The Blackhawks were dealt a blow Sunday when left wing Eric Daze had to be scratched because of a stiff back.
Daze missed the first 17 games of the season after having back surgery in training camp. Stiffness is a problem he has had off and on since the surgery, and he woke up stiff Sunday morning after the team returned from a weeklong road trip.
“You miss him in a game like this, absolutely,” Hawks coach Brian Sutter said after the Hawks’ 4-3 overtime loss to Detroit.
“It’s more of a precautionary thing. Obviously when you go through what he’s gone through and with a tough schedule, he’s hurting a little bit.”
In 24 games since his return, Daze has eight goals. His line of center Tyler Arnason and winger Steve Sullivan has been perhaps the Hawks’ best the last couple weeks.
Instead of shuffling his lines and putting a shooter like Sergei Berezin with Arnason and Sullivan, Sutter opted to dress Ryan VandenBussche for the first time in 14 games and insert him in Daze’s spot.
Sutter moved Sullivan around, playing him in power-play situations and short-handed, for 18 minutes 51 seconds. Arnason played just 9:10 and VandenBussche 8:40.
Risk, reward
The Red Wings are just as dangerous killing penalties as they are at even strength and on the power play. Detroit is tied for the league lead with nine short-handed goals.
Arnason normally plays on one of the Hawks’ power-play units, but he didn’t play any of the 5:23 the Hawks had the man advantage Sunday. One reason may be Arnason’s liability on defense.
Instead, defensive-oriented Andrei Nikolishin played 3:31 on the power play, many times with Sullivan and Berezin.
Nikolishin didn’t have a point on the night, but it was perhaps his best game since Nov. 5, also against the Red Wings.
“Andy was good, no question,” Sutter said. “It’s his type of game.”
Still in limbo
General manager Mike Smith said he “hasn’t decided yet” whether to allow defenseman Boris Mironov to practice with the rest of the team this week.
Mironov, who walked out on the team Dec. 3 and asked to be traded, was suspended without pay the next day. He recently asked to be reinstated and has been training under the supervision of conditioning coach Phil Walker since last week.
Sunday, Mironov’s nameplate was back above his locker at the United Center, but he was not in the dressing room. He skated on his own Sunday afternoon at the UC. Mironov is still suspended and losing $18,333 a day in salary. He has lost $623,322 of his $3.3 million salary.
Smith said he has talked to teams about a possible trade.
“Now that he’s back skating, he’s lost weight and is probably in better shape than when he left,” Smith said. “This moves him a little closer to a rental player.”
Like the old days
Sunday was the first sellout of the season, with many Detroit fans in attendance as usual. It was also Theo Fleury’s first taste of a packed United Center at full volume.
“It was fabulous,” he said. “It reminds me of the Calgary-Edmonton rivalries, or the Islanders-Rangers.”
