Joel Quenneville on facing Blackhawks: There's a different feeling than other games

For as long as Joel Quenneville coaches in the NHL, it will always feel a little strange when he goes up against the Blackhawks.

After all - although he spent a combined 11 years guiding St. Louis and Colorado - it was in Chicago that 'Coach Q' won three Stanley Cups.

So as Florida prepared to open its season against the Hawks Sunday, it was only natural for Quenneville to take a stroll down memory lane.

"When (I face) them there's a different feeling than other games," said Quenneville, whose team had its first two games suspended due to Dallas' COVID situation. "There's always a different sense with the history of Chicago - in the building, the fans, the crowd, the success, the teams, different players, management, Rocky (Wirtz). You can talk about a lot of different things and they all seem to pop up going into it (on) game day.

"This wasn't supposed to be the opening night, but now that it (is) it even creates a little more of an excitement level going into our season."

These Hawks look almost nothing like the team Quenneville led during the glory days of 2010 to 2015, and even 2018 when he was fired after a 6-6-3 start. Gone from that squad are Corey Crawford, Brandon Saad, Nick Schmaltz, Artem Anisimov, Henri Jokiharju and Erik Gustafsson. Also absent are Jonathan Toews (illness) and Brent Seabrook (lower back).

All that remains are Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat, David Kampf, and defensemen Duncan Keith and Connor Murphy.

Still, Quenneville wasn't taking his former team lightly and frankly didn't know what to expect considering the Hawks' first two games came against the defending Stanley Cup champs.

"Tampa really is a tough team to measure your performance ... because they control the play and the puck so much," Quenneville said. "So it's tough to really say how good they're going to be. ...

"Certainly there's respect there and let's know they're going to be hungry after their start."

The Hawks fought back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game on goals by Alex DeBrincat and Connor Murphy, but Florida scored 2 goals in less than three minutes early in the third period en route to a 5-2 victory.

Kane, who assisted on DeBrincat's second-period tally, still remembers being upstaged by Quenneville last January when Florida played at the United Center.

"When I got honored for my 1,000th point last year it was the game he was coming back," Kane said. "So I was kind of joking with him after ... he got his ovation that he kind of stole my thunder that night. He got a pretty big cheer. ...

"That was fun to see. Obviously he was a big part of those championship teams and (is) kind of a Chicago legend."

The Panthers went 35-26-8 last season and then lost to the Islanders in the Stanley Cup playoffs' qualifying round in the Toronto bubble. Quenneville's blessed to be guiding an up-and-coming team that features a franchise goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky and one that possesses plenty of offensive firepower (six players scored 16 or more times in 2019-20).

While Bobrovsky (.900, 3.23 GAA) struggled mightily in his first campaign in Florida and did not face the Hawks on Sunday, he figures to back soon and give the Panthers a chance to compete for a playoff spot.

Quenneville will be 65 when his contract ends after the 2023-2024 season. Whether he chooses to retire at that point or shortly thereafter, it's possible he and his wife may end up retiring in the Chicagoland area.

"You never know in our business," said Quenneville, who spent plenty of last off-season in the area and admitted it was a tough decision to sell their Hinsdale home. "We've moved around quite a bit. ... I wouldn't discount Chicago at all.

"We really liked it there. We loved Hinsdale. We loved the community. We loved a lot of friends. ...

"We're here now and we're looking forward."