let them go and they did a good job.”
Quenneville became ill the night of Feb. 15 and was hospitalized. At first he thought he just had the flu that was running through the team, but when he began to feel worse his wife got him to the emergency room.
“That night I didn’t feel that bad,” Quenneville said. “I thought I was coming down with the flu like everyone else around here. I was waiting and waiting and all of a sudden is wasn’t just the flu.”
Quenneville stayed in the hospital until last Saturday but said he was feeling fine the day after he was admitted.
“Certainly I felt good enough to come back,” Quenneville said. “I might have missed the first game (Feb. 16 against Minnesota) — I felt fine to come back the last three, but we had to get our blood work up to a different level. Now I couldn’t feel any better.”
The players were happy to have their boss back for Thursday night’s key game against Nashville at Bridgestone Arena.
“I think it’s good energy,” defenseman Brian Campbell said. “He was excited, obviously, and it’s going to help us.
“He told us he just wants us to give it our all and have some fun. That’s the attitude he wants to keep going as we make this push here. It looked like the first day of training camp for him.”
Brouwer said the bench would have a familiar feel again Thursday night.
“Having him back, it’s just brings a little more familiarity to the group as far as line calls, play calls, stuff like that,” Brouwer said. “He jumped right back in at practice and looked excited.
“We had the usual practice with good intensity. Just because he’s back doesn’t mean we’re trying any harder. We’re glad to see he is better and we know he was happy with our effort while he was gone.”
Quenneville said watching the last four games on TV gave him some new perspective.
“Technically you can watch it in different ways,” he said. “Seeing four games like that there are some things you might want to discuss with the coaches and team as well. It’s a whole different way of looking at it, but I still like it better from ice level.”
The doctors have put no restrictions on Quenneville in terms of watching his stress levels or diet.
“You guys are going to have hard time believing this, but (the doctors said) this had nothing to do with stress,” Quenneville said.
It was diagnosed that aspirin was the cause of Quenneville’s ulcer, so that practice of his is likely out.
“That’s part of what induced the bleeding ulcer, years of taking it,” Quenneville said. “I’d take one a day for years.”