The Blackhawks have had a tough start to the season going 0-3-0 and being outscored 15-5. While missing players like Jonathan Toews (medical issue) and Kirby Dach (wrist injury), the Hawks seem to be trending towards a revolving net to determine which goalie or goalies to ride, and except for the power play — which has scored a goal in each game — the offense needs a serious boost. Also, sophomore defenseman Adam Boqvist needs to quickly find his game and confidence to help boster down the blueline.
The Hawks opened their season with a 5-1 loss against the Lightning, then fell 5-2 in the second contest of the Lightning matchup, and dropped the first game against Q's Panthers on Sunday 5-2 in Florida's season opener.
Despite all the Blackhawks' woes and kinks being worked out with new personnel, former Hawks head coach Joel Quenneville knows not to take his former team, who will be trying to split the series against Florida and get their lone win of their first road trip — and of the season — on Tuesday, lightly.
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"I think that [they're a] dangerous team, dangerous opponent. I think we have to take care of our own business," Quenneville said Tuesday morning on a Panthers Zoom call with media. "And I think one thing is we have to get to that next level where we're never comfortable with what we've done in the past and it's always moving forward and trying to improve off of these different levels. And it's early in the year, so we feel that we have to be better after last game's efforts and there were some good things, but let's make sure across the board we can improve in a lot of areas. We want to make them defend is part of that, but at the same time we expect a tough game tonight."