'Tough' Hawks looking strong
Once you get past Detroit and San Jose in the NHL's Western Conference, there's really little difference between the other teams that consider themselves playoff contenders.
Can the Blackhawks be an upper-echelon team? Edmonton Oilers coach Craig MacTavish thinks so.
"They're going to be tough," MacTavish said Wednesday before watching his Oilers go out and lose 3-0 to the Hawks at the United Center. "Chicago has the potential to be near the top of the conference."
MacTavish played for new Hawks coach Joel Quenneville in St. Louis and believes the team will respond to him.
"He was a very well-organized, a very professional guy, and the team is going to play that way," MacTavish said. "Everybody knows he's going to do a good job."
Quenneville likes what he has seen so far but wouldn't go as far as calling the Hawks a playoff team just yet.
"That's our goal, that's our motivation, that's our intention," Quenneville said. "I like a lot of things about our team. There's a lot of quality people, some good skill, some good speed, we've got some youthful excitement in our team and there's good balance, strong goaltending and a couple defensemen (Duncan Keith and Brian Campbell) with some great speed. I think there's a lot to work with."
The Hawks and the Oilers actually are a lot alike - two young and dynamic teams with young stars as leaders in Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and Edmonton's Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano.
"You look at this with maybe a little bit of an eye to the not-to-distant future where there will be some real good game between these two teams," MacTavish said. "And possibly some great playoff series much as there was in the 80s and 90s with the Blackhawks and Oilers. We're both pretty skilled teams and we both play an exciting brand of hockey."
With Quenneville's emphasizing strong and energetic starts at home, the Hawks gave him what he wanted by storming to a 2-0 first-period lead.
Patrick Sharp scored his fifth goal on a power play at 2:36 and Brent Seabrook tallied short-handed at 18:35.
Seabrook's goal came after the Hawks missed on several great chances while short-handed earlier.
"We knew we were a good team right off the start," Seabrook said. "Having a slow start, we knew that wasn't going to last all year."
The Hawks took a 3-0 lead at 12:17 of the second period when defenseman Aaron Johnson ripped a slap shot past Roloson to cap a rush started by Campbell.
Nikolai Khabibulin had 23 saves in posting his fourth shutout as a Hawk, making look good Quenneville's decision to alternate his goalies, at least for now.
It will be interesting to see who Quenneville starts Saturday night when the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings invade the United Center.
"The tough one is when you don't know who to put in the net," Quenneville said. "Right now it's a luxury to have two good goalies and two guys that are comfortable and confident in the net."
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