Hawks’ Seabrook takes the high road regarding Torres
When Raffi Torres went to the head on Marian Hossa, it marked the exact date one year ago that he knocked defenseman Brent Seabrook out for a couple of games in the playoff series against Vancouver.
“Any time you see a teammate and a good friend, it’s tough seeing him lying on the ice like that,” Seabrook said of Hossa.
As for the fact that it was Torres striking again? Well, Seabrook didn’t want to go there.
“I’m not going to touch on that,” Seabrook said. “Talk to Q about that.”
Patrick in the middle:
It looks like Patrick Kane is finally back where he’s most comfortable — playing center.
“I’m excited about being back in the middle; I think it’s good for the team,” said Kane, who assisted on Andrew Brunette’s goal in the final minute of the first period. “It’s good for myself, personally. I can get the puck a little bit more and come up the ice up the middle.
“If you look at the lines that we have right now, a lot of them have had success before. I think this should help.”
Limping lineup:
Phoenix forwards Lauri Korpikoski and Martin Hanzal missed Tuesday’s game with an injury while goalie Mike Smith was listed as a game-time decision, but to no one’s surprise, he played.
“It definitely would be nice to have your full repertoire for the whole game, but it is playoffs,” Coyotes captain Shane Doan said. “It’s when guys step up that you might not expect and you get a big goal from somebody that maybe hasn’t gotten you one in a while, and that’s what makes the playoffs so much fun.”
Taking advantage:
After being a healthy scratch the first two game, forward Michael Frolik finally got some ice time in the playoffs Tuesday.
“I want to make sure I’m ready,” Frolik said after Tuesday’s morning skate. “I’ve tried to work hard in practice and if I do go in there I want to take the short shifts and get the tempo going and start with the easy plays and see how it goes from there.”
It went pretty well. Frolik finished plus-1 and scored what at the time was the go-ahead goal in the third period.
Home-ice ...disadvantage:
Even Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville has no explanation for home teams having a losing record thus far in the playoffs.
“I was thinking of that on the way in today; is there a good reason that anybody can come up with exactly, that you can put your finger on why the home team is not having the success it has in the past?” he said “It could be an early, fluky trend.”
Patrick Sharp can explain it with one word — parity.
“If you look at our conference especially, it’s tough to pick a winner in any series,” Sharp said. “It’s so close out there. You’ll have a lot of six- and seven-game series and that’s to be expected.”