For the fourth straight game, Alex Zhamnov was unable to play Thursday night because of the after-effects of a concussion suffered March 3 in St. Louis.
For the fourth straight game, the Blackhawks’ offense suffered dearly because of his absence–and he’s questionable for Saturday’s game at Tampa Bay.
“We’re going to need to get Alex back in the lineup,” said coach Craig Hartsburg after his club suffered its ninth shutout of the season, 3-0 at the hands of Detroit. “Without him it’s a big hole. We don’t have a whole lot of depth offense-wise.
“If he could get back Saturday, obviously that would help us, but I don’t know whether he’s going to be able to play or not.”
Perhaps no Hawk misses Zhamnov more than right wing Tony Amonte, who hasn’t scored a goal since Zhamnov was injured.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” said Amonte. “He’s a great offensive center, very creative. The first half of the game we weren’t getting any shots. We just have to keep on plugging and find a way to score.”
Simpson hurt: Winger Reid Simpson suffered a pulled hip flexor in the second period and didn’t play the rest of the game. The Hawks already were without Sergei Krivokrasov, who has been placed on injured reserve with a painful split elbow.
Master plan: If Hawks General Manager Bob Murray has his way, the March 24 trade deadline won’t come into play. If he’s going to do anything, such as add a physical defenseman or a scoring forward, he wants it done about a week before that date so he can get out of town and do some scouting.
“There’s lots of talking going on,” he said. “Most guys don’t really want to wait until the 24th. If anything comes up, I’d rather get it over with. The experiences I find haven’t been good at the deadline. I think it’s too late. The trade deadline is stupid. They should have the trade deadline in early February and that’s it.”
Detroit is said to be looking to shore up its defense as well. Gary Suter’s name has surfaced as one of several defensemen the Red Wings might have an interest in. The others are Anaheim’s Dmitri Mironov, Vancouver’s Jyrki Lumme and Ottawa’s Igor Kravchuk.
Suter becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season, but has said he would like to remain a Hawk.
Milestone: Thursday marked Suter’s 900th career NHL game. He has 180 goals and 554 assists. As a Hawk, he has played 282 games with 52 goals and 117 assists.
Musical goaltenders: When goaltender Chris Terreri returns to the Hawks from a pulled groin muscle, possibly Sunday at Florida, Murray must decide if he wants to carry three goaltenders. Andrei Trefilov needs four more appearances to get in his 10 in order to be eligible for exposure by the Hawks in this summer’s expansion draft.
