Blackhawks doing just fine in Keith's absence
Lost in the hoopla of Patrick Kane racking up his 100th point of the season and Joel Quenneville notching his 800th career coaching victory on Sunday was this little fact:
The Blackhawks thoroughly dominated a Boston Bruins team fighting tooth and nail for a playoff spot without the suspended Duncan Keith.
Ice time for the Hawks' six defensemen in that 6-4 victory ranged from 11:39 for Erik Gustafsson to 24:39 for Brent Seabrook. That's a good sign for Quenneville, who certainly doesn't want to tax Seabrook or Niklas Hjalmarsson at this point of the season.
"The guys who have been playing defensively weren't giving up a lot of quality off the rush," said Quenneville, whose team raced to a 6-0 lead before Boston scored 2 late second-period goals to make a game of it. "For the most part we played probably as good as we've seen in the first 39 and change (minutes). That was, to me, the best sign, be it our defense or our team defense."
Seabrook has really picked his offensive game up in the 12 games that Keith has missed this season, scoring 4 goals and racking up 11 assists. He has at least 1 point in 10 of those 12 games.
In the 66 games Seabrook and Keith have played together, Seabrook has recorded a point only 23 times.
"Obviously, he's such a big part of our team and you definitely notice when he's not out there," Seabrook said. "But we're trying to do our job and pick up slack where we need to, and just get some wins and try and get this ship rolling in the right direction before he gets back."
Keith is suspended for six games and will return for Game 2 of the opening round of the playoffs.
Home, sweet home:
The Hawks are going to have to win the final three games of the season and get some help if they are to earn home ice in the first round of the playoffs by passing the Blues or Stars in the Central Division. St. Louis beat Arizona on Monday, and is now tied with Dallas for first place (with the Stars owning the tiebreaker). Both squads lead the Hawks by 6 points.
The Hawks finish with Arizona, St. Louis and Columbus. If they win those three, they can pass the Blues (via the tiebreaker) if Washington beats St. Louis in regulation in the season finale. The Hawks could also win the division if they win out and Dallas loses in regulation to Colorado and Nashville.
"That's obviously what we'd like to work for," Brent Seabrook said. "You know, we're not going to throw the hat in or anything like that. We'd like to start at home here in front of our fans and have that extra game at home if we need it.
"But, you know, playoff hockey is playoff hockey, and we've got to win four games no matter if we start on the road or if we start at home. So we're just looking forward to starting that."
Injury update:
Corey Crawford: Coach Joel Quenneville said it looks like his goalie will return from an upper-body injury at Columbus for the regular-season finale. Crawford hasn't played since a 5-0 loss to the Kings on March 14.
Marian Hossa: Veteran winger suffered a lower-body injury during the third period of the Hawks win over Boston on Sunday. Hossa is likely out vs. Arizona on Tuesday, but "for sure" will be back before season ends, according to Quenneville. "Initially we were concerned, but the news wasn't so bad afterwards," he said. "A lot of relief. The way he went off, it didn't look good."
Andrew Shaw: Suffered upper-body injury at Winnipeg on Friday and is out vs. Arizona. "We'll see on him this week," Quenneville said.
Star power:
Artemi Panarin was named the NHL's first star of the week Monday. The Hawks' rookie had 2 goals and 2 assists in a 5-4 OT win over Winnipeg on Friday, then had a goal and 3 assists in a 6-4 win over Boston.
According to Elias, Panarin is the first Hawks rookie to record back-to-back 4-point games, and the first NHL rookie to do so since Washington's Nicklas Backstrom in 2008.
Sharks defenseman was the second star, while Penguins goalie Matt Murray was the third star.
Scouting report
Blackhawks (46-26-7) vs. Arizona (35-37-7) at United Center, 7:30 p.m.
TV: Comcast SportsNet
Radio: WGN 720-AM
The skinny: Arizona's not going to the playoffs, but the Coyotes still have managed to beat Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington over the past 11 days, so the Hawks better not take this team lightly. … Oliver Ekman-Larsson is second among defensemen with 21 goals, 12 of which have come on the power play. Shane Doan leads the team in goals with 27. Doan has 4 goals against the Hawks in the teams' two meetings. The Hawks won both times, 7-4 and 5-4 in OT.
Next: St. Louis Blues at United Center, 7:30 p.m. Thursday
- John Dietz