Brian Sutter punctuated his news conference Wednesday night by picking up the microphone stand and slamming it down on the podium.
“I don’t like losing,” he said.
Tony Amonte showered, dressed and was out of the United Center on his way home to bed as quickly as possible, hoping to erase the 4-1 loss to Phoenix.
“I was disgusted,” Amonte said. “We gave it away more than they beat us.”
After a night’s sleep, just about all concerned were as ornery Thursday as they were late Wednesday night.
“If you sense that I’m not happy, you’re absolutely right, and that’s how our team is today,” Sutter said Thursday morning. “I expect to win every game.”
The Hawks have come close to that at the United Center. Wednesday’s loss was just their fourth at home and the first since Dec. 23.
Despite playing one of their poorer games of the season, the Hawks still went into the final minute with a chance to grab at least a tie.
“We had some people who weren’t at the top of their game,” Sutter said. “It’s a pretty good sign of our hockey club not to play the way you want and still have an opportunity to win it.”
Top-heavy: The line of Igor Korolev, Mark Bell and Mike Peluso created numerous scoring chances Wednesday. Korolev may have had the best when he was alone in the slot from 10 feet away and missed the net with his shot.
The trio has a combined 47 points this season, fewer than Eric Daze and Alex Zhamnov have by themselves. Peluso’s last goal came nine games ago, Bell’s 13 games ago and Korolev’s 16.
Working OT: The fourth line went through extra conditioning drills Thursday after not seeing much ice time Wednesday. The Hawks have leaned heavily on their top two lines for playing time as well as for scoring.
All three fourth-line wingers–Bob Probert, Aaron Downey and Ryan VandenBussche–are averaging less than seven minutes a game.
The ability to roll four lines is one reason Detroit is so dominant and figures to be hard to beat in the playoffs. Every regular is averaging at least 10 minutes a game, with Boyd Devereaux averaging the fewest among regulars at 11:11.
Sergei Fedorov leads Detroit forwards at 20:52. Zhamnov leads Hawks forwards at 22:06, which also includes many two-minute stretches at the point on the power play.
