Color Blackhawks' Versteeg a possible scratch vs. Wild
Kris Versteeg still has his sense of humor despite being part of Joel Quenneville's latest lineup tinkering.
Based on line rushes during practice Monday at Johnny's IceHouse West, it appears Versteeg could be a healthy scratch to start the Blackhawks' second round series against the Minnesota Wild.
He skated as an extra forward with Joakim Nordstrom and Daniel Carcillo, and all three wore white practice jerseys that signify either no contact or not in the scheduled playing group. Asked about the “dreaded,” jersey designation, Versteeg raised an eyebrow and deadpanned: “Dreaded? It's a nice looking sweater.”
Aesthetics aside, there's a good chance Versteeg won't start the series against the Wild if he wears the white jersey all this week. He's probably not thrilled about it, but is publicly taking a measured outlook.
“Wherever I go, I try hard,” Versteeg said. “Whether it's a white sweater, red sweater, it doesn't matter to me. I'm just trying to play my game. If I'm in the lineup, I am. If I'm not, I'm not. It is what it is.”
Versteeg's regular season was going well until New Year's Day, when he fractured a bone in his left wrist blocking a shot in the Winter Classic against the Capitals at Washington. After missing six weeks, he returned in February and scored 4 goals in his first seven games back.
After that he went cold.
Versteeg had 1 goal and 2 assists in the final 20 games of the regular season and scored 1 goal against the Nashville Predators for his lone point of the first round.
“I tried to bring energy,” Versteeg said. “You try to hit. Obviously the offense wasn't there, but I thought it was good. It was a good round. We won.”
Quenneville didn't disagree with that assessment all that much. He termed Versteeg's performance in the first round “fine,” and hinted that the move is more about finding a spot to reinsert talented rookie Teuvo Teravainen — who was scratched the final four games against Nashville.
Quenneville bumped Bryan Bickell up to the second line Monday, where Versteeg played most of the first round, and put Teravainen on the third line with Antoine Vermette and Patrick Sharp.
Quenneville kept the first and fourth lines intact, which left no room for Versteeg. It's similar to what happened in the first two games against the Predators, when Vermette was scratched. The Hawks have a number of options up front and Quenneville isn't afraid to use them.
“It's kind of like when we went into the last series,” Quenneville said. “We had these decisions to make. [The] decision and weighing them is probably very comparable.”
Teravainen is excited to get back in the playing group if the current configuration holds.
“I'm just going to try and do my best,” he said. “I know I can play good hockey here. I want to play good.”
A couple other items worth noting: Duncan Keith got a day off after leading the team with 192:20 in ice time against Nashville, and Quenneville officially announced Corey Crawford as the Hawks' starting goalie for the first game.