Quenneville wants Hawks defenders to be more aggressive

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville has been pleased to see his defensemen becoming a bigger part of the offense.

Hawks defensemen have scored only scored only 14 goals so far, with 2 of Steve Montador’s 5 coming as a forward on the power play.

Duncan Keith has only 3 goals, with the one he scored on Friday against Florida snapping a 29-game drought. Brent Seabrook has only 3 goals as well.

“We talk about them (joining the attack) a lot,” Quenneville said. “I think our team’s so much more effective when it’s that next wave, or you alleviate the puck pressure with the defense joining. All of a sudden there’s one more option, be it off the rush, so you might get the red line, or you might get the blue line.

“I think that we’re encouraging them to get involved, and even off the points, they’ve been jumping in off the points, and having some cycle shifts with their activity off the blue lines.”

Keith admits he has focused more on his defense than his scoring.

“I know I’m a defenseman and I wanted to be good defensively,” he said. “I feel like I was doing that. I didn’t want to change anything.”

The amazing race:

The Hawks can’t do anything about being third in the Central Division until Tuesday when they play Nashville.

They’re going to lose even more ground to either Detroit or St. Louis (possibly both) on Monday night when the Red Wings and Blues meet at Joe Louis Arena.

“It’s an amazing race,” Joel Quenneville said. “You look at the closeness of all four teams and it’s pretty amazing at this time in the season, in one division. The four teams are pushing each other on a night-to-night basis.”

Easy does it:

Joel Quenneville sees Michael Frolik, now without a goal in 18 games, fighting the puck in the scoring areas.

“It’s been trying on him,” Quenneville said. “When you’re having a hard time scoring, take it and find a way to get one and hope you get going from there.

“I think he’s got to get back to being more comfortable with the puck and have more confidence with it in the scoring area, more pace to his game. I think when he’s playing his best hockey, that’s where he’s at. We’d like to get him back there.”