Today’s News Clips Nov. 6, 2018

ChicagoBlackhawks.com

RELEASE: Blackhawks make coaching change

By Blackhawks Media Relations November 6, 2018

The have relieved of his coaching duties and have named the 38th in franchise history. In addition, the Blackhawks have named Barry Smith an assistant coach on Colliton's staff. The Blackhawks have also parted ways with Assistant Coaches Kevin Dineen and Ulf Samuelsson. The rest of the Blackhawks coaching staff will remain with the team.

Jeremy Colliton, 33, becomes the youngest head coach currently in the NHL. He was 12 games into his second season with the Rockford IceHogs of the and led the IceHogs to a record of 40-28-4-4 in 2017-18. Rockford made it to their first-ever 2018 AHL Western Conference Finals after sweeping Chicago in the Division Semifinals and sweeping Manitoba in the Division Finals before losing to Texas, four-games-to-two. Colliton was named IceHogs head coach on May 18, 2017-his first coaching job in North America.

Prior to joining the Blackhawks organization, Colliton spent four seasons as the head coach of Mora IK in (HockeyAllsvenskan). A native of Blackie, Alberta, Colliton guided his team to a league-best 35-13-4 record and 105 points during the 2016-17 season. Following the regular season, he led Mora IK to promotion to the for the 2017-18 season after defeating Leksands IF in six games (4-2) of the best-of-seven series. Colliton joined the coaching ranks with Mora IK in an interim head coaching role during the 2013-14 season before taking over full-time the following season. In four seasons with Colliton behind the bench, Mora IK posted a 98-57-18 record.

Prior to becoming a coach, Colliton had an eight-year professional career primarily in the NHL and AHL. He appeared in 57 NHL games across five seasons (2005-09, 2010-11) with the , notching three goals and three assists. He was originally drafted by the Islanders in the second round (58th overall) of the 2003 NHL Draft.

He spent parts of six seasons (2005-09, 2010-12) in the AHL with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, recording 203 points (77G, 126A) in 326 career games. Additionally, he had stints with Rogle Angelholm (2009-10) in the Swedish Elite League and Mora IK (2013-14). He also had experience on the international stage, earning gold and silver medals while representing Canada at the 2005 and 2004 IIHF World U20 Junior Championships, respectively. Colliton and his wife, Jen, have two sons, Ben and Jack, and a daughter, Olivia.

Barry Smith, 66, is in his ninth season as a member of the Blackhawks Hockey Operations staff and joins Colliton's coaching staff as assistant coach. He served as Director of Player Evaluation for the last three seasons with Chicago. He has previously served as an assistant coach in the NHL with Arizona (2005 - 07), was an Associate Coach on Scotty Bowman's staff with Detroit from 1994 - 2005 and served as an assistant coach with Pittsburgh from 1990 - 94. Smith has been a part of seven Stanley Cup championships including two with the Blackhawks (2013 and 2015).

Joel Quenneville departs as the second-winningest head coach in Blackhawks history, registering a record of 452-249-96 in 797 games since 2008. He owns the best playoff record in Blackhawks history, compiling a record of 76-52 including three Stanley Cups (2010, 2013 and 2015). His Blackhawks teams made the playoffs in nine of ten seasons and he stood as the longest tenured head coach in the NHL, having been officially hired by Chicago on October 16, 2008. He is the second-winningest coach in NHL history with an all-time record of 890-532-214. He coached 1,636 career games, first among active NHL coaches and second all-time. Prior to joining the Blackhawks, he served as head coach for the Colorado Avalanche (2005 - 08) and St. Louis Blues (1996 - 2004).

Kevin Dineen joined the Blackhawks coaching staff prior to the 2014-15 season and was in his fifth season with Chicago. He was a member of the Blackhawks 2015 Stanley Cup championship team in 2015. Ulf Samuelsson joined the Blackhawks coaching staff prior to the 2017-18 season and was in his second season with Chicago.

