Quenneville not worried about top 2 on defense

While Duncan Keith went into Wednesday's game against Colorado minus-11 and Brent Seabrook minus-5, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville wasn't concerned about the play of his top defense pair.

Both players were minus-4 in Monday's ugly 7-5 loss to the Avalanche.

“I think it's a one-game thing,” Quenneville said. “I think as a group on defense we can all be better and we should all absorb some of that responsibility whether it's that pair or the six of them. We have more focused and better prepared.”

It was the first time Keith and Seabrook each were minus-4 in a game.

“Myself, I felt like I played awful giveaways, turnovers and letting pucks go through me. I've got to shore that up,” Seabrook said.

“They've had some real good games recently as a pair,” Quenneville said. “We're assessing one game. I think over time Seabs has been fine and Duncs had some stretches where he's been real good and some stretches where he's been OK. The last game, I think that's a level we haven't seen much of.”

In his last three seasons Keith has been plus-21, plus-33 and plus-30.

“We need him to be a dependable and reliable defenseman that gets the job defensively,” Quenneville said.

Talk it out:

Joel Quenneville said he had a positive talk Wednesday with goalie Marty Turco.

“I talked to him today and it's probably not easy right now,” Quenneville said. “I think he's a battler and he wants to work his way through it and try to be upbeat and positive and work his way here in practice to get his game back to where he needs it to be and wants it to be. It was a good talk.”

The Morin shuttle:

As expected, Jeremy Morin was recalled from Rockford for Wednesday's game.

General manager Stan Bowman said the shuttle with Morin, because of salary-cap reasons, would continue as long as it's only a 90-minute drive to Rockford.

“We're fortunate that we're able to do that with relative ease, to be able to send a guy down for a day and have him come back a day later,” Bowman said. “Some teams that are spread out across the country, it's not really an option for them other than flying the guy and he spends two days on an airplane.

“We've kind of taken advantage of that, and you have to do that to maximize (the cap). You want to give yourself as much flexibility as you can for future moves that you might make.”

Tip-ins:

Defenseman Dylan Olsen, the Hawks' first-round draft pick in 2009, has made Team Canada for the World Junior Championships, while Rockford center Brandon Pirri was cut. … The NHL trade deadline is Feb. 28 and not March 2 as previously reported.