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Game of the Week preview: Blackhawks limp into big game with Red Wings

Phoenix Coyotes v Chicago Blackhawks

CHICAGO, IL - FEBRUARY 27: of the Chicago Blackhawks of the Phoenix Coyotes at the United Center on February 27, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Jonathan Daniel

As Joe pointed out, the Detroit Red Wings won’t be 100 percent for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks (12:30 pm ET on NBC), but the ‘Hawks won’t shed a tear for their hated rivals. That’s because you might call* Chicago the “Blackandbluehawks” considering some of the bumps and bruises that line their roster.

The team will certainly be without underrated two-way center Dave Bolland for the immediate future, even though Matt and CSN Chicago’s Tracey Myers note that he is making some promising progress.

Myers notes that Patrick Sharp and Tomas Kopecky did not practice for Chicago on Saturday, but Joel Quenneville said that both were “just fine and resting.”

The same cannot be said for big Troy Brouwer, who is dealing with an injury to his right shoulder. Quenneville said that his day-to-day window is still the “status quo” and that he’s “not close” to a return to action just yet. That’s a shame for Chicago, because Brouwer can open up a lot of space for his linemates while also showing the occasional flicker of offense when skating alongside top players.

It seems like the Blackhawks are walking a solid line between asking guys to fight through pain in games that are basically playoff contests in the regular season (see: Sharp and Kopecky) while also practicing enough patience not to rush guys who need to recover (such as Brouwer and Bolland). After all, Chicago could be like one of Brian Campbell’s “old school” coaches, who took an almost amusingly unenlightened approach to one of the offensive defenseman’s injuries.

Bolland had made little progress for what seemed like weeks before improving this past week. Campbell said he didn’t bother Bolland too much during his recovery.

“I’m not the type of guy who wants to ask too many questions on how he’s feeling because I’m sure he gets that 500 times a day,” said Campbell, who added that his only concussion was when he was in juniors.

Campbell came back quickly from his concussion, which was dealt with in an interesting way.

“My junior coach told me to have a beer and fall asleep and I’d be all right. He’s old school, as you can tell,” Campbell said. “I played a few days later, but concussions weren’t the talk of everything back then.”


Some say, “Old school,” but I call it “Opening yourself up to the possibility of going into a coma.” Anyway, it sounds like Kopecky and Sharp will probably gut it out to try to clinch a playoff spot while Brouwer and Bolland might be on the sidelines for some time.

Then again, you never know with hockey players (and their coaches, for that matter).

* - You know, if you’re a fan of making cheesy puns. Not that I know anything about that.