Keith sounds off on Seabrook scratch after Blackhawks get rocked by Avalanche
Telling a proud veteran like Brent Seabrook that he's going to watch a game in street clothes has to be tough on any coach.
While Joel Quenneville did it once during the 2017-18 campaign, the 34-year-old Jeremy Colliton decided to have that conversation for a third time this season before the Hawks lost 4-1 to Colorado at the United Center on Wednesday.
"It's not my favorite thing about doing the job," Colliton said. "But that's part of what we have to do is give communication and feedback, and ultimately it's what's best for the team."
And for Colliton, who was able to reinsert Duncan Keith after a nine-game absence, that meant sitting Seabrook in favor of Dennis Gilbert and Adam Boqvist against a blazing-fast Colorado squad that is 9-1-1 in its last 11 games.
There's little doubt that Seabrook, who has 3 goals and just 1 assist in 32 games, has gone through some rough patches this season. But sitting an alternate captain with 1,114 games of experience for two rookies who now have appeared in a combined 23 games is going to rub some of the Hawks the wrong way.
And that goes double - and maybe triple - for Keith.
"Yeah it is," Keith said when asked if it's tough to see a leader like Seabrook get scratched. "I thought he had been playing well. When we're in the D-zone a long time, we could break down every little play. Tough to pin it on one guy out there when there's five guys."
As for possibly losing the team by sitting the three-time Stanley Cup champ, Colliton said he is only trying to help the Hawks have success in the short-term and the long-term. If that means having to sit Seabrook - or other veterans - then so be it.
When the losing-the-team question was posed to Keith, he responded by saying: "I don't know how to answer that. Myself, I have to focus on my game and being as best as I can out there.
"I don't like seeing my good friend - obviously been with him a long time - sitting out. As players, you have to focus on the job that you've got to do and you're in there and that's all you can do, is try to be at your best."
Seabrook casually chatted up Boqvist in the dressing room after exiting the ice later than normal in the morning. After a two-minute conversation with a reporter about the Hawks retaining assistant coach Marc Crawford, Seabrook then turned down another interview request.
About 10 minutes later, Colliton told reporters Seabrook would not face the Avs.
Seabrook still has four years remaining on an eight-year deal that carries a $6.875 million cap hit. Last season, Elliotte Friedman reported that GM Stan Bowman asked Seabrook to waive his no-movement clause. When questioned, Seabrook denied knowing anything about it, but Bowman later refused to answer the question.
As for Wednesday's game, the Hawks were outshot 19-6 in the first period yet managed to forge a 1-1 tie thanks to Ryan Carpenter's second goal of the season at 9:48.
The Avs (22-9-3) jumped ahead for good on Nathan MacKinnon's 21st goal at 7:49, then took a 3-1 lead at 10:08 when Andre Burakovsky zipped a wrister through Olli Maatta's legs and into the back of the net.
A few seconds earlier, Kirby Dach had a chance to get the Hawks out of trouble, but his pass to Alex DeBrincat in the neutral zone bounced off DeBrincat's skates and right to Burakovsky. The Avs' forward grabbed the puck, immediately went on the counterattack and fired home his 13th goal of the season.
The Hawks (13-16-6) are now off on a brief two-game road trip to play Winnipeg on Thursday and Colorado on Saturday.