STATEMENTS FROM BLACKHAWKS OWNERSHIP AND EXECUTIVES ON COACHING CHANGES Blackhawks Chairman

"The Chicago Blackhawks front office has made a decision to release Joel Quenneville from his head coaching duties, doing so with my full support. As Chicago Blackhawks fans have seen over the last decade, this organization no longer shies away from making tough decisions or ones based on emotion. Those days are long behind us. Of course, Joel's was difficult, as it should have been. During his tenure as head coach to the Chicago Blackhawks, Joel brought the city of Chicago and our fans three Stanley Cups and an incredible era of hockey.

When Joel was originally hired into our 2008 season, we had great hope for his potential to take the team to new levels. He went beyond what anyone expected. As difficult as that decision in 2008 was, this one was tougher. But as we look to a future history not yet defined, we believe the change we made today, will provide the Chicago Blackhawks a critical element in achieving our goals of Championships in the future, including this season.

I wish Joel and his family well and thank him for his incredible leadership and results. Nothing will ever take away the success he brought our franchise, our fans and my family. Joel will forever be etched into the most memorable era in Chicago Blackhawk hockey. And for that, we will always be connected and always eternally grateful."

Blackhawks President & CEO John McDonough

"This was an extremely difficult decision, given our respect for Joel and all that he has brought to the Chicago Blackhawks organization the last 10 years. His leadership during three Stanley Cup championships speaks for itself and there is no way to adequately express what he has meant to this organization. He will always be a significant member of the Blackhawks family. We have a deep appreciation for how he helped establish our standard and the Blackhawks culture and certainly wish he, Kevin and Ulf only the best in their future."

Blackhawks Senior Vice President/General Manager

"This is certainly a very difficult decision. But I believe it is in the best interests of the Blackhawks organization. We need to maximize each and every opportunity with our playoff goals in mind and create continued growth and development throughout our roster at the same time. After much deliberation the last several days, with great respect to what Joel has meant to the Blackhawks, we knew we had to make a change. Along with our appreciation for everything Joel has accomplished for our franchise, we also thank Kevin and Ulf for their many contributions and wish them success in the future.

We are extremely fortunate to have Jeremy Colliton in the Blackhawks organization and feel strongly that he is best positioned to continue leading our players here in Chicago. All of those associated with Jeremy strongly believe he possesses many of the tools that will make him a successful head coach in this league. He has been very impressive as a communicator, a leader, and coach. He knows the Blackhawks system, understands our players and our culture and we believe he gives us the best opportunity to have success and grow as a team."

NBCSportsChicago.com

Is it time for Blackhawks to call up Dylan Sikura?

By Charlie Roumeliotis November 5, 2018

The Blackhawks hit the one-month mark of the season on Sunday and find themselves outside of a playoff spot with a 6- 6-3 record (15 points). They've dropped five in a row (0-4-1) after starting the season 6-2-2, and have scored only six goals in their past four games.

Despite having 46 goals on the season, which ranks sixth in the NHL, the Blackhawks' 3.07 goals-per-game average is 18th and they've gotten 59 percent of their scoring from three players: Patrick Kane (11), Alex DeBrincat (8) and (8). The depth scoring simply hasn't been there and the top line with DeBrincat and Toews has dried up a bit offensively, scoring a combined five goals in their last 10 games following a scorching start where they combined for 11 goals in their first five contests.

That said, is it time for the Blackhawks to call up top prospect Dylan Sikura?

Through 12 games in the American Hockey League, he leads the Rockford IceHogs with 10 points (four goals, six assists) and 44 shots on . He scored his second goal in his past three games on Sunday, which was a back-to-back-to-back stretch.

This is about the time where the Blackhawks felt they had seen enough from Nick Schmaltz in 2016-17, when he got sent to Rockford for a month to gain confidence and fine-tune his game. Schmaltz compiled nine points (six goals, three assists) and registered 32 shots on goal in 12 games, earning him a call-up to Chicago.

It took Vinnie Hinostroza 22 games for the Blackhawks to bring him to the big club last season, but that was in large part because of roster numbers and not having the ability to assign a player to Rockford without having to go through the waiver process.

Both Hinostroza and Schmaltz came back different players and, most importantly, they haven't been back in the AHL since.

That's what the Blackhawks are hoping to accomplish with Sikura.

