Line changes a challenge for Hawks' Kruger

Marcus Kruger speaks fine English. It was the occasional frantic line changing of coach Joel Quenneville's that had the Swedish center confused in his NHL debut Wednesday.

“I think most of the guys in the locker room are still confused when Q is calling the lines out and at the last second he changes,” joked Bryan Bickell, who is one of Kruger's linemates along with Troy Brouwer.

“That's going to happen when you don't know the systems or how Coach Q runs the bench. It's only going to take time. A couple times he didn't know if we were going out or not. It was kind of funny.”

Quenneville is one of the best in the business at matching lines, and sometimes he will pull a line back at the last minute when he sees who is going out for the other team.

“You don't know exactly how they run their bench in Sweden,” Quenneville said. “Sometimes you've got two matchups going and you get called back. Maybe that's something different, but it's nice his linemates are going to have to keep him on top of things.”

Bickell likes the potential of his line with the 20-year-old Kruger at center.

“The first game was a good indicator of what kind of player he is and what he's going to bring to our line,” Bickell said. “He's a patient guy who looks around. He just doesn't get rid of it all the time. He's really smooth out there and sometimes it looks like he has the puck on a string.”

Home cooking:

After a dismal record at the United Center over the first half of the season, the Hawks took a six-game home winning streak into Saturday's clash with Anaheim.

“I think we're playing better because were more focused and bearing down,” Patrick Kane said.

“As we've gone along in the season we've been more involved as a team, become more of a four-line team that has more pace in our game,” Joel Quenneville said. “You look back to the type of games we lost earlier in the season, poor third (periods at home); those are the games that could have put us in a different spot today.”

No change:

The news is the same with Dave Bolland, who remains out indefinitely with symptoms from the concussion he suffered March 9 in Tampa Bay.

Bolland hasn't been able to skate or do much of any physical activity.

“Very minimal,” Joel Quenneville. “I don't even know if he's at that level. There's some improvement, but it's basically status quo.”

Bolland will need to pass NHL-mandated baseline testing before he is cleared to resume skating.