Quenneville likes Kruger’s growing skills

The more Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville sees of Marcus Kruger, the more he likes the Swedish center.

Kruger is minus-1 with no points in his first four games, but Quenneville believes he is getting better and will continue to use the center with Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky as long as Dave Bolland remains sidelined by a concussion.

“You’ve got to commend Marcus coming in here and giving us kind of a comparable player with (Bolland) with some skills,” Quenneville said. “Every day you watch him and he’s growing on us and growing on me. He sees plays and his patience and recognition with the puck is impressive.

“He’s filling a lot of that need that Bolly presents. Hopefully he can add a lot and he has here over a short period of time.”

Kruger is learning on the job, that’s for sure. It’s hard to imagine he has ever played in a game as scintillating as Monday’s win in Detroit.

“Those are really good games and fun to play in,” Kriger said. “You have to be ready every night.

“I’m getting more and more used to how you play over here and I’m feeling more and more comfortable out there. You’re learning all the time what you can do out there and gain more confidence.”

Meanwhile, all Quenneville would say about Bolland Thursday what that he was making “slow progress.”

Next please

Patrick Sharp can’t return soon enough.

The revolving door that keeps rotating in Sharp’s absence at left wing on the first line with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane now finds Bryan Bickell getting a shot there tonight at Columbus.

Troy Brouwer’s two-game stint there is over with him skating on the fourth line with Jake Dowell and Viktor Stalberg at practice Thursday. Brouwer has no goals in the last 19 games.

“You try things,” Joel Quenneville said. “(Bickell) has played there in the past and played some important games last year as well.”

What hasn’t Quenneville seen from Brouwer and Viktor Stalberg at that spot since Sharp went down?

“Whether it’s production or whether it’s consistency, I don’t mind trying things,” Quenneville said.

“Those guys are unbelievable to play with,” Bickell said. “It makes it easier to do your job for sure. I just need to keep it simple.”

The good news with Sharp is he could be back on the ice next week. The Hawks’ leading goal scorer has been out since March 20 with an injured left knee.

“He’s progressing well,” Quenneville said. “We’ll get assessment again on Sunday and we could see him on the ice next week.”

Must-win situation

Joel Quenneville’s message for tonight’s game in Columbus? You can’t take the Blue Jackets lightly even though they are hopelessly out of the playoff chase in the Western Conference.

“We’re very respectful of Columbus and how they play,” Quenneville said. “They played (Thursday) in Washington so we want to make sure we try to have a hard pace with them right off the bat.

“They can score goals and I’m sure they’ll be excited about playing us so we have to be ready to take care of business.”

Blue Jackets leading scorer Rick Nash didn’t play Thursday because of an undisclosed injury.