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Troy Murray: No big adjustments with Stalberg returning

Q. It looks like Viktor Stalberg will be back in the lineup for Game 3 and Dave Bolland will be centering the second line. Talk about both scenarios.

A. There is familiarity in those line combinations, which I think is important. It’s not like Joel (Quenneville) is mixing up lines and trying to find something that is different from the season.

That third line has been successful, and they know each other. Dave Bolland, a majority of the season, played between Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp. It’s a combination that I think everyone is comfortable with, and I don’t think it’s going to be a major adjustment.

Q. You made the call the other day about how tough Detroit can be, and that’s exactly what they were in Game 2. Are we in for more of that?

A. Oh, I think so. I’ve seen Detroit enough over the years to know what they’re all about, and they’re all about mental toughness and it’s a physicality of winning battles in the corners, paying the price to get to the front of the net, fighting through checks, finishing checks — it’s an all-around mental toughness of their physical game.

They really kind of smothered the Blackhawks more often than not in Game 2. It was an opposite scenario from Game 1, and the Blackhawks are going to have to expect that again from the Red Wings and pick up their intensity and win some of those battles.

Q. If they keep giving Jonathan Toews the Hack-a-Shaq tactics, how do the Hawks answer that?

A. You have to battle through it. Every top player in the NHL gets extra attention, and Jonathan is getting the attention right now.

It’s frustrating sometimes when you expect some calls to go your way. I thought for some of the calls that went against the Blackhawks in that game, they easily could’ve been called against the Red Wings in certain situations, but you can’t complain about that.

You can’t let the officiating be the difference in a hockey game. If it is, then shame on you, because you haven’t done your job.

I’m not criticizing the officiating; I’m just saying you have to have that mental toughness to play through everything and not let it distract you.

Q. What do you need to see from the Hawks in Game 3?

A. They have to have mental preparation to go for 60 minutes or more. As Game 2 wore on, the Red Wings kept battling through the mental situations that were happening. The Blackhawks just have to be better prepared.

You’ve got to come prepared to play because Game 3 is a huge game

ŸTroy Murray is in his 13th year as a member of the Blackhawks broadcast team and his eighth year as the color analyst for the team’s radio broadcasts. The Selke Award winner was a five-time 20-goal scorer and a veteran of 15 years in the NHL, playing in 915 career games.

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