Rivalry with Detroit would take a hit if Wings head to East

While Blackhawks fans consider Detroit to be the team’s biggest rival, the Red Wings don’t feel the same way.

For Detroit, it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs who will always be its biggest rival.

The Red Wings will rejoin the Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference next season, according to a Hockey Night in Canada report by Elliotte Friedman, leaving the Western Conference and the Hawks behind.

“Certainly they’re a great team and a great organization,” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said of the Red Wings. “The rivalry, I still don’t think it will go away. If it does happen that they’re on the other side, I still think the Blackhawks and Detroit will be a special rivalry and a special game.”

The Red Wings once owned the West with players such as Steve Yzerman and Nicklas Lidstrom.

“I’ve been in the West the whole time they’ve been here and it’s a team that’s always been tough to contend with every single year,” Quenneville said. “It’s a powerhouse organization. You look at their record and standing over the course of time here and they’ve been dominating a lot of times and have been the elite over here.”

Detroit and Columbus both will head to the East next season to play the majority of games in their own time zones.

The Hawks will be in a “conference” with Colorado, St. Louis, Minnesota, Dallas, Nashville and Winnipeg.

The playoffs will be within the conference for the first two rounds.

Bolland update:

Dave Bolland sat out Sunday against Columbus with an upper body injury.

“Still day-to-day,” Joel Quenneville said. “He’s doing all right. He’s progressing.”

Marcus Kruger moved up from the fourth line to take Bolland’s spot between Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp on the second line.

Andrew Shaw remained on the third line.

“We don’t want to change up too much,” Quenneville said. “Both could probably play there. The job (Kruger, Kane and Sharp) did together in the third period last game was pretty good.”

Crawford returns:

Goalie Corey Crawford was back in the starting lineup Sunday after sitting four games with a suspected concussion.

Crawford was 7-0-3 until he got hurt. Ray Emery was undefeated as the interim starter.

“Corey’s been going very well too until he got injured there,” Joel Quenneville said. “It’s good to have both guys back. Ray did an excellent job, like our goaltending has all year.”

No negatives:

Joel Quenneville was asked before Sunday’s game if there were any negatives about the Hawks.

“I don’t want to be negative in an area that’s not needed so right now we’re pleased,” Quenneville said. “They’ll (negatives) come around.”

Clowe hearing today:

San Jose’s Ryane Clowe has a hearing today in New York about the incident with Andrew Shaw in the final nine seconds on Friday.

Clowe was suspended indefinitely by the NHL, pending an investigation about whether he left the bench to confront Shaw, who had boarded Joe Pavelski.

Clowe faces a possible 10-game suspension and Sharks coach Todd McLellan one game.