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Hawks pay no mind to complaint by Canucks' GM

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Blackhawks had little reaction before Game 7 Tuesday to Canucks' general manager Mike Gillis bellyaching over the officiating in the series.

“My only reaction to that is I look at us and we had the second-fewest minor penalties during the regular season. That's my defense,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

“To be honest, I think it's a good move by him,” Hawks winger Patrick Kane said. “You've got to try to get the emphasis on something else and maybe the league or refs start thinking about it, but I don't think that's going to matter.”

The Hawks had a 27-16 advantage in power plays in the series going into Game 7.

“He's just looking out for us,” Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa said about his GM. “We take care of things on the ice and he takes care of things off it.”

Playing hurt:

Joel Quenneville praised Bryan Bickell for playing hurt before the decision was made for the winger to have wrist surgery Monday.

Bickell suffered tendon damage early in the series when he was cut by a skate but played and contributed until being shut down.

“We got three games out of Bickell prior to the hand surgery,” Quenneville said. “We knew that was the case. I thought he gave us three solid games and I think that line was really effective.”

Bickell had been playing on the Hawks' most productive line of the series with Dave Bolland and Michael Frolik.

“We didn't know what to expect when we first put it together, but it was a great surprise the first game,” Quenneville said. “They played three pretty solid games after that.”

Troy Brouwer replaced Bickell on the Bolland line. Fernando Pisani and Marcus were in the lineup with John Scott a healthy scratch.

No hard feelings:

While Dave Bolland has had his little battles with Dan Hamhuis for much of the series, the Hawks center said he respected the Vancouver defenseman.

“Hamhuis is a good player around the league,” Bolland said. “The way he plays — his defensive game — he's one of those guys that shuts down the top lines and can throw some big hits as well. I have respect for him. I know when all that stuff went down, nothing was intentional.”

Two of the best:

Matched up against each other for most of the series, neither Jonathan Toews nor Canucks center Ryan Kesler had a goal going into Game 7.

“Give both guys credit,” Joel Quenneville said. “I know both guys are very competitive and both leaders and bring a lot to their teams. That's a great matchup and that's what you see sometimes in the playoffs — the guys expected to score don't always get on the board, but they do other things to help their team be successful.”

Familiar feeling:

Patrick Kane compared Tuesday's Game 7 to the Olympic gold medal game in the same building last year when the U.S. played Canada on its home turf.

“Just being in the city, it's kind of the same way for me personally,” Kane said. “Vancouver was obviously a Canadian city and they were rooting for Canada and we were the underdogs coming in as the United States. It's definitely a similar situation. There's been a lot of big games played on that ice.”

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