Need a little patience: Quenneville says he's ready for young blood

A youth movement is coming to the Blackhawks. And coach Joel Quenneville is ready for it.

Well, at least that's what he's saying in mid-July, almost three months before the Hawks begin a new campaign at the United Center against St. Louis on Oct. 12.

“I see more speed on our team,” Quenneville said Friday from the Blackhawks Convention at the Chicago Hilton. “I see way more depth on the back end and some potential defensemen who could emerge with some time and some experience.”

The question is, how much time and patience will Quenneville and his coaching staff show with young players who will be counted on to fill voids left by Andrew Shaw, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrew Ladd? I posed that question to the veteran coach Friday and the first words out of his mouth were: “We're always patient.”

Uh-huh. Patience is clearly in the eye of the beholder in this case.

We all know about Quenneville's penchant for mixing up lines and using the healthy scratch as a motivational tool. Last season, the organization seemed to give everyone on its AHL roster a chance. But in most cases, they were chances that lasted no longer than a blink of an eye.

Tanner Kero got 17 games, Marko Dano 13, Vinnie Hinostroza 7, Ryan Hartman 3, Kyle Baun 2, Mark McNeill 1.

“Last year we had a number of new guys come up; it wasn't like we didn't have patience with them,” Quenneville said. “Some guys, their tenure was short, or there were injuries, or performances were up and down. That's part of it.”

Said Hawks radio analyst Troy Murray: “Nobody came in and knocked the socks off the coaching staff or the organization. It's kind of up to them to make the best of the opportunity.”

Then there were veterans who ended up being traded or waived, like defensemen Trevor Daley (29 games) and Rob Scuderi (17) and forwards Viktor Tikhonov (11) and Jiri Sekac (6).

All of that movement and upheaval led Jonathan Toews to admit the Hawks had a difficult time forming on-ice chemistry, especially as the playoffs arrived.

New beginning

The upcoming season will certainly be interesting for a Blackhawks squad that continues to feel the wrath of the salary cap. Other than the second line of Artemi Panarin, Artem Anisimov and Patrick Kane, how the other lines shake out is totally up in the air.

The first guess as we sit here now is something like this:

Top line: Jonathan Toews, Richard Panik and ?

Third line: Marcus Kruger, Marian Hossa and ?

Fourth line: Dennis Rasmussen, Andrew Desjardins and ?

Veteran Jordin Tootoo might have the inside track on either the third or the fourth line. But who among Brandon Mashinter, Vinnie Hinostroza, Tanner Kero, Ryan Hartman, Mark McNeill, Tyler Motte and Nick Schmaltz will fill the other holes on a consistent basis?

Quenneville said he is “very comfortable” knowing he will need to rely on players 24 or younger to fill those holes. He wasn't about to give away too much Friday, but did go out of his way to mention Hinostroza.

“Vinny really jumped out this week with his speed,” Quenneville said of what he saw out of the winger at Prospects Camp. “If you watched the (Stanley Cup) playoffs last year you see … that the one ingredient that really sticks out is speed. He gives us that.”

But can he do it for 82 games like a Brandon Saad? Or a Marcus Kruger?

Or an Andrew Shaw?

Seize the day

Seconds into the second shift of his NHL career, a scrappy, young grinder threw his gloves to the ice and went toe-to-toe with Philadelphia Flyers center Zac Rinaldo. This kid was a nobody. A no-name. When the brief brawl ended, that 20-year-old Blackhawks player zipped into the visiting locker room sporting a nasty cut over his left eye.

Then, with 12:23 left in the second period, that same player made a beautiful back-and-forth move around Kimmo Timonen and scored his first goal on a gorgeous backhander past goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

Yes, that player was Andrew Shaw. A kid who was the Hawks' fifth-round draft pick that off-season.

He made an instant impression, bound and determined not to waste his first chance to play in the NHL.

That was the first example Troy Murray brought up as we talked about whether or not Quenneville and the coaching staff need to have more patience with younger players next season.

Murray, a mainstay on the Hawks from 1981-91, flipped that narrative on its head and said more rookies must adopt Shaw's attitude by taking the bull by the horns every game, every period and every shift.

“For me as a former player, it's a little bit hard to understand how these players don't understand that when they do get an opportunity, you can't let it come to you,” Murray said. “You've got to take it to them.

“You're looking for these guys to come in and say, 'You know what? I'm not giving it up. I've worked too hard to get here.' … If (a player has to) be told that you better make the most of this opportunity, well, maybe that guy's got the wrong mental makeup. Maybe the character of that player is not what you're looking for.

“Nobody had to tell Andrew Shaw, 'Kid, this is your chance.' … Nobody had to tell him that he may not get another chance. Nobody had to tell him that.”

Patience will pay

Murray's first points Friday were essentially this: Hey - the Hawks still have an amazing core group of players. From Jonathan Toews to Patrick Kane to Artemi Panarin to Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Corey Crawford, this team is still pretty stacked. Because of that, they are more than a little bit fortunate that young players can come in and find a “little role if they do make the team.”

Still, Murray admitted the coaching staff is going to have to show some degree of patience next season.

“You have to accept the fact that they're going to make mistakes,” he said.

The key will be allowing those miscues to happen once in a while because it's tough for a player to always wonder if a misstep or two means an automatic demotion.

But it certainly helps if - as Murray said - they didn't give the coaches the option to pull them out of the lineup.

So all you young guys, you are on the clock.

It's time to step up. Time to perform.

Time to seize the day.

Then you'll see that - yes, indeed - coach Joel Quenneville has all the patience in the world.