Blackhawks lose to Avs 4-3 in shootout
DENVER - Dave Bolland's back problem apparently is getting worse instead of better, which has the Blackhawks concerned and discussing what action to take.
Bolland missed Friday's 4-3 shootout loss to Avalanche, sitting out his second game of the season after being idle for most of training camp.
Bolland has had at least two cortisone shots in order to keep him playing and, according to a source, the club has discussed surgery as an option.
Should Bolland have an operation and miss possibly eight weeks, at least the Hawks could count on him being available for the stretch drive and playoffs.
Hawks coach Joel Quenneville was asked Friday if Bolland could continue to play with the pain throughout the season.
"We'll see," Quenneville said. "It's something that we'll visit and see how he's feeling on a day-to-day basis. Some days he has some good days, so we'll see."
The Hawks could have used Bolland and the injured Jonathan Toews in the shootout, which went eight rounds before the Avs won it on a goal by Chris Stewart.
Five times the Hawks had a chance to win the shootout, but Patrick Sharp, Tomas Kopecky, Andrew Ladd, Cam Barker and Troy Brouwer all failed with the game on their stick.
After Stewart's goal led off the eighth round, Dustin Byfuglien attempted a slap shot from between the circles that went wide.
The Hawks went 1-for-8 in the shootout with only Patrick Kane scoring leading it off.
The Hawks outshot the Avs 32-22 and dominated at times offensively, but goalie Craig Anderson was terrific in running his record to 11-3-2.
It was 3-3 going to the third period after the Hawks wasted a 2-0 lead thanks to some sloppiness on the power play and shaky goaltending by Antti Niemi.
Making his first start in more than two weeks, Niemi allowed 3 goals on the first 8 shots as the Avs battled back for a 3-2 lead.
A power-play goal by Byfuglien and Duncan Keith's fourth goal four minutes apart in the first period had the Hawks on their way.
But Ryan O'Reilly scored on a rebound with 1:22 left in the first.
The Hawks were on a power play in the second period when Byfuglien, moved to the point for the night, let David Jones beat him wide for a short-handed goal at 7:43 to tie it.
Byfuglien didn't get much help from Niemi, who let Jones' off-balance, one-handed flip beat him high to the short side.
The Avs went ahead 59 seconds later just as their penalty expired when O'Reilly scored on a breakaway.
"When we've got the power play we can't be giving up short-handed goals," Keith said. "I don't know what happened on both plays."
Quenneville refused to blame the loss on that lapse on the power play.
"I liked how we played after that and I liked how we played before that," Quenneville said. "We had seven cracks at it in the shootout, which would have been nice, but I'm looking at positives."