Quenneville on goalies: Both to get playing time

DENVER — Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville admitted it wasn't an easy decision to go away from Corey Crawford and start Marty Turco against the Avalanche on Monday.

“(Crawford) deserves a lot of consideration and he's coming off arguably maybe his best game of the year,” Quenneville said. “It's a good opportunity for Marty, but certainly it wasn't easy.

It was Turco's first start since Dec. 3 against Vancouver, a 3-0 loss, and he didn't make it out of the second period. Quenneville pulled him 40 seconds into the period after Colorado took a 4-3 lead.

“Both guys are going to play and it's a chance for him to get back in the net,” Quenneville said before the game. “We like the options we have now.”

Turco is paying no attention to the debate over who is the Hawks' No. 1 goalie that only figures to get more intense.

“It's not so much to me because I don't hear it, see it, read it or care to entertain any thought of it, but I'm not the one who has to fill my day,” Turco said.

“I don't know whether there's a debate or not,” Quenneville said. “(Crawford) has really earned this opportunity to play as we've gone along here and it's a nice situation to be in where you're discussing who's going in net.”

General manager Stan Bowman is comfortable with both goalies going forward.

“We look at it differently than maybe you guys do, which is we're very excited for Corey that he is showing he can play in the league and we can rely on him,” Bowman said.

“Over the course of the year you're going to need two goalies and you're going to need to be comfortable playing in front of both goalies.”

Looking ahead:

Stan Bowman has no trades in the works, but that doesn't mean he is ready to stand pat moving toward the March 2 trade deadline.

“I don't know if we have one specific thing we're looking for,” Bowman said. “We're looking to upgrade in a couple areas.

“You can never be too deep at center and on defense, and that's a general comment and not an indictment on our players at those positions. But as you see when you get a centerman go down it can hurt your lineup.

“One of the keys to your team is always your play on the back end,” Bowman said. “I feel comfortable with our group right now, but if you can improve it you have to look at that.”

Morin watch:

The Hawks still have about a week to decide whether to loan rookie winger Jeremy Morin to Team USA for the World Junior Championships.

It all depends on the health of Marian Hossa, Patrick Kane and Fernando Pisani.

“It's a little early to tell because we don't know how soon those guys are going to come back from injury,” Stan Bowman said. “We certainly expect some of them will be back by then.

“We'd like him to play, but if he's with us he's not going to play. If he's in our lineup here we're not going to take him out of the NHL to play in the World Junior.”

Injury report:

Center Dave Bolland (upper body) wasn't in the lineup Monday with Joel Quenneville calling him day to day.

The Hawks were hoping Marian Hossa and Fernando Pisani and possibly even Patrick Kane could start skating Tuesday.