Quenneville to shake up lines?
The Chicago Blackhawks have some super studs up on their front line, but so far in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Philadelphia Flyers, the group has been relatively quiet. The top line of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Dustin Byfuglien had been a powerhouse entering the Finals, but the big, physical Flyers defense has posed some problems.
Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville shuffled his lines in the third period of Game 4 and had some success. He says that the shakeup was “a little bit more effective.”
Down 4-1, the Blackhawks were able to get a little bit more done offensively and fired in two quick ones to get the score to 4-3. That was until Jeff Carter took it upon himself to steal a puck and put home an empty-netter for the 5-3 win.
Still, the Blackhawks are encouraged by the changes and momentum of that third period.
“We sent a lot of pucks on net, we won a lot more battles,” former Flyers forward Patrick Sharp said. “That sense of urgency has been building throughout the season and especially in the playoffs. Right now it never has been higher. We have to start that first shift (Sunday) like we finished the third period.”
As for Byfuglien, who we think every Flyers fan must thoroughly hate right now, he entered this series with eight playoff goals. It seems like the Flyers defensemen (particularly Chris Pronger) have been able to stifle him and get him to take some stupid penalties.
Pronger was asked if he took any satisfaction in knowing that they were shuffling their lines because of him.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s that. If you go back and look, our forwards have done a great job,” he said, deflecting any credit. “You look at the line that’s scoring against them, it’s the (Danny) Briere line. They’ve done a great job of making them play defense. Which, obviously, they don’t want to do. They want to play offense. They want to have the puck. They want to control the pace of the game, control the game that way.”
As for Kane, the young budding superstar would like to remind himself of just how great he can be by thinking back to his performance in this year’s Olympics.
“I think that’s something you can look back on,” Kane said. “That was another high level where maybe at the time you are trying to do too much and trying to prove too much. But I think as time went on, I think you get a little more comfortable with the situation, the big stage.”
Puck drops at 8 PM Sunday night. Even if you don’t like ice hockey, this series has been a scorcher.
