Kane now a fixture for Hawks at center

When Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville started juggling his lines looking for a spark in the second period of Saturday’s loss to Colorado, one thing didn’t change.

Patrick Kane stayed at center.

According to Quenneville, the experiment of having Kane switch from right wing to center is over.

Kane is a center.

“Yeah, we’ll say he’s a centerman,” Quenneville said. “I like the way he plays. Every game he’s been consistent defensively, you’re comfortable with him, and offensively a lot of good things have been happening, especially with that combination of him and Hoss (Marian Hossa).”

Quenneville isn’t surprised Kane has made the transition so well.

“I believed it could very well happen, that he’s the type of player who could adapt to that situation, especially since he’s been a center his whole life,” Quenneville said.

Kane is getting better defensively reading plays down low in his own end.

“Every day the coaches are pointing out different things to me, whether it’s sometimes I tend to play like a winger or little things down low, faceoffs,” Kane said. “I’m learning every day for sure.”

Kane finished Saturday’s game centering for Hossa and Patrick Sharp. The first line consisted of Jonathan Toews, Andrew Brunette and Viktor Stalberg.

Quenneville left Dave Bolland’s third line alone. He moved Daniel Carcillo off the second line and put him on the fourth line with Marcus Kruger and Jamal Mayers.

Blanked again:Patrick Kane now has gone three games without a point.Kane stressed before the season one of his goals was to limit his scoring droughts.#147;I#146;m not going to worry about it too much, but you always want to put up numbers and points,#148; Kane said. #147;You don#146;t want to go two or three games without getting on the score sheet.#148;Back to work:After a day off Sunday, the Hawks return to practice Monday, and you can be sure there will be a heavy emphasis on defensive coverage.Joel Quenneville was critical of his team#146;s team defense in the loss to Colorado, blaming poor work on all 4 Avalanche goals in regulation.#147;You can say one was worse than the other,#148; Quenneville aid. #147;It progressively got worse for me.#148;