Preseason will be important for Hawks

Putting the pieces in the right places is big part of the preseason.

That process started for the Blackhawks on Wednesday night in their exhibition opener, a 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

For the Hawks a summer filled with change has put a little more emphasis on mixing as many as 10 new players with those returning from the Stanley Cup championship club.

"It's important we establish good team chemistry throughout camp," Quenneville said. "There are a lot of new guys coming into the organization for the first time."

Quenneville and his staff got a look at some of them in their opener.

Rookie Jeremy Morin was solid with a nice assist on a goal by Jonathan Toews.

Fernando Pisani and Viktor Stalberg did some good work as penalty killers while Jack Skille was noticeable.

Goalie Marty Turco started and allowed just 1 goal playing the first half of the game. The goal came after a mixup with defenseman Jassen Cullimore at the side of the net.

Turco doesn't anticipate problems fitting in with his new teammates.

"It's a treat to get to know these guys and see how the locker room works," Turco said.

"These guys, they're young, they're fun, they're exciting and they're Stanley Cup champs. Who wouldn't want to be around a group of guys like this? There's going to end up being a lot of new guys on this team, not just myself, and we're all going to have to take a vital role in coming together as a team as tight as possible because we're going to have a target on our back starting Oct. 7 in Colorado."

Patrick Sharp scored the Hawks' other goal and had several strong shifts as a penalty killer with Pisani as his partner.

Hannu Toivonen played the second half of the game in goal and was scored upon three times, twice during Lightning power plays.

The Hawks figure to take a long look at those players trying to make the team over the next two or three preseason games. After that it's building a roster for the start of the regular season.

"We have some new players in the mix and you want to make sure there's the right - I guess chemistry is not the right word, just guys finding their roles," general manager Stan Bowman said. "Last year as the year went on everybody fit in and they knew what they had to do. Some of the younger players coming in are just going to have to find their niche. It's going to be a matter of how they fit in with the guys we have here."

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