New Jersey Devils (21-24-9) at Chicago Blackhawks (33-18-4) 8:30PM Eastern/7:30 Central MSG+/CSN-C
THE BUZZ
Yet another game the Hawks should win—and need to win. Badly.
There were multiple reports elsewhere yesterday, and here for a few days, of a brewing conflict between head coach Joel Quenneville and GM Stan Bowman over personnel. As also reported here yesterday, a shakeup (albeit minor) came: 2012 first round pick Teuvo Teravainen was sent down to Rockford, 2013 first rounder F Ryan Hartman and journeyman defenseman Kyle Cumiskey were recalled.
Hmmm. This has raised eyebrows for a couple of reasons.
Cumiskey is clearly a Quenneville guy—played for him in Colorado. This has led some to believe Quenneville “won… this round of the internal squabble. Maybe. And it wouldn’t be the first time, as that was rumored in the summer of 2012, when Marc Bergevin left for Montreal, potentially hiring Q as his head coach.
Another way you can look at it is Bowman is just giving Q the rope he needs to hang himself: “you want these guys, fine, you better deliver with them.…
The likely explanation is more gray: the Hawks tend to make these decisions with lots of “input.…
Cumiskey makes 8 defensemen on the Hawks’ roster, a situation that likely won’t last—at least not at this point of the regular season. Which might fuel some trade speculation.
And Hartman’s case might appear a little more puzzling. But maybe not completely. Quenneville said the other day, Teravainen is a top 6 forward in terms of his game, and the Hawks don’t presently have a top 6 spot for him. And no while TT has flashed his potential, he is not ready to take over the NHL_as some would like to believe.
Hence, Teuvo, with some kippered herring, on a bus to Rock City. Hartman on the other hand, projects as a bottom 6 guy, make no mistake. His game is effort, agitation, a little offense, a little defense.
But if that’s the prescription, then why not call up the older, bigger, more productive Mark McNeill? One (possible) answer to that is, Hartman is being showcased as part of a trade—and this move is merely a temporary stopgap before more major surgery is done on the roster in the next 2 ½ weeks.
THE LINEUPS (PROJECTED)
New Jersey
Henrique Gomez Bernier Elias Zajac Tootoo Ruutu Cammalleri Jagr Zubrus Josefson Havlat
Greene Larsson Merrill Zidlicky Fraser Harrold
Schneider
Chicago
Saad Toews Hossa Versteeg Richards kane Bickell Shaw Sharp Carcillo Kruger Smith
Keith Seabrook Hjalmarsson Oduya Rozsival Cumiskey
Crawford
I’ll recap tomorrow.
JJ
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