Denis Savard’s decision to give the Blackhawks two days off before Wednesday night’s game against the Nashville Predators would have to be considered unconventional in an era in which coaches like to have as much control over their players as possible.
Having an extra day off three months into the season–especially after the Hawks played every other day for two straight weeks–likely wouldn’t have much of an impact a player’s performance, but coaches still seldom give a team a day off before a game.
“I think it’s a mental thing,” Savard said Wednesday morning, before the Hawks’ 2-1 loss against the Predators. “At some point, rest is important.”
Paul Kariya’s second goal of the night, on the power play 12 minutes 58 seconds into the third period, was the difference. After the Hawks failed twice to clear their zone, Kariya picked a spot above Nikolai Khabibulin’s right shoulder from the top of the right faceoff dot.
The Hawks failed on seven power plays Wednesday night, including a two-man advantage that lasted for 44 seconds and one in the final 2:30 of the game.
Martin Havlat had the lone Hawks goal and continued to feast on Nashville. Havlat scored his 12th goal of the season at 14:24 of the first period, picking off a clearing attempt in the neutral zone and bursting straight down the slot before ripping a wrist shot past Nashville goaltender Chris Mason.
The goal was the fourth this season for Havlat in three games against Nashville and his seventh point.Kariya tied the game on a breakaway 6:41 into the third period.
Despite having the day off from the coaches, Savard said about a dozen players skated on their own Tuesday, including defenseman Brent Seabrook.
Seabrook, who was scratched from Sunday’s game against Colorado with a stiff back, ended up skating for two hours. He didn’t want to go three days without skating and “wanted to work on some stuff.”
Savard said he thought the Hawks looked tired in the third period recently and “were just hanging on.”
Jeff Hamilton said he didn’t feel tired late in recent games, but that the two days off were “well-needed. It’s nice to sit back and take a breather.”
The short break served as a bit of a pause for a very busy December. Wednesday began a stretch in which the Hawks will play six games in 12 days to close out the calendar year.
How much the time off helped or hurt was hard to measure in the first 40 minutes Wednesday.
Neither team managed a shot on goal for the first 10 minutes and only had seven combined in the first 20 minutes.
One-timers
Tony Salmelainen may be wishing Trent Yawney was still the head coach. Salmelainen, whom general manager Dale Tallon has said was the second-best player in Europe last season behind super rookie Evgeni Malkin, was scratched Wednesday for the third time in the last four games. In the last three games he has played, Salmelainen hasn’t played more than 6:26 in any of them, including just 4:51 Dec. 12 in St. Louis. Salmelainen has one assist in his last six games. . . . Center Michael Holmqvist also was scratched as the Hawks dressed seven defensemen. . . . The Hawks are 2 of 18 on the power play in the first four games of their season series against Nashville, which is twice as many power-play goals as they had all last season against the Predators. The Hawks were 1 of 51 on the power play last season against Nashville.
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rfoltman@tribune.com
