Blackhawks might be 4-0 if power play was producing

The Blackhawks have nothing to apologize for as they sit at 2-1-1 after four games.

It’s not the greatest start in the world, but it’s not bad either with both defeats by 1 goal — including Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Boston in a shootout at the United Center.

Maybe with a better power play the Hawks would be 4-0. They are 2-for-17 and have shown a reluctance to shoot the puck.

“We’ve just got to keep it simple and try and get as many shots as we can and I think we’ll create a lot more off that,” Duncan Keith said.

Keeping it simple usually is hockey code for stop looking for the fancy goals.

“The power play, it wasn’t very good (Saturday),” Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

The Hawks were 0-for-3 in the loss to the Bruins and allowed a critical short-handed goal in the second period that tied the game at 1-1.

It was obvious that Quenneville was annoyed with his top two power-play forward units when he sent the line of Dave Bolland, Michael Frolik and Bryan Bickell onto the ice during a key power-play situation with 3:35 to play in the third period and the game tied at 2-2.

“Johnny (Toews’) line just got off the ice,” Quenneville said. “I could have called timeout and started with them, but at the end of the day they still got out there.”

The Toews line did get out there eventually, but Patrick Sharp took a holding-the-stick penalty and the power play was over.

The Toews line has struggled in the last two games, particularly 5-on-5.

Toews, Sharp and Andrew Brunette was a combined minus-3 in Thursday’s narrow win over Winnipeg with Toews going without a shot on goal. Toews had 2 shots against Boston and Brunette just 1.

The lines centered by Patrick Kane and Bolland have clearly been the best in the first week of the season.

“Kaner had a special night (Saturday), and Bolly’s line has been very dangerous when they’ve been together, but we need more out of that (Toews) line, yeah,” Quenneville said.

There’s little reason to worry about Toews and Sharp with their proven track records. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Quenneville soon tinker with his top line, perhaps looking at the speedier Ben Smith or Viktor Stalberg on the left side instead of Brunette.

Brunette, who never has been known for his skating, has 2 goals, but both are on the power play from in front of the net.

The Hawks had a terrific first period against the Bruins, then seemed to take their foot off the gas the rest of the way.

“I think for whatever the reason, we didn’t really play the way we wanted to in the third period,” Kane said. “It kind of seemed like we were playing back a little bit and not really pushing the pace.

“Especially when you get that 1-goal lead, I know you don’t want to cheat and push too much, but at the same time it would have been nice to make it 3-1. It seemed like we were throwing it away a lot. It was kind of a sloppy game on our part.”

Ÿ The Hawks should know Monday if they’ll have Marian Hossa for Tuesday’s game against the Coyotes in Arizona. Hossa sat out the Boston loss with an upper body injury.

“He’s not that bad,” Quenneville said. “We’re hoping he can practice Monday and play Tuesday.”

Ÿ Jeremy Morin scored a goal in his second straight game Sunday in Rockford’s 3-2 win at Abbotsford.