Surely, the Chicago Blackhawks can sympathize with the late-season swoon currently endured by the Vancouver Canucks.
They can. Surely, they won't.
This was another Hawks vs. Canucks tilt on Wednesday, after all, which meant all the blood was bad and rife with potential to be spilled all over the ice. Making things extra spicy was the visitors' recent spiral (losses in seven of 10 games) and the Hawks recent upswing (wins in eight of 10 and four straight).
"When we saw them last, I thought we played one of our better games, the first game back out of the All-Star break," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said, referring to a 3-2 overtime loss on Jan. 31.
"It was after that that we kind of went into a tough stretch. We know there's a lot of emotion, there's a lot of pace when we play these guys, it's very intense. Discipline is always a key factor when you play Vancouver. At the end of the day, it doesn't take much to get either team excited about their opponent when we get together."
Corey Crawford got the semi-rare consecutive-nights start in goal for the Hawks, which Quenneville characterized as a bit of a vote of confidence in the recently reborn goaltender.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Toews and Steve Montador -- both believed to be recovering from concussions -- skated earlier Wednesday. "They're doing the same," Quenneville said.
bchamilton@tribune.com
Twitter @ChiTribHamilton
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