New wrinkles for anemic power play
DENVER -- With a seven-game road trip staring the Blackhawks in the face, it's more important than ever for them to get their anemic power play jump-started.
The power play was 6-for-62 coming into Wednesday's game against the Avalanche.
That had coach Denis Savard ready to try some new things, such as more shots from the half-wall, working to get a point man into the deep slot, and keeping a man in front instead of the side of the net.
Another change had James Wisniewski taking over at the point for Dustin Byfuglien, who was a healthy scratch Wednesday night.
"I think he's ready to take over that position now," Savard said. "To be honest, we've struggled on the back end. We haven't made good decisions there."
Wisniewski knew exactly what he planned to do.
"I'm going to get the puck up top and shoot, get the puck through and to the net," Wisniewski said. "We haven't necessarily had a bad power play, but we haven't been getting enough shots through to the net."
One tweak the coaching staff made in practice this week was getting a defenseman more into the high slot area.
"The best power play in the league is when the puck's in the middle of the ice," Savard said. "We've got to find a way to get that defenseman with the puck in the middle of the ice and use our options from there."
Cam Barker is a guy the Hawks want with the puck in the middle.
"It's always a good look," Barker said. "You see teams like Anaheim use it with (Scott) Niedermayer always sliding into the slot. It opens things up for the backdoor plays, finding guys like (Robert) Lang and (Martin) Havlat with that cross-ice seam.
"There's just a lot more different looks when you set it up like that."
Roster moves: Forwards Dave Bolland and Kris Versteeg were sent to Rockford on Wednesday to play themselves back in game shape.
Bolland has missed the last 15 games with a broken finger, while Versteeg is recovering from a sprained shoulder. Both are expected to be in the Rockford lineup Friday at Peoria.
"Bolland has been cleared to play and he needs to go down and get some games in before coming back," general manager Dale Tallon said.
Tip-ins: Jonathan Toews, who skated Wednesday for the first time since spraining his left knee Jan. 1, will join the team Saturday in San Jose. He's still not expected to play until at least Feb. 13 at Columbus. … Denis Savard wouldn't get specific about his goalie rotation other than to say that for the first five games of the road trip Nikolai Khabibulin would start three times and Patrick Lalime twice.