The Blackhawks won't call up Sikura if he's not quite ready, even if he may be the best and quickest solution to their secondary scoring problems. They want him to stay in Rockford for as long as he needs to until he's ready to return to the NHL full-time and be confident in his game and the system.

If that's right now, you do it. If it's not, you wait patiently and continue to tinker with the lines you have now. Because once Sikura is called up, the goal is for him to stay up.

Fortunately for the Blackhawks, the answer appears to be closer to the former than the latter.

Chicago Sun Times Blackhawks, losers of five straight, might want to start playing the ‘right way’

By Steve Greenberg November 5, 2018

When Corey Crawford left the lineup for good last December, the Blackhawks were a top-eight team in the Western Conference with playoff expectations. Their first games without the veteran goalie would come on a road trip to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary.

The Hawks lost all three of those games, the start of a months-long test the team would fail in resounding fashion.

Fast-forward to last week, as the Hawks faced an identical swing through Western Canada. It was a new season, with new possibilities. Not to mention a healthy Crawford.

“It’s still an important three-game trip for us,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We’re playing three teams that are all in the mix, all are improved; they’re all younger and they all have some speed in the lineup, and everybody’s playing for the same two points. So let’s play the right way … [with] a real purpose.”

It sounded good at the time, anyway.

The Hawks managed to go 0-3 against the Canucks, Oilers and Flames again, blowing excellent opportunities to win two of those games in the process. Their hot start to the season is but a faded memory. On a five-game losing streak in all, the Hawks, who don’t play again until Thursday against the Hurricanes at the , clearly are being tested — where is that red pen? — once more.

Barely a month into a season that came with relatively modest expectations, the Hawks are up against it in at least a few ways.

Puck possession: The Hawks have been up and down in this area, with some pretty unbelievable clunkers mixed in. Take the 5-3 defeat in Calgary, in which they were outshot 41-15 and lost a 3-1 lead. It’s hard to stay in front when you can’t carry the puck into the attacking zone and can’t dial up the intensity to fight as hard as your opponent for loose pucks.

When the going gets tough for the Hawks, they tend to let it snowball.

“That’s our job to kind of rise above that,” Jonathan Toews said before the trip. “I think we’ve talked a lot about wanting to be that team that’s resilient and sticks with it in games when we’re down, especially on the road, that we can find ways to win in ugly games where maybe we’re not the dominant team. But it’s just one of those things. It builds character, and we’ve got to stay with it.”

Floodgates are open: The Hawks’ 3.73 goals allowed per game was fifth-highest in the league. After an impressively stingy start, Crawford has allowed 14 goals over his last three outings. How much that is about the shoddy defense being played in front of him? How much of it is Crawford being slow to adjust to the grind of a season after nearly 10 months out of action?

The Central: In arguably the deepest and best division in the NHL, the Hawks are one spot better than where they finished last season. In other words, they’re in sixth place — one spot up from the bottom.

How much ground have they lost in the standings since their last victory, which came Oct. 25 against the Rangers? Entering Monday, the first-place Predators had padded their lead over the Hawks by five points. The Wild and Stars likewise had outpointed the Hawks by five, the Jets by three and the Avalanche by two. And of all of those teams had played fewer than five games.

Daily Herald

If Blackhawks are going to get better, forwards must commit to defense

By Barry Rozner November 5, 2018

Joel Quenneville gave the Blackhawks Sunday and Monday off.

One can only assume he sent them home and asked them to think about how to keep the puck out of their own net.

And that's not on Corey Crawford, who's been terrific.

You can talk all you want about anything else that ails a hockey team -- any hockey team -- but if you don't limit quality scoring chances and give your some help, the rest of it really doesn't matter.

Gary Bettman will dream about 6-5 games until he locks out the players again, but every coach of every team will continue to focus on how to keep the puck out of their own net.

This was the way it was when the game was invented and this is how the game is today.

Don't believe for a moment that Quenneville views it any other way.

It's the one thing you have control over on the ice. How you play in your own end, notwithstanding the obvious bad breaks or bounces, is the only certainty.

Your offense will be what it's going to be. It comes and goes. Your stars have to be your stars and when they're not right on a given night, you'll struggle to score.

That's the NHL in the salary cap era.

But defense gives you a chance to win consistently and that's a 200-foot equation that involves every player on the ice.

Since it's the most recent example, let's take the Hawks' 5-3 loss in Calgary Saturday night.

The Hawks were up 3-1 late in the second period when Brandon Manning stepped into the puck carrier just over the blue line.

The Hawks still had numbers, but Travis Hamonic made a nice pass and Matt Tkachuk made an even better .

Maybe Henri Jokiharju was a fraction late moving over to fill for Manning, but he still got to the shooter and the Hawks had two forwards back to pick up the trailers.

Hard to find fault here, so credit the Flames. Fine. Up 3-2 going to the third.

"Tough one end of the second period," Quenneville said after the game. "We're still in good shape."

But Calgary came out on fire in the third and at one point was outshooting the Hawks 17-1. The total for the third finished at 20-4.

"We had the puck (in the Calgary end) a lot with opportunities to keep it and we weren't neat enough," Quenneville said, "and then all of a sudden it's going the other way when we had perfect possession of it."

Defense is played in all three zones and it's not just possessing it, but having numbers on the correct side of the puck if you turn it over. You can be on wrong side of the puck in the offensive zone, the neutral zone or your own zone. Any of those mistakes can lead to scoring chances against. Even with the Hawks being outshot badly, they were still up 3-2 with 6 minutes left when Marcus Kruger seemed to have the puck bottled up in the neutral zone along the boards.

But was on the wrong side of Kruger and Alex Fortin, who was even with Kruger, didn't take a step back toward his own end until it was too late.

The result was a sudden 3-on-2 for Calgary and a pretty passing play that led to the tying goal.

"We gave up a play … getting beat a little bit with the depth of our third guy," Quenneville said. "It was kind of an innocent neutral zone play. Next thing you know they get an odd-man break and they make a nice play."

A minute later, Artem Anisimov tipped a beauty past Crawford for an own goal and the Hawks were down with 5 minutes remaining.

With a minute left in the game and on the power play with a 6-on-4 advantage, the Hawks couldn't manage a decent entry and gave up an empty netter.

So as much as they weren't the better team Saturday, and had to play the whole game without Duncan Keith -- who was tossed on a questionable major 2 minutes into the contest -- they had the lead on the road with 6 minutes left and lost 5-3.

You could make a case that the last 3 goals were preventable with a bit more effort and better attention to detail, which is always tough at the end of a road trip and with three games in four nights.

Fatigue will do that to players and that's precisely when you have to rely on what you've been taught, what coaches constantly preach.

"Putting it all together is playing the right way," Quenneville said. "Good habits seem to erode at critical times. That's what we have to improve.

"We have to play right from start to finish. You have to want the puck and you have to want to be out there."

So you can argue about the depth of the defense, the lines -- especially the third and fourth lines -- the lineup changes, what the stars need to do offensively or find flaws in the roster.

None of that matters if the forwards don't play smart defensive hockey in all three zones and help the defense and their goaltender.

That's what cost the Hawks the game Saturday night. That's why they're winless in five.

And that's what they'll be talking about at practice Tuesday morning.

The Athletic #HeyLaz mailbag: Are Joel Quenneville and/or Stan Bowman on thin ice?

By Mark Lazerus November 5, 2018

Ah, remember the halcyon days of (checks calendar) less than two weeks ago? The Blackhawks were 6-2-2 and shutting down lousy teams like the Ducks and Rangers the way good teams are supposed to shut down lousy teams. Corey Crawford had just returned (and returned to form), Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Alex DeBrincat were all going to tie for the scoring title, and there was genuine hope that maybe, just maybe, last year was an aberration.

Well, the Blackhawks are 0-4-1 since, out of the playoff picture for now and just four points ahead of scuffling St. Louis despite having played three more games. And don’t look now, but a brutal stretch of games is coming. Check out what the Blackhawks face starting the day before Thanksgiving: at Washington at Tampa Bay at Florida vs. Vegas at Winnipeg at Nashville vs. Calgary at Anaheim at Vegas vs. Montreal at Winnipeg vs. Pittsburgh at Winnipeg vs San Jose vs Nashville

That’s a 15-game stretch that includes at least nine games against bona fide Stanley Cup contenders (six of them on the road), two more against teams off to very good starts (Calgary and Montreal) and two more against the reigning Western Conference champions (Vegas). Yikes.

So the next two weeks very well might be the most important of the season for the Blackhawks, who desperately need to right the ship before sailing down such choppy waters. They have six games before they visit the Capitals on Nov. 21, and only the last one is against a team currently in the playoff picture (Minnesota at home). The time is now to start gathering points, because they’re going to get awfully hard to come by very soon.

With that happy note in mind, let’s dive into my first #HeyLaz mailbag at The Athletic. It took a while to sift through all the “Fire Q” and “Fire Bowman” and “Fire Everyone Into The Sun” tweets to find actual questions, so I chose a few that covered most of the general angst (and hoo, boy, is there angst out there). Let’s get started: So if the Hawks make a change will it be Q or StanBo & Scotty?

OK, so we have to start here, with the biggest question of them all. How short are the leashes on Joel Quenneville and Stan Bowman? Who would go first, if it came to that? Will it come to that?

Hard to say, for sure. If a team was ever going to make a massive in-season decision like that, coming off an 0-4-1 stretch with four days off before the next game seems like the time to do it. I can’t tell you for sure what’s in Bowman’s head regarding Quenneville, or what’s in John McDonough’s head regarding Bowman. This is what I can tell you:

1. If Quenneville were fired, he’d have five job offers within hours, and would be a head coach again by next fall at the latest. He’s the most accomplished coach in the league, and one of the most accomplished coaches in league history. And he has a lot of years left in him.

2. If the Blackhawks were to make a move, I believe they’d fire Quenneville before they’d fire Bowman. That’s not a lock or anything, it’s just the sense I get within the organization. It’s no secret the coach and GM haven’t always been on the same page, dating all the way back to when Bowman essentially forced Barry Smith onto Quenneville’s coaching staff late in the 2011-12 season, and to the spring of 2012 when Quenneville was this close to being fired after a second straight first-round exit. Of course, winning smoothes over everything. The Blackhawks aren’t winning at the moment.

3. I wouldn’t fire Quenneville. Personally, I think it’d be lunacy to fire Quenneville. Is Quenneville blameless for the Blackhawks’ slide? Of course not. He’s been stubborn with certain lineup decisions and schemes, and his and Kevin Dineen’s power play has been a disaster for a while now. But I have two questions for the #FireQ brigade: Was Quenneville the one who traded away Niklas Hjalmarsson, Artemi Panarin, Teuvo Teravainen and Phil Danault, among others? And who is out there, ready to step in, that’s a better coach than Quenneville? The answers are no and nobody. Change for the sake of change is foolish. A time-traveling Scotty Bowman himself couldn’t wring a 50-win season out of this roster.

Patience is the smarter play here. But patience is usually in short supply in the NHL. As Quenneville himself said when I asked him bluntly about his job security in January and again over the summer, “We’re in the winning business.” And again, the Blackhawks aren’t winning at the moment.

Wasn’t Rocky on record saying if this team was struggling by Thanksgiving changes would be a coming?

Rocky Wirtz suggested in an interview with Crain’s in June that changes could come if the Blackhawks were struggling around the holiday season (which, based on the trees and ornaments being sold at Menards and Target, started about a month ago). He since has backed off those comments a bit, though. When I spoke to him in late July, he reaffirmed his faith in both Quenneville and Bowman and preached patience, saying, “We’re in the beverage/alcohol business. If you have a bad month, you don’t go out and fire everyone.”

That’s not to say Wirtz will stand idly by if the sellout streak officially ends and the Blackhawks collapse again. But he seemed to be saying that an 0-4-1 stretch like this shouldn’t cost anyone their jobs. Not yet, at least.

#HeyLaz If the Blackhawks didn’t make the Vinnie or Hartman trades, would this team be a legitimate contender/one player away? It seems like each trade on their own wasn’t a bad move but in the larger context it took the Hawks out of being anything more than a marginal WC2

Ryan Hartman is a nice player, but he has three goals in 14 games this season, and had just 11 all last season. Vinnie Hinostroza is a speedy, hard-working guy, but he has just three goals this season, too, and had just 13 in 106 career games with the Hawks. They’d certainly help the depth scoring a bit on this team, but they’re hardly the difference between contender and also-ran. There’s no reason Dominik Kahun and Alexandre Fortin (or Dylan Sikura) can’t become similarly productive players. And the Hartman trade landed Nicolas Beaudin in the draft and Victor Ejdsell, both of whom could become big parts of the not-too-distant future.

A healthy Marian Hossa, on the other hand, well, let’s just say I think we’re all underestimating how big of a blow his de facto retirement was to the Blackhawks as a whole. #heylaz Why is the hideous power play not a huge issue/massive priority for Coach Q. It always seems like he is not freaking out at all about it. It seems like change is WAY overdue. Also, why do they still make Three Musketeers?

For a decade now, Quenneville has said he never worries about offense. He looks at his roster and sees too much offensive talent to believe the goals won’t eventually start to come. His priority is always on what the Blackhawks give up, not what they get. Of course, the Blackhawks’ defensive woes might not be all that fixable with the current group, so they definitely need to start scoring more. My colleague Scott Powers suggested bringing up Dylan Sikura immediately to try to get the offense going, and he’s right, because this team’s best bet might be to win 5-4 every night, not 2-1.

As for the power play itself, Quenneville is obviously well aware it’s a problem. He gets asked about it every day by people like me and the Blackhawks work on it nearly every time they practice. They work on entries — first without defenders, then with. They work on cycling and moving the puck in the zone. They work on set plays and they certainly work on key faceoffs in the offensive zone. Yet the Blackhawks always look stagnant on the power play — there’s not enough motion, not enough different points of attack (I’d like to see them work more from behind the net rather than just funnel everything through Kane on the half-wall; it’s become far too predictable). They still get too cute, looking for the extra pass rather than putting a shot on goal. They still struggle to enter the zone cleanly.

It’s been this way for years now, Panarin’s first season being the exception, not the rule. Only now, the Blackhawks aren’t great at every other aspect of the game, like they used to be. So now, it’s a much bigger issue, and something that carries a lot more urgency.

Also: Three Musketeers is my favorite candy bar ever, and you’re a monster, so feel free to mail of yours to me, c/o the United Center.

Do you think the #Blackhawks will try to acquire another Defenseman? Also who is/was your favorite Furturama episode? #HeyLaz

It’s going to be difficult, just because of the contract situations. Assuming Connor Murphy returns in the next month or so (and I think people are underestimating the impact he could have on this defense; he was arguably the Blackhawks’ most reliable defenseman last season), there’s already going to be a glut of blue-liners. And you’ve still got Gustav Forsling and Carl Dahlstrom in Rockford, waiting their turn. I still think it’s more feasible for the Blackhawks to use their cap space to add depth scoring, and bump a grinder or two out of the bottom six. You need three legitimate scoring lines to succeed in the modern-day NHL — an era the Blackhawks helped usher in — and right now the Blackhawks have just two.

Which two former Hawks would help the team most now? #HeyLaz

Now THIS is a great question, and a fun thought exercise. I assume we’re talking about guys in their 2018 conditions, with no time-machine shenanigans involved. I’d start, of course, with Panarin. Kane’s already off to the best start of his career; imagine what he could do with his hockey soulmate back on his line. I bet Quenneville would ask for Hjalmarsson back, but the fact is he’s not quite the same player he once was. Given his age, Teuvo Teravainen is another great possibility. But in the short term, I’d say Dustin Byfuglien. Not only would he help solidify the blue line, but imagine what the power play would look like with both Byfuglien (either at the point or in front of the net) and Panarin on board.

Of course, we’ve all seen what happens when the Blackhawks bring someone back. It never seems to really work. Better to keep these hypothetical.

Do you believe they should stack the top line, or the approach of putting Kane on a fluctuating rotation is good for the club?

I think there’s a romanticized vision of what Toews and Kane can do together because of the fun they had in their early 20s, running around with Patrick Sharp on the top line. But aside from some playoff success with Playoff Bickell, the two don’t really click the way you’d expect them to anymore.

In the past five-plus seasons, Kane and Toews have played about 1,113 minutes of 5-on-5 time together (per Natural Stat Trick). The Blackhawks have been outscored 60-56 in those minutes. When Toews is without Kane during those same seasons, his line has outscored opponents 211-150. When Kane is without Toews, his line has outscored opponents 246-193. Besides, with both of them playing well and producing, as they are now, it’s always better to split them up and force opposing coaches to pick their poison.

#HeyLaz What kind of deal would need to offered to get Kane from the Hawks? Would a team need to take Seabrook too? Include a stud blue liner?

I would hate to lose Kane, but a talent infusion with cap space....

Non-starter. First of all, Kane has a no-movement clause (as does Seabrook). Second of all, he’s still a world-class scorer and isn’t the type who’s going to decline much (if at all) in his early 30s. You don’t get better by trading Kane.

#HeyLaz There seems to be a reluctance by the forwards to drive to the slot on the rush or cycle. As a result I think too many shots are by D men and the forwards are out by the boards. Is this just Q’s system? I feel our forwards are talented enough to attack off the rush more.

You’re right, and I feel this is something of a hold-over from the days when the Blackhawks were so damn talented that they could mess around on the perimeter and still generate golden scoring chances with ease. I think most fans will agree that if they see one more guy make a drop pass after streaking into the offensive zone with speed, they’ll rip their hair out.

You hear it all the time, but the Blackhawks really do need to get more ugly goals — go hard to the net, create more screens, pick up the loose candy around the net. You’ve seen that from Toews all season so far, and you’ve seen it (encouragingly) from Brandon Saad lately. The problem is, the Blackhawks aren’t exactly bursting at the seams with power forwards. It’d be nice if a guy like Ejdsell could get rolling in Rockford, because he has the size and hands to become that type of player.

You don’t have to be a big guy to score goals in the NHL anymore. But it doesn’t hurt to have a couple hanging around. Again, another hole left by Hossa’s departure.

#HeyLaz WRT the Blackhawks- is this as good as it gets? Really uneven, fun yet frustrating, bubble team? Or will they do something like call up D Sikura or Forsling (when he’s healthy)? Really hoping for no trade since they need more than any one player could do.

I mean, kinda? This is pretty much what I wrote after the game in Edmonton. This team isn’t one player (or one coaching change) away from greatness. It’s going to be a process. It’s also going to require patience from a fan base that hasn’t been callused in a long time.

#HeyLaz At what point is double shifting Kane too much? In my opinion it’s too early in the season for that.

I actually spoke with Kane about this in Calgary, and I don’t want to give away too much here because I plan to write about it soon (teaser!). But Quenneville has done this with Kane for several years. Anytime the Blackhawks are down a goal in the third period, you’d much rather have Kane out there than, say, Marcus Kruger or David Kampf. Kane is built for it, both mentally and physically.

#HeyLaz what do you think happens with the defense when Murphy and Forsling are healthy? Guys getting waived? Traded?

Murphy is still at least a couple weeks away (possibly more), and Quenneville said on Thursday that he “looks forward to having those concerns.” I’d keep Duncan Keith with Henri Jokiharju, I’d pair Erik Gustafsson with Murphy, and I’d have Brandon Manning/Brandon Davidson with Brent Seabrook. If you want to get Jan Rutta in there, Murphy showed last year that he can play the left side, too. Forsling might have to wait for an injury or a trade to open a roster spot, because Manning and Rutta aren’t going anywhere at the moment (I like Davidson, but he’s the easiest roster spot to clear out of the bunch), and the Blackhawks aren’t going to call him up just to be a rotational guy. I do, however, think that he might be one of the Blackhawks’ six best defensemen when healthy. It’s a tricky situation. If this team isn’t going to make the playoffs (and I think they aren’t), how would we define a “successful” non-playoff season?

Look, there can be positives from a lost season — Jokiharju’s emergence, Crawford’s return, Toews’ bounce-back. But honestly? I don’t think there’s such a thing as a successful non-playoff season. I don’t think anyone in the organization — from the dressing room to the coaches’ room to the front office — does, either.