Quenneville revives power play

The Blackhawks' power play has been noticeably different since Joel Quenneville took over as coach.

The Hawks were 1-for-19 in the first four games of the season before Quenneville arrived and tweaked the setup and allowed the units to be more creative and less predictable.

The power play ranked fourth in the NHL heading into Wednesday's game against Boston.

"I think we have a little bit more motion and movement in the power play and not more of a set look, and we improvise a lot as well," Quenneville said. "The players are free to do a lot of things out there and they're the ones that have to do it, so give them the credit.

"Everybody has the freedom to move instead of just being stationary and predictable. I think that opens things up more."

It's no secret that Quenneville demands his point men and defenseman get pucks to the net as quickly and as hard as possible.

"Whether it was quicker or harder, we feel we have some (defensemen) that can shoot it, so we want to load it up, but at the same time we wanted to have better net presence and I think we have," Quenneville said.

Quenneville works with the defense every day on getting pucks to the net quickly.

"That's him - he wants us shooting and shooting hard and passing hard at all times. Nothing soft," Brian Campbell said. "That's the philosophy he likes and it's benefited with more pucks to the net."

Big number: Quick, name the Hawks' plus-minus leader going into Wednesday's game against Boston. How about defenseman Aaron Johnson at plus-11 to accompany his 3 goals and 3 assists.

"He's played well," Joel Quenneville said. "He's turned out to be a real nice signing for us, a depth defenseman and a young kid who gives us some size. He's competitive and has been scoring for us and is dependable defensively. You couldn't ask for anything more."

Trade winds: There are whispers that the Hawks are again talking to the Washington Capitals about veteran center Michael Nylander. All Hawks general manager Dale Tallon is saying these days is he is still talking to teams about a top-six forward. Nylander is signed through 2011 and would bring with him a $4.875 million salary-cap hit.

Out again: Brent Sopel missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